Is there any evidence that private bots are shared across IG? I have read @jaki01 's posts and believe he is not using such.

I was just asked in Discord, and here is my reply:

It depends on when this tournament took place. I tried very long to compete manually and for a rather long time I managed to win the gold foil tournaments, but finally, when it was too obvious that mediocre players started to beat me by bot help - and after this post (https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@jaki01/splinterlands-the-bot-problem-in-higher-leagues) also didn't have any effect I decided to use a bot, too.
I still play all alpha card tournaments manually even if also there it is obvious that recently many oppponents started to use bots/battle helpers, too (but no bot is ever allowed to touch my holy alpha cards )
I think it is very unfortunate that I am also using a bot nowadays (I hated that decision), but my metapher is that if suddenly in running competitions it is allowed to use motorbikes, then one either is forced to use one, too, or to stop to compete at all, even if one hates the change of rules to allow machines in human competitions.

If ever there is a safe space for human players again I would love to play manually again.

And here another:

You might read it, when you have time.
It's not about blaming, but it was a try to make people/players aware.
These days still many players belittled me when I predicted that very soon bots would be stronger than players ("Yes, chess, but chess is not Splinterlands, Splinterlands is much more complex" they insisted "Just increase your skills!").