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The fascinating reason behind the presence of an Xbox controller in the Newcastle crowd today

Published 15:06 29 Aug 2015 BST

Darragh Murphy
The fascinating reason behind the presence of an Xbox controller in the Newcastle crowd today

Homesport

We thought there was a lunatic in the press box for awhile.

Pictures emerged from St. James Park of what appeared to be a keen gamer unable to leave his Xbox controller at home. https://twitter.com/MasonEcho/status/637594279775469568 But as we dug a little deeper (browsed Twitter) we found the real reason why there was a man at the game who looked to have an insatiable to desire to merge his FIFA life with reality. https://twitter.com/MasonEcho/status/637606431835979776 We learned that the mysterious man in the red hoody was actually using the controller to keep track of statistics from the game, logging possession and events online as they happened. https://twitter.com/edsyers/status/637606258665725952 We don't know what company Ed Syers, the diligent button-tapper, works for but it seems that betting companies often use technology like this so that they can cover games live on their website. You learn something new every day.

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