Courtside Betting: Best strategies & Software 2023

A lot of bettors and gamblers dream about knowing the outcome of an event before it happens.

This knowledge would offer almost unlimited possibilities for making money without any risk. A betting strategy called courtside betting can offer almost the same possibility.

Courtsiding means knowing the outcome of a market or event in a sport before the bookmakers get the information. Keep reading for detailed information.

What does Courtside betting mean?

Courtsiding or courtside betting is the process when a person finds a way to get information about sports events results before the bookmakers.

The most famous form of courtsiding is when someone is personally present at sports events and any crucial information about the match is forwarded to outsiders who are placing bets after the tips.

But using odds comparison sites and sure bet finders is also a viable option. Your only task is to find a bookie that is significantly slower than their competitors.

Bookmakers are getting the information in a slightly slower channel. This delay is offering a loophole for those who are present in the match.

Sharing any changes with someone who has access to a betting platform will offer a big advantage over bookmakers.

Placing these kinds of bets can be the basis for several value betting strategies, but most of them are offering an instant and guaranteed profit.

Courtside betting software & strategy I use

One of my most successful courtside betting strategies was based on using BetBurger‘s in-play sure bet scanner between my local bookies and faster ones such as Bet365 or William Hill.

You can’t even imagine how many delays you can find at some bookies on faster sports such as tennis or basketball.

The main step in courtsiding based on BetBurger is finding a match where the soft displays sure bets too many times and the odds drop before you could even select the market.

This effect means that the fast bookie changes the odds while the other one has a slight delay, which might be even above 5 sec.

You can’t base your courtsiding betting strategy only on BetBurger, but if you spotted a similar market/event, the next time a new point occurs, you can place a bet before the slow bookie changes the odds.

The next step is avoiding getting your activity spotted. I could place 10 bets on a single event with a guaranteed profit.

But if you get greedy, you have a 100% chance to get your winning bets Voided + a stake limitation is also almost guaranteed.

Placing 1-2 similar bets a day + many average value bets or any other activity can help you stay under the radar. Big stakes on courtside bets are also a red flag.

Think about it:

someone is at a football match and shares the information that the home team scored.

The person on the other side of the phone can instantly place a bet on the next team to score without any risk. A lot of the time bookmakers will be in a small delay, which can offer enough time to accept your bet.

Courtside betting on tennis for a living is probably not the best route you can take. In my tennis value bets article, I covered many tips on how to stay under the radar and still make a healthy profit.

Is courtsiding betting illegal?

I think we all can agree that courtside betting is not a white-hat strategy to win money on sports betting.

At present the only country that punished courtsiding in some way is Australia.

In 2014, a person was charged with this activity at the Australian Open. This British citizen got arrested for engaging in activities that could corrupt a betting outcome and for using corrupt information for placing bets.

Find the slowest bookies and profit with the help of arbitrage bet finders.

Want to learn how to get the most out of bookies? Check my Arbitrage betting guide and value betting guide. Both are similar to courtside betting but less detectable.

The police said that he used an electronic device to forward information to a syndicate to take advantage of bookmaker delays. The person was bailed out quickly, and later, in March 2014, the case was dropped.

If you want to place bets like this, you should check the regulations for that particular country you want to bet from.

But knowing the nature, techniques, and impact on bookmakers it is heavily regulated by the sports tournaments and event organizers.

Many people made big profits with this betting strategy which damaged a lot of bookmakers. So, it was necessary to take some action against these bettors.

At most events, the spectators are watched by the security, and suspicious fans and spectators get more attention.

But the most important question is:

Does courtside betting have any legal consequences?

At the moment a person is caught with this activity most probably can face a ban from the whole tournament. These punishments can be really hard for someone who likes to visit sports events.

I should mention that at most tournaments and events they are prepared for courtside bettors with Bluetooth scanners and sometimes even facial recognition systems.

Back in 2016 at the US Open tennis tournament, 20 people were banned for 20 years. By itself, this does not mean any legal action against these courtside bettors.

But if one of these banned people is brave or stupid enough to try accessing tournaments again can face more serious consequences.

This was the situation with one of these guys who tried to enter the tournament in 2017 too. In this case, an ex-courtsider was prized with an arrest.

On the other hand, bookmakers are getting wise, and they can easily spot most courtside betting activities. Their betting algorithm can spot suspicious activities.

This strategy means that most of your bets will be instant winners right after you place them. Or in a better case, the odds are dropping in a fast way every time you place a bet.

Most small bookmakers can spot this pattern in a short time, and you will face unpleasant consequences. Bettors who are caught will be banned, and their bets will be voided.

How do you get involved in Courtside betting?

The very basic method of courtside betting is finding someone who will be present at the sports events and you can place bets based on their info provided.

A lot of bettors practiced this when the bookmakers were not so good at spotting this betting activity. The profit you can make with these guaranteed bets can be very high.

But the truth is that courtside betting is almost impossible in the present or at least not in a sustainable way.

Even now, many bettors are practicing it with different methods, but almost every one of them is facing fast limitations or being banned from the bookmaker.

Both scenarios require new betting accounts to continue betting. Many bettors have improved their way of getting this fast information from the matches.

In the present, you don’t need to be at the court to place winning bets. Today’s courtside bettors need only a faster info source than bookmakers have.

You wouldn’t even think of getting an antenna that can receive signals faster than the bookies do, right? Well neither do I.

I heard stories from successful bettors in courtside betting with the help of some expensive over-the-air antennas. Other rumors say that some groups are succeeding with streams based on satellites.

They are getting this information in a faster channel than bookmakers do. The time advantage they can achieve is enough to place bets before the bookies close the market.

These bettors are not able to bet on every event at any bookmaker. Only a small part of events are offering this delay and only a few bookies are late enough to make money with courtside betting.

What does Courtsiding mean in tennis?

Tennis betting was and still is offering the best possibilities for courtsiding. This strategy requires a change in the match that can offer you a guaranteed profit.

From the nature of tennis, a lot of opportunities are created in a single match. A lot of people are still risking being banned from tournaments by forwarding information to someone who places the bets.

For example:

You watch a match between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic. Both of them are great players and a match between them can offer several tight situations.

For example, Djokovic is serving, but Tsitsipas takes the lead in the game with 40 – 30. If Tsitsipas is succeeding to break the game, it will lead to major odds movements.

Right after you see that Tsitsipas won the point, you can still place bets on the winner of the current game at a lot of bookies.

With players like them, the odds will be around 1.30 – 1.40 in this situation, so it could mean a good profit for you.

Is Courtsiding still possible?

In my experience, the answer is definitely YES. Courtside betting is still a possible way of making guaranteed money from sports betting.

You can still find bookmakers that are getting the crucial information too late. A lot of smart bettors are taking advantage of this loophole and can make generous profits.

As time goes on, tournament organizers are getting more serious in catching bettors who are using phones or any kind of device on the court.

A lot of bettors can sneak in and forward information without getting noticed very fast. A fairly pro trader told his story when he tried courtsiding at a WTA tennis tournament.

As I already mentioned he wasn’t noticed right at the first moment. But no matter how hard you try there are people on the court who are paid for spotting and banning you.

This bettor was caught only in the second match on the same day, but he was lucky enough to not be banned, only asked to leave the court.

I should mention the costs of this strategy. If you know a way to forward information without getting noticed, you should think about other things too.

Travelling to the location of sports events will cost you a lot by itself, but buying tickets can greatly impact profitability.

While a ticket to a small event could be only 20 – 40 dollars, to enter larger tournaments or matches can be expensive.

As I already mentioned, a lot of groups are still making good profits, but I think this is not the most important question.

Is it worth trying to place courtside bets?

My opinion is that this betting technique is worth only for a small group of people. The biggest downside is getting your betting accounts limited and banned in a very short time.

Bookies are getting very smart and fast in spotting smart bettors. Even with a lot of experience in how to delay getting limited, those bookie algorithms will catch you sooner or later.

So, following other smart betting strategies can offer you more opportunities with less knowledge and less risk.

I would like to mention my articles about how to find arbitrage bets and value betting as examples.

Both of them will cause the same stake limitation as courtside betting but more later. You will have more possibilities to place bets and the profit you can generate can be enough even for a living.

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