February 16, 2015 12:00pm by David Farrar

Isn’t the solution to stop the delay?

Betting cheats evicted from the Cricket World Cup opening match in Christchurch used multiple cellphones and laptops to relay information to people overseas willing to pay big money for the information, police say.

A security expert said police probably knew who they were looking for before Saturday’s game began.

Police arrested “several” individuals and groups for courtsiding during the New Zealand versus Sri Lanka match at Hagley Oval.

All were trespassed from future International Cricket Council events.

Courtsiding refers to a spectator at an event sending immediate information on game scores and activities before it is broadcast. The delay can be up to 15 seconds and allows people overseas to make spot bets.

Superintendent Sandy Manderson said yesterday that some of the cheats caught at Saturday’s game lived in New Zealand. The others were overseas visitors.

Manderson said plainclothes police trained in spotting courtsiders, as well as members of the public, identified the men.

Why is this an offence, and why are Police spending time on it?

I’m all for cracking down on match fixing and the like. But this is not the same thing.

Trying to stop 40,000 people at a venue from communicating with the outside world is doomed to fail.

If an overseas bookie is stupid enough to keep taking bets on a game, while it is underway, then their stupidity does not need NZ Police protecting them. They could institute a rule that no bets within 30 seconds of a wicket are valid, due to the delay.