Keeping under the radar of the bookmakers is an important aspect of matched betting. Bookmakers try and track a lot of what we do, some have even questioned as to whether or not their methods are legal under EU law. They may be able to hide behind fraud checking as an excuse for tracking and sharing data with each other, but here we tell you what the bookmakers are doing and how to stop them.

1iesnare

The majority of bookmakers in the UK use a tracking tool called iesnare. This tool effectively stores a digital fingerprint of your computer and it’s online activity. This can then then be accessed by any paying client to see what actions you have been taking. This can range from, which betting websites that you have visited, if you have used a betting exchange, if you have used oddschecker and much more. Now it doesn’t collect any personal data, but it can help profile you so the bookmaker knows what type of punter you are.

If you would like to make absolutely sure that iesnare cannot share grab any of your information, you need to perform the following actions (on a Windows computer)

How to disable iesnare

1. right-click Notepad and select Run as administrator.

2. In Notepad, open the following file: c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts


3. Past in the following lines and save

127.0.0.1 iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 iesnare.co.uk
127.0.0.1 www.iesnare.co.uk
127.0.0.1 mpsnare.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 mpsnare.iesnare.co.uk
127.0.0.1 www.mpsnare.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 www.mpsnare.iesnare.co.uk
127.0.0.1 ci-mpsnare.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 ci-mpsnare.iesnare.co.uk
127.0.0.1 www.ci-mpsnare.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 www.ci-mpsnare.iesnare.co.uk
127.0.0.1 admin.iesnare.co.uk
127.0.0.1 www.admin.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 www.admin.iesnare.co.uk
127.0.0.1 iovation.com
127.0.0.1 iovation.co.uk
127.0.0.1 www.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 www.iovation.co.uk
127.0.0.1 www.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 admin.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 dra.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 impsnare.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 mpsnare.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 mx.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 snare.iesnare.com
127.0.0.1 iovation.com
127.0.0.1 accountlock-demo.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 admin.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 bam-pilot.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 batch.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 ci-accountlock.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 ci-admin.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 ci-mpsnare.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 ci-snare.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 dv-fw-a-nat.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 ioit.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 mx.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 p.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 rm-admin-demo.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 soap.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 test.iovation.com
127.0.0.1 testgw.iovation.com



4. Test

Open the ´Run´ dialog box (press ´Windows+R´ or click ´Start´, ´Run´).

Type in ´cmd´ and hit enter, this brings up the command line.

Type in: ´ping iesnare.com´ - this will try to send a ping packet to the address that your machine thinks is ´iesnare.com´.

2Adobe Flash Cookies

A little known feature of Adobe Flash allows sites to track and locally store information about visitors. This essentially gives sites a way to bypass strict laws on cookie use, since use of Flash storage is more of a grey area.

It’s hard to say what bookies use these features for, but it may be advisable to turn off the features and delete stored information if you’re concerned about privacy. Here’s how:

1. Follow this link to view currently stored information. Click ‘Delete all sites’ to remove all locally stored data.

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2. Next, follow this link to view your current local storage settings. To prevent sites you visit in the future from storing information about you, move the slider all the way to the left, check the ‘Never ask again’ checkbox, and uncheck the ‘Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer’ checkbox.

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3Ghostery

Of course we want to disable this tool on our computer and it is possible to do this. One method that seems very straightforward is to use a tool called ghostery (A big thank you to Paul Thompson for Recommending this). There is a handy toolbar that will tell you what  is being tracked every time you visit a website. I installed it and visited Coral and instantly it picked up iesnare, so I disabled it.

4CCleaner

Another option to consider is CCleaner (free version). Once loaded you can choose to delete all cookies and sessions each time that you browse.

This should then stop you from being tracked using iesnare. Of course if we come across anything else, we’ll be sure to add it. To this article

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