Jiwan wrote:

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I don't know. I'm sure there are a lot of people getting paid a lot of money to make those decisions. It's like banning cars for everyone because some people speed, drink and drive etc. Just seems excessive and impossible to police. The security staff behaved like bouncers in a rough nightclub. It's going to discourage people from attending live matches - especially younger generations. We should be doing everything possible to promote the sport especially to younger generations. Just my opinion 

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I agree. It's a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

If people can't take selfies, text mates, check their online ebay orders, watch kittens, and everything else that most people need to do endlessly (and I'm not criticising or trying to be sarcastic), then you make the tennis spectator stand a very hostile place and no one will watch.

You could just as easily outlaw point by point bidding (I don't recommend that either).

Far easier would be to have an automatic time delay as you now do with some exchanges for high frequency trading (or indeed use circuit breakers).

i.e. no bets are allowed until 2 seconds after the point. That means the fractional advantage of using your phone to transmit the result of the point a micro-second faster is wiped out. 

If financial exchanges can use that (where it's the 'legitimate' business of trading companies that is being compromised), why can't the tennis authorities when it only negatively affects some dodgy betting rings?

NB I realise that the tennis authorities don;t control the betting companies but that's what they have to target as that's where the power is to change things and tackle the problem, not with Joe Schmo public

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 31st of May 2016 09:35:43 PM

I'm sure there are many other sports / activities that are experiencing similar problems. I doubt it will be long before there is a spectator friendly solution. As a sports nut, I do look at the web during matches for info /facts on players /stats /blogging /reading other blogs/keeping an eye on other matches....and actually still being a normal accessible person. The bottom line is, if I currently wanted to bet like this ( I don't bet) I could. Having two thugs staring/ trying to intimidate you for long periods of time or hiding in bushes whilst watching me is a somewhat silly deterrent...and it's creepy. I would say security spent 80% of their day (today) doing this. which meant that the spectators were 80% more vulnerable to other things

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When security told me I made that point...that there were no signs around. I guess I just thought it was a rule that had come in a while ago (i've been living abroad the last few years) that I had missed

Well it couldn't be enforced at a larger venue, just not practical. Though (random guess) large numbers would slow internet speed, so it wouldn't be as bigger a problem?

Are there even laws around enforcing action? what's the worst they could do? throw you out? It must have been disrupting for the players as the security were climbing over people / chairs to get to the 'culprits'. dumb!

-- Edited by Jiwan on Tuesday 31st of May 2016 10:48:27 PM

I think the answer is blindingly obvious. They should livestream everything in real time. Wimbledon has announced that all qualifiers are going to be fimed this year, as an anti-corruption measure; within a decade or so they will possibly work out that they may as well webcast the resulting footage.

This would put a huge hurdle in front of the scammers. It would also multiply the number of spectators by about 1,000. I'd guess that there are about 3 spectators per week in Sharm? Webcasting the play would make the tournament itself and the players much more valuable to sponsors; if they sort out webcasting, they'd both eliminate courtsiding, and pump millions of marketing moolah into grassroots professional tennis.

And ban point by point betting. Betting companies have become the new tobacco companies, their sponsorship everywhere. I don't like it at all. They are preying on adolescents/ young adults in the same way that tobacco companies did in the past, as I can vouch for from the experience of my own sons. I'd rather people were encouraged to play sport rather than bet on it, but there is far more advertising emphasis nowadays on the latter than the former and I don't support it at all. Trying to clamp down on mobile phone use when people are watching tennis or any other sport is also patently ridiculous. That's an obviously dumb symptom measure rather than addressing the cause.

With all the suggestions above, the consensus is clear that there has to be a willingness by the betting companies to address the problem. And a willingness by the tennis authorities to confront the betting companies. Because that is where the problem can be sourced and controlled.

Livestreaming, however, won't always help because it's the delay between live play and digital transmission that is the problem so you still get the delay with livestreaming.

However, from how I've been following it, the problem is that it is not actually illegal anyway. i.e. courtsiding (sending info mega fast so people can bet before the companies receive the digital feed) is not illegal according to the UK Gambling Commission.

Which makes sense - because if you, as a member of the public, happen to know a result quicker than others then you can bet on it (this has nothing to do with throwing points, or knowing someone is going to throw a point, which is quite different - this is just exploiting the different technological time delays).

This doesn't prevent the authorities banning it or having rules to be able to evict people who do it. But it's not illegal. And just another sign that they should concentrate their efforts on the big issues.

However, banning bets in between points (or on points) or - as I suggested as per high-frequency trades - imposing an artificial time delay that wipes out the advantage would deal with the problem. But the tennis bodies have to have the gumption and muscle to force the betting companies to agree.

Will be interested to see if Bambo has got the LL spot.