Will Twitter influence sports betting?
September 2nd, 2009 by Andy Merchant
With sports stars hitting the headlines thanks to their twitter exploits, it’s got me thinking: When will we see the first “Twitter leads to odds being slashed” story, maybe i’ve missed one already?
Let’s paint a fictional picture
lmagine the scenario: we have a massive football match at 3.00pm on Saturday between two high-profile teams. Just before the kick-off a player tweets about the formation being used and an injury update about his team mate.
If the betting giants were not monitoring for this sort of information, punters could bet accordingly due to the last minute insider information and gain an advantage. This sort of news could influence the odds massively and wouldn’t normally be issued through media channels, at least not until after the match.
We already know many sporting organisations like the NFL, sports teams like Tottenham Hotspurs and now even the US Tennis Association have social media/twitter policies in place to avoid issues that have damaged the brand as a whole in the past. Billie Jean King’s USTA National Tennis Center even displays the warning against using Twitter during matches.
At the heart of these concerns are the sport’s anti-corruption rules. Some tennis players are already up in arms about the warnings, such as Andy Roddick, who posted the following Tweet:
“I think its lame the US Open is trying to regulate our tweeting. I understand the on-court issue but not sure they can tell us if we can/can’t do it on our own time.”
What about the betting firms and huge betting sports like Horse Racing? Where will they stand if the jockeys start tweeting about the condition of the horses they ride, or futher track conditions. I’m not aware of any restrictions in place to stop them doing this, although if they did I would assume that they would be banned by the relevant governing body.
Let me know your thoughts on this and if you have any examples, please let me know.
Tags: betting, sports betting, twitter
