Photographers have sometimes been asked if they can help identify spectators appearing to engage in suspicious activity, the Otago Daily Times has been told.
One practice on New Zealand Cricket’s radar is known as "pitchsiding", where bookmakers or gamblers take advantage of a delay of a few seconds between live action and footage broadcast or the updating of information to get ahead of betting markets.
It is not illegal in New Zealand and matches are not manipulated, but anyone found pitchsiding at a cricket match is ejected from the venue.
A tell-tale sign officials are on the lookout for is any spectator using more than one mobile phone or device, the ODT understands.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) would not discuss its on-ground anti-corruption measures, but a spokesman said pitchsiding in New Zealand mainly happened in the form of information-gathering for overseas betting agencies.
It was a breach of NZC’s terms and conditions for entry to grounds.
NZC’s approach was to elicit as much information as possible from anyone caught and pass it on to the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit.
"We’re committed to fighting corruption in cricket in order to preserve the integrity of the game, working closely with key stakeholders, including the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association, law-enforcement agencies and the [International Cricket Council], to achieve this," the NZC spokesman said.
Dunedin hosted home games yesterday for the Otago Volts and Otago Sparks in the Dream11 Super Smash, the New Zealand domestic T20 competition.
Last month, eight punters were thrown out of T20 matches in South Africa in the first two weeks of the SA20 competition, media reported.
Indian and Bangladeshi gamblers evicted were employed by criminal gangs from the sub-continent, it was reported.
A Cricket South Africa official told media a British person evicted had lifetime earnings of £3.8million (NZ$7.3million).
Anti-corruption officials said there was considerable evidence of individuals who started off pitchsiding being drawn into acting as go-betweens to facilitate corruption and spot-fixing.
Spot-fixing is where moments of a match are manipulated to suit particular people betting.
In New Zealand, several people were evicted from the 2015 Cricket World Cup opening match in Christchurch for pitchsiding and they were interviewed by police.
They were relatively easy to spot because of the technology they used, including mobile phones and laptops, police said at the time.
NZC confirmed there had been other instances since.
What is pitchsiding?
Pitchsiding, or courtsiding, refers to the advantage a gambler may obtain from being at the venue. Television broadcasts, streaming and transmission of data are subject to small delays. This can lead to bets being accepted fractionally before odds are adjusted. Pitchsiding can take the form of an informant at the venue communicating with a gambler or bookmaker overseas.
