Using computer scripts, ActiveSG users cheat to score football fields

by Hamzah Omar Yaacob

AT LEAST one complaint has been made to SportSG, the G statutory board that runs the ActiveSG website, about “scripting” or the use of computer programming to game the website that lets users book sporting facilities, including football fields.

As these fields and time slots are highly sought after by both match organisers and recreational players on a first-come-first-serve basis, scripting gives those who use it an advantage to secure the prime fields first. These primetime field bookings, available from $50, directly from ActiveSG then appear for sale by private match organisers who package the fields with a referee and sell them to two teams for up to $280. 

Scripting enables users to perform online tasks automatically at speeds much faster than a human can manage. In the case of the ActiveSG website, it allows users to book slots at superhuman speeds, effectively shutting out other members. This is different from “hacking”, where a website’s security system is breached.

In response to our queries, SportSG declined to say how many cases of scripting software being used by members it had uncovered. But it had replied to at least one user in February about taking punitive action against such members. That user was banker and social footballer Soon Kay Hock, 56, who contacted us after our March 18 story, about how difficult it was to book football fields through ActiveSG. Read that story here.

Mr Soon told us he complained to SportSG last year, suspecting that scripting was being used by match organisers to book their preferred slots ahead of other users. It’s an “abuse of government resources”, said Mr Soon, adding: “All I want is a fairer system [to book football fields].”

He said he wrote to SportSG and, responding to his complaint, SportSG emailed Mr Soon, saying it had taken “punitive actions against those who were found responsible for scripting and selling of football slots”.

We asked SportSG about its response, but it did not identify the people or organisers punished, only that their ActiveSG memberships were revoked. Booking facilities through ActiveSG requires users to become members on the site by registering their personal details, including a person’s IC number.

How easy is it to game the system? Singapore Management University (SMU) Associate Professor Cheng Shih-Fen said it was a “straightforward” process of using coding language to write a script that could automate the process of filling out the booking forms required to book a football field.

“If the booking is opened two weeks before, using scripts would allow the script owner to ‘lock in’ immediately when the booking opens. The advantage of using scripts is that no form filling would be necessary, and bookings can be sent out immediately,” said Associate Prof Cheng.

A match organiser we spoke to said it did not use scripting, but that it suspected other organisers of using it. Said Mr Alvinder Singh of D2D Sports: “Honestly, on our part, we are struggling to get fields too.”

ActiveSG user Muhammad Syafie, 21, who plays football on the weekends with his junior college friends, said he was surprised to hear of such scripting possibly being used by match organisers. He said: “No wonder they always get the field.”

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Featured Image by Natassya Diana.

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- Hamzah Omar Yaacob