Imagine if you had a way of beating the sports betting bookies that was foolproof. According to a recent story by the BBC, a couple of British gamblers found exactly such a method. The two bettors discovered a way to take advantage of live betting in tennis matches. The crazy thing about this method is that it is very similar to something called past posting in blackjack.
A Gambling Loophole Called Courtsiding
The method the gamblers used to beat the bookies is known as courtsiding. There are a few things required to make it work. One of the most important is having someone in attendance at live tennis matches. This person attempts to take advantage of a time delay between the scoring of a point and that point being reported to the bookmakers.
The umpire is responsible for inputting the score into an electronic device, and the device updates the scoreboard. The entire process takes only a matter of seconds, but that can be long enough for the gamblers to make their move.
When the bookies around the world receive notification of a point they adjust their odds for the match. Many bookies today offer live betting, on in-play betting. This is a type of betting that allows you to make bets as the sporting contest is in progress. The courtsider at the track attempts to get his information to a partner before that information can be transmitted to bookies.
What essentially happens is that the bettors are able to place a bet on something that has already happened. They are guaranteed to win because they know the outcome before they make the bet. Does this sound impossible? Think again. It happens all the time, and not only in sports betting. It can happen in blackjack, too.
How Courtsiders Work
The tennis courtsiders travel to various locations to find the most advantageous games. They are looking for umpires that are slow to transmit the results of a game. For some courtsiders the activity is a full-time job. One courtsider told the BBC that he spends 35 weeks a year exploiting this gambling loophole. He travels to the US, South Africa, and Canada. Europe is out of the question because too many people are doing it there.
The bettors use either a phone or a bluetooth connected device to communicate with one another. One courtsider that is not at the tennis court is responsible for placing the wagers with the bookies. These gamblers can make as much as one million pounds per year taking advantage of a gambling loophole that the bookies are at a loss to stop.
Like card counting, courtsiding is not technically illegal. It is prohibited by the terms and conditions of many bookmakers. It is also prohibited by the governing bodies of tennis. Multiple betting accounts are also required, and this can be a problem. One bettor attempts to purchase betting accounts from other individuals. This also breaks the rules of the bookmakers.
It can be confusing to the player who is making the bets. Time is of the essence because there are only seconds available to make the bet. It is a complex procedure that requires the two bettors to be completely in sync with one another.
What Loopholes Reveal About Betting Market Efficiency
Stories of bettors exploiting loopholes in bookmaker rules or bonus structures are fascinating not just as tales of cleverness but as illustrations of how markets achieve efficiency over time. Every loophole that bettors successfully exploit eventually gets closed by the operators who created it, and the closing of that loophole makes the market slightly more efficient and slightly harder to beat through the same method. This dynamic has played out repeatedly across the history of gambling — from the early days of horse racing arbitrage to modern bonus abuse in online betting — and it reflects the fundamental tension between operators trying to attract customers and sophisticated bettors trying to extract value from every available angle.
For ordinary bettors, the practical lesson from loophole stories is not that similar opportunities are waiting to be found and exploited today. Most of the obvious structural inefficiencies in modern licensed betting markets have already been identified and closed. The more realistic takeaway is that the same analytical mindset that identifies loopholes — careful reading of terms and conditions, precise understanding of how payout structures work, and willingness to think unconventionally about how rules interact — is also useful for finding the more modest but genuine value opportunities that still exist in everyday horse racing betting. For more on finding genuine betting value, our article on the concept of value in horse racing covers the foundational principles. And our guide to smart horse racing bets identifies the bet types where value is most reliably found.
How Does Courtsiding Relate To Cheating In Blackjack?
Many card players have made a living exploiting the same type of loophole in blackjack. It is much harder to pull off in blackjack but it has been done on many occasions. The action is known as past-posting.
Past-posting and courtsiding have the same goal. The goal is to bet on something that has already taken place. If you know the outcome of the event you can make a winning wager every time.
In past-posting the blackjack player adds chips to their original bet after the cards have been dealt and sometimes after the hands have been decided. In most cases the player will do this under the cover of their hand. They will palm chips and then pass over the stack that they have originally bet. The new chips are dropped on top of the original wager if the bettor wants to increase the amount of money they have won.
Unlike courtsiding, past-posting is patently illegal. Not only will it get you barred from the casino. It will also get you arrested. It is also much easier to be caught past-posting than it is to be caught courtsiding.
For as long as there have been gambling games there have been people who want to cheat at them. There will always be people trying to discover new gambling loopholes so that they can take the gambling companies to the cleaners. Check our Bovada racebook review, Twinspires review or even our Betamerica review. All great choice if you are in the US. 5Dimes review for folks anywhere!
