The authors employ the conditional moment generating function approach to analyse the performance of orthogonal space-time block codes over Nakagami- q (Hoyt) multiple-input multiple-output radio frequency identification backscattering channels. New exact and asymptotic symbol error rate expressions are derived for the case of two and four receiving antennas N = 2 , 4 . The exact expressions are in the form of a sum of infinite series while the asymptotic ones are in the closed form. The diversity order that the system can achieve is found to be L , where L is the number of tag antennas, and the performance of this system is found to be more sensitive to the channel condition (the q parameter) of the forward link than that of the backscattering link. The theoretical results (exact and asymptotic) are verified through comparison with simulation results.