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I use a simple strategy for in play racing. At present I'm using the traditional betfair betting platform. Keeping things as general as possible i lay a horse with both a stop/win and stop/loss figure in mind. Whichever comes first I execute that function. Which of the available software will allow me to do this effectively. Now, I don't need all the bells and whistles but obviously it must be easily usable. Cost is not a factor apart from there is no need to buy a Rolls Royce when a good BMW will do.

Full article will follow in next days.

• Silks description
• Trainer name
• Age and Weight
• Form
• Days since last run
• Jockey claim
• Wearing text
• Saddle cloth
• Stall draw

Any of this information can be used by a bot script, in this article I will show you how to show the horse form and sort horses by the form and how to use the horse form information in a simple betting strategy on which I will show you how to build LookUp bot script running a trading bot.

You can see on the picture that moving the cursor over the horse name a tooltip is displayed with all that information but it would be useful to show all horses sorted by the horse form in the output window too. If a market supports additional information about each selection the SelectionData property of the selection/runner is set to the object inherited form ISelectionData interface. In the case of the horse racing market this object is represented by the class: HorseRacingSelectionData

using BeloSoft.Betfair.Data;
using BeloSoft.Betfair.Trading;
using System.Collections.Generic;

/*
 * Used parameters:
 * 
 * PlaceBetOnRunners - Show the form from last x races, if 0 sorted by all race results
 */

namespace Bfexplorer.Scripting
{
  class ShowHorsesForm : Bot
  {
    private class HorseSortedCollection : List
    {
      // Data
      private byte sortByLastRaces;

      public HorseSortedCollection(MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket)
      {
        AddRange(monitoredMarket.MarketDetails.Runners);
      }

      public void SortByForm()
      {
        Sort(SortByFormValue);
      }

      public void SortByFormFromLastRaces(byte lastRaces)
      {
        sortByLastRaces = lastRaces;

        Sort(SortByFormValueOfLastRaces);
      }

      private static int SortByFormValue(Runner x, Runner y)
      {
        float xData = GetFormValue(((HorseRacingSelectionData)x.SelectionData).HorseFormFigures);
        float yData = GetFormValue(((HorseRacingSelectionData)y.SelectionData).HorseFormFigures);

        return xData > yData ? -1 : (xData < yData ? 1 : 0);
      }

      private int SortByFormValueOfLastRaces(Runner x, Runner y)
      {
        float xData = GetFormValue(GetLastRaces(((HorseRacingSelectionData)x.SelectionData).HorseFormFigures, sortByLastRaces));
        float yData = GetFormValue(GetLastRaces(((HorseRacingSelectionData)y.SelectionData).HorseFormFigures, sortByLastRaces));

        return xData > yData ? -1 : (xData < yData ? 1 : 0);
      }

      private static string GetLastRaces(string formText, byte lastRaces)
      {
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(formText))
        {
          if (formText.Length > lastRaces)
          {
            formText = formText.Substring(formText.Length - lastRaces, lastRaces);
          }
        }

        return formText;
      }

      private static float GetFormValue(string formText)
      {
        float formValue = 0.0f;

        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(formText))
        {
          foreach (char result in formText.ToCharArray())
          {
            if (char.IsDigit(result))
            {
              int place = (int)(result - '0');

              if (place > 0)
              {
                formValue += 9.0f / place;
              }
            }
          }
        }

        return formValue;
      }
    }

    // Const
    private const int HorseRacingEventId = 7;

    public ShowHorsesForm(IBetfairService betfairService, MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket, Runner runner)
      : base(betfairService, monitoredMarket, runner)
    {
    }

    public override void DoYourJob()
    {
      base.DoYourJob();

      if (GetHaveHorseRacingSelectionData())
      {
        HorseSortedCollection horses = new HorseSortedCollection(monitoredMarket);

        byte formForLastRaces = RunnerProperty.PlaceBetOnRunners;

        if (formForLastRaces > 0)
        {
          horses.SortByFormFromLastRaces(formForLastRaces);
        }
        else
        {
          horses.SortByForm();
        }

        horses.Reverse();

        int place = horses.Count;

        foreach (Runner horse in horses)
        {
          HorseRacingSelectionData horseRacingSelectionData = horse.SelectionData as HorseRacingSelectionData;

          AddMessage(string.Format("{0}.{1}: {2}", place--, horse.Name, horseRacingSelectionData.HorseFormFigures));
        }
      }
      else
      {
        AddMessage("No form inforamtion!");
      }

      Stop();
    }

    private bool GetHaveHorseRacingSelectionData()
    {
      MarketDetails marketDetails = monitoredMarket.MarketDetails;

      return marketDetails.EventTypeId == HorseRacingEventId && marketDetails.Runners[0].SelectionData is HorseRacingSelectionData;
    }
  }
}

If you run this bot script on a horse racing market the bot will show you sorted list of horses by the last 3 races form.

So now we can use the horse form in a simple LookUp bot script which will lay the horse with the best form from last 3 races and trade it out with 2% profit or 20% loss. This is just sample showing how to use the horse form.

using System;
using BeloSoft.Betfair.Data;
using BeloSoft.Betfair.Data.Betting;
using BeloSoft.Betfair.Data.Statistics;
using BeloSoft.Betfair.Trading;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace Bfexplorer.Scripting
{
  public class HorseFormSampleLookUpBot : LookUpBot
  {
    private class HorseSortedCollection : List
    {
      // Data
      private byte sortByLastRaces;

      public HorseSortedCollection(MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket)
      {
        AddRange(monitoredMarket.MarketDetails.Runners);
      }

      public void SortByForm()
      {
        Sort(SortByFormValue);
      }

      public void SortByFormFromLastRaces(byte lastRaces)
      {
        sortByLastRaces = lastRaces;

        Sort(SortByFormValueOfLastRaces);
      }

      private static int SortByFormValue(Runner x, Runner y)
      {
        float xData = GetFormValue(((HorseRacingSelectionData)x.SelectionData).HorseFormFigures);
        float yData = GetFormValue(((HorseRacingSelectionData)y.SelectionData).HorseFormFigures);

        return xData > yData ? -1 : (xData < yData ? 1 : 0);
      }

      private int SortByFormValueOfLastRaces(Runner x, Runner y)
      {
        float xData = GetFormValue(GetLastRaces(((HorseRacingSelectionData)x.SelectionData).HorseFormFigures, sortByLastRaces));
        float yData = GetFormValue(GetLastRaces(((HorseRacingSelectionData)y.SelectionData).HorseFormFigures, sortByLastRaces));

        return xData > yData ? -1 : (xData < yData ? 1 : 0);
      }

      private static string GetLastRaces(string formText, byte lastRaces)
      {
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(formText))
        {
          if (formText.Length > lastRaces)
          {
            formText = formText.Substring(formText.Length - lastRaces, lastRaces);
          }
        }

        return formText;
      }

      private static float GetFormValue(string formText)
      {
        float formValue = 0.0f;

        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(formText))
        {
          foreach (char result in formText.ToCharArray())
          {
            if (char.IsDigit(result))
            {
              int place = (int)(result - '0');

              if (place > 0)
              {
                formValue += 9.0f / place;
              }
            }
          }
        }

        return formValue;
      }
    }

    // Const
    private const double Stake = 100;
    private const float Profit = 2.0f;
    private const float Loss = 20.0f;
    private const int PlaceBetBeforeInMinutes = 5;
    private const byte FormForLastRaces = 3;

    public HorseFormSampleLookUpBot(IBetfairService betfairService)
      : base(betfairService)
    {
    }

    public override bool DoYourJob(MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket)
    {
      if (GetIsMyMarket(monitoredMarket))
      {
        if (GetIsTheRaceXMinutesBeforeStart(monitoredMarket))
        {
          bool startMonitoring = true;
          MonitoredMarket myMonitoredMarket = betfairService.GetMonitoredMarket(monitoredMarket.MarketId);

          if (myMonitoredMarket == null)
          {
            myMonitoredMarket = monitoredMarket;
          }
          else
          {
            startMonitoring = !myMonitoredMarket.Enabled;
          }

          Runner runner = GetRunnerToBet(myMonitoredMarket);

          if (runner != null)
          {
            SetupMyBot(myMonitoredMarket, runner);

            if (startMonitoring)
            {
              betfairService.StartMonitorThisMarket(myMonitoredMarket);
            }

            betfairService.StartBot(myMonitoredMarket, runner.Id);
          }

          return false;
        }

        return true;
      }

      return false;
    }

    private bool GetIsMyMarket(MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket)
    {
      return monitoredMarket.MarketDetails.Runners[0].SelectionData is HorseRacingSelectionData;
    }

    private bool GetIsTheRaceXMinutesBeforeStart(MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket)
    {
      return DateTime.Now >= monitoredMarket.MarketDetails.MarketTime.AddMinutes(-PlaceBetBeforeInMinutes);
    }

    private Runner GetRunnerToBet(MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket)
    {
      HorseSortedCollection horses = new HorseSortedCollection(monitoredMarket);

      horses.SortByFormFromLastRaces(FormForLastRaces);

      return horses[0];
    }

    private void SetupMyBot(MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket, Runner runner)
    {
      RunnerProperty runnerProperty = runner.RunnerProperty;

      runnerProperty.BotType = BotType.PlaceBetClosePosition;
      runnerProperty.BetType = BetType.Lay;
      runnerProperty.Stake = Stake;
      //runnerProperty.StakeIsMyLiability = true;
      runnerProperty.MinimalOdds = OddsRange.MinOdds;
      runnerProperty.MaximalOdds = OddsRange.MaxOdds;
      runnerProperty.AllowPlacingBetInPlay = true;
      runnerProperty.PlaceBetAtBetterOdds = true;
      runnerProperty.MinReturnOnInvestment = Profit;
      runnerProperty.StopLossOnPercentageLiability = Loss;
    }
  }
}

How to run the bot

You can run this bot only with the Trade Opportunity Lookup Service. Your bot full class name is:

• Bfexplorer.Scripting.HorseFormSampleLookUpBot

When writing your own bot script you need to follow these rules:

• Your bot script must be in the MyBots directory
• The file name of the bot script must be the same as the full class name adding the .cs extension if the bot script is written in C# or .vb for Visual Basic

You can download the source code for both bot scripts here.

Testing the bot

Due to work commitments I cant place my bets just before the off which experts say is the best way to play. So I need a bot which I can "pre-programme" so that it will place my bet say 2 mins before the off. I also want to specify that I do not want to lay if odds 11.00.

The Bfexplorer PRO offers two types of tools to automate your betting or trading strategy:

• Trade opportunity lookup service
• Execute my strategy on selections

In this case we will use the Execute my strategy on selections as selections will be selected manually.

The step one: Bot criteria setting

The “Execute my strategy on selections” uses the bot criteria settings which can be setup by using the bot criteria editor.

Opening the Bot Executor and clicking on the toolbar icon Add a new bot criteria the Bot Criteria Editor appears. I will give this bot criteria settings the name:

• Lay 100 @ max. 10,5

And set following parameters for the Place bet bot:

The step two: Execute My Strategy on Selections

After opening the tool “Execute My Strategy on Selections” by clicking on the menu item Tools / Execute My Strategy on Selections I can add selections on which I want to place my lay bets by clicking on the toolbar icon “Add selections”. The Betfair Browser dialog appears so I can select all my selections adding one by one into my list.

Now I can apply the strategy to my selections clicking on the toolbar icon “Apply my strategy” the Bot Criteria dialog appears and I will select the strategy I created in my first step: Lay 100 @ max. 10,5

And finally setting the time at what the selection will be evaluated and clicking on the toolbar icon “Start” the tool will load all markets and the system will be ready to execute my strategy on all selections.

Conclusion

In this tutorial I showed you how to use the “Execute my strategy on selections” tool to place lay bets 2 minutes before the official race start if the lay odds on selected horse is under 11. As you could see the tool uses the bot criteria settings so you can define any betting or trading strategy the Bot Executor allows and assign it to any of your selections.

I'm not sure which of your services is right for me; I'd like to lay all horses under 3.05/1 in the GB market at every meeting in every race in the win market. Can this be automated? If so, I would like to give your service a go, with support setting up my system.

The Bfexplorer PRO offers two types of tools to automate your betting or trading strategy:

• Trade opportunity lookup service
• Execute my strategy on selections

In this tutorial I will show you how to use the trade opportunity lookup service (TOLS) to automate your bet placing for every race in the GB win market.

Any automated solution can be divided into two parts, a criteria section and an action section. In the criteria section market data are evaluated to find qualified selection/s, in your case you look for all selections which odds are under 3.05. Your action section is defined as to lay all such selections.

Criteria and action parameters can be described by bot criteria settings you can prepare using the bot executor criteria editor, or by LookUp bot script you can write in Visual Basic or C#. You can read more about bot programming in the tutorial:

• A betfair bot is born

I will use the TOLS and not the Execute my strategy on selections tool because I want the automated solution to select qualified selections itself. Using the Execute my strategy on selections is better approach if you want to choose selections manually and let the system check them later at preset time if all your criteria are valid for this selection so the action bot can be executed.

In this tutorial first I will use the bot criteria settings as this approach is very simple, all you need is to setup your bot parameters using the bot executor.

Step one: The Bot Executor

The Bot Executor is a tool you can use for creating different bot criteria settings which you can later execute just by one click on the start button.

You can utilize set of built-in bots for placing bets, dutching or trading. The possibilities are endless as you can create your own custom bot scripts as well.

When using the bot executor you must understand that bot criteria editor allows you to add market and selection criteria and setup an action bot which will be executed by bot executor only when all your preset criteria were evaluated as valid. Of course you can setup only an action bot without setting any market and/or selection criteria.

If you open the bot executor and try to add new bot criteria settings you will see that you can use ten different action bots.

You can see that you have got two types of bots for placing bets:

• Place bet
• Be the first in queue

Two types of bots for placing dutching bets:

• Dutch all
• Dutch runners

Five types of bots for trading:

• Place bet and close position
• Auto trader
• Back/Lay
• Lay/Back
• Close position on the outcome

And the last bot type:

• My Bot

You can use to set parameters for any custom bot script.

None of these bots places bets on more selections exactly as you want to: "I'd like to lay all horses under 3.05/1 in the GB market". Actually there is one bot which places more bets the dutching bot so I will show you first how to use this dutching bot and later I will show you how to place lay bets on more selections what will require to use My Bot settings with customized bot script.

If you want to read more about the bot executor and different bots and how they were used in different scenarios read the article:

• How to setup a bot

Step two: Dutch runners bot criteria settings

As there is neither exactly specified how to lay all selections nor minimal number of selections which should be layed, using the dutching bot could be even better as we can specify how many selections to lay as a matter of fact on a market it can happen that only one selection is under 3.05.

To add a new bot criteria click on the icon Add a new bot criteria the bot criteria editor appears. Name your bot criteria settings and click on Dutch runners options.

Set the following parameters:

What means that we want to place lay dutching bet on two favorites. The stake parameter represents the payout if the bet wins.

Now we need to set criteria as we want to place lay dutching bet only when second favorite odds are under 3.05. These criteria will be evaluated on the second favorite so we need to sort market selections. This can be set on the market criteria page:

And on the selection criteria page we set the selection criteria as we want to lay dutch only when the second favorite odds is under 3.05.

So that is all finally, now it is time to test our bot criteria settings, but first it is a good idea to switch the bfexplorer into the practice mode so we will not risk our money, the bet placing will be simulated only.

Step three: My Bot - PlaceSetOfBetsOnRunnersInOddsRange

I said it before the bfexplorer can use built-in bots or customized bot scripts. One of such customized bot script is the script: PlaceSetOfBetsOnRunnersInOddsRange you can find in the My Bots (Tools / My Bots) opening the bot script file:

• Bfexplorer.Scripting.PlaceSetOfBetsOnRunnersInOddsRange.cs

When you open this file you can see that it is a text file and content of this file is a source code of the bot programmed in the C# programming language. As the name of the bot script suggests the bot will place a set of bets on runners (selections) if the runner’s odds/price is in the preset range.

To use this bot you not only have to know what the bot does but the parameters you need to set. This bot uses the following parameters:

• BetType
• Stake
• MinimalOdds
• MaximalOdds
• StakeIsMyLiability
• AllowPlacingBetInPlay
• StartBetPlaceFrom

To setup the bot criteria settings for this bot I opened the bot criteria editor and named the bot criteria:

• Lay all selections <= 4 with 50 as my liability

This bot criteria setting will use customized bot script, so I have to setup My Bot.

And set the following parameters:

And again to test the bot criteria setting open two markets for testing in the practice mode. One market with odds range the bot will not fire any bet, and on the other one with odds range of horse which would trigger to place at least one bet.

You can see on the screenshot that bot placed two lay bets on horses in preset odds range from 1.2 to 4.

Step four: The trade opportunity lookup service

I prepared two bot settings and now I want to use one of them to automate my betting strategy. I open the trade opportunity lookup service (TOLS) tool, set a refresh rate and time at which TOLS should start market monitoring. TOLS just loads market data and executes action bots if preset criteria are met, so to run any automated solution by TOLS you need to add a bot by clicking on Add a new bot icon.

The TOLS can run two types of bot scripts:

• Customized lookup bot scripts
• Bot criteria settings

As I wanted to use the bot criteria setting I had prepared before I clicked on the check box: Use bot criteria from the Bot Executor. In the bot criteria dialog I selected: Lay all selections <= 4 with 50 as my liability.

And finally I need to add markets I want to run my strategy on. I have got six possibilities:

After the TOLS loads all horse racing markets from today’s card it started market monitored at preset time and market evaluation by added bot/s. In the screenshot below you can see that TOLS executed my "Lay all selections <= 4 with 50 as my liability" bot and lay bet was placed automatically.

Conclusion

In this tutorial I showed you how to create bot criteria setting you can use with the bot executor and how to use such bot criteria settings to run fully automated betting or trading strategy.

Je to iba radoby pomoc a skor popis zakladneho principu arbitraze. Nie je to bohvieako osozne. V principe to nie je hlupost, ale v praxi to funguje iba ak by si vedel ze favorit da gol ako prvy a to nikdy nevies. Je to bezny sposob ako namotavat zaciatocnikov, dat im pocit, ze vedia nieco co ini nevedia. V skutocnosti je to vec ktora automaticky napadne ked zistis ze mas moznost aj Back aj Lay stavky. Chcelo by to daco viac a to v tom nie je. Okrem toho sa mi zda ze poznam odkial ten mail je a mozem ti zo skusenosti povedat, ze ide skor o zneuzivane dovery. Stranok, kde su banalne poznatky bez skutocnej hodnoty je hockolko. Ja sam som kedysi minul bezvysledne dost penazi na podobne hluposti. Kaslal by som na nich.

Hej ja som skusal a stale skusam. Volakedy cudzie, dnes uz vlastne. Mam o tom aj blog a stranku. Fakt je ten, ze ani ja ani nikto ti neda tie svoje skutocne fungujuce navody. Aspon nie zadarmo. Inak technik je hocikolko, vsade mozes najst nieco co sa da vyuzit a uspech viacmenej zavisi od toho, kolko dobrych technik vies skombinovat. Na blogu mam o tom clanok. Ale co sa tyka kupovania navodov a systemov je na mieste nedovera. Ja som do toho volakedy napichal tolko penazi az to boli a az na jeden pripad to vsetko boli vyhodene peniaze. Aj ten jeden mi nezarobil, skor ma daco naucil co som vyuzil neskor. Aj mne stale chodia vselijake skepticke pripomienky k mojim navodom a je to tak spravne. Obsac ma pobavia, ale praveze to ukazuje logicke myslenie. Ono vsetko totiz moze mat zadrhel a aj ten najlepsi system moze zlyhat. Nieco co sa prehliadlo. Ziaden system totiz nefunguje na 100% a z hlay ti kludne vymenujem aspon 20 navodov, ktore funguju v 98% pripadov a tie dva ti vymazu cely bank aj so ziskom. Skratka a dobre, systemy su, ale najlepsie je si najst svoje. Dlhodobym skusanim, omylmi, vylepsovanim a stratami, sklamaniami a opatovnym skusanim. Ale na konci to moze stat za to.

„Arbitraz“ (Arbing) je spôsob obchodovania na výsledok športovej udalosti kedy využívaš rozdiel kurzov u rôznych stávkových spoločností. To čo je ukázané na obrázku je zobchodovanie stávky pri použití stávky na výhru a stávky na nevýhru, je to základný princíp obchodovania na výmenných burzách akými sú betfair, betdaq atď., ale nie je to arbing.

Ak obchodujem na betfair vždy je to s kalkulovaným rizikom, a ak je to futbal tak naživo naň obchodujem len ak to súčasne pozerám v televízii, mám totiž možnosť sám zvážiť situáciu, a ak treba uzavrieť svoju pozíciu.

Myslím že autor obrázku vyššie vstúpil do obchodovania v 65 – 70 minúte za stavu 0-1 pre Portsmouth s tým že Portsmouth vyhrá, bol to jeho názor na momentálny vývoj na ihrisku, a z vývoju kurzu je možné vidieť že svoju stávku mohol zobchodovať po 5 minútach so ziskom 47,83 Euro pri predaní pozície v kurze 1,15.

Ako môžeš vidiek na obrázku, aj sám autor zrejme zvážil svoju 1000 Euro pozíciu na Portsmouth, keďže ju neskôr uzavrel pri kurze 1,07. Proste tipovanie alebo obchodovanie na betfair je vždy o správnom rozhodnutí.

Viac sa o tom môžeš dočítať priamo tu:

• O betfair a bfexplorer
• Stratégie a rady pre obchodovanie na betfair

Ja využívam bfexplorer na predzápasové obchodovanie, na trhoch kde je prirodzený pokles kurzu, bfexplorer mi v tomto veľmi pomáha pretože keď sa hrajú ligy s najväčšou likviditou vyberiem si 10 - 20 zápasov na ktorých si spustím robotov pre automatické zobchodovanie stávky, s tým že nastavím automatické zobchodovanie pri poklese o 3 až 5 tikov, prípadne zobchodovanie do malej straty tak aby bola pozícia uzatvorená pred začiatkom zápasu.

Ešte sa mi nikdy nestalo aby som celkovo v daný deň skončil so stratou, je to proste môj spôsob obchodovania. Vypočítaj si aký mám asi zisk pri 3-5 tikoch, takže aký asi točím objem peňazí aby ma obchodovanie na betfair uživilo.

Zápas ktorý je v televízii uzatváram manuálne, podľa toho aký je vývoj na ihrisku. Bfexplorer mi v tomto veľmi pomáha, však si len predstav že by si mal kontrolovať stav kurzov u 20 zápasov, takto to za mňa robí program automaticky.

Takže ak mám možnosť poradiť, daj len na svoje skúsenosti a buď pri obchodovaní na betfair veľmi opatrný.

Urob si vlastný názor aj nato čo tu hovoril iNvestors, ja osobne by som si od človeka ktorý nemá jasno ani v základných pojmoch nič nekupoval.

Meaning horseracing what application should I use? (Pro or Horseracing) And what bot criteria would be best to use for my purpose? I mean what would you like to advise me to begin. And I will work and change criteria to improve the results. If I’m wrong of something correct me please.

If you subscribe with bfexplorer pro then you have got access to all bfexplorer applications including the BXTrader for Betdaq, so you can choose what application more suites for your betting or trading needs. If you want to trade on horse racing markets only and executes your trades at in-play as well then the better alternative for in-play trading is the bfexplorer for horse racing, as the charts support in the bfexplorer pro takes quite a lot of recourses what could slow down your refresh rate you would want to run market monitoring during the in-play. On the other hand you can setup the bfexplorer pro the way you like not only changing the application layout but as well switching off charting or information you do not need.

All bfexplorer applications offer market grid view as the base user interface for bet placing or trade the market window for trading on one selection or the Bfexplorer Trader for trading on multiple selections, bot/bet wizards.

The extensive bot support is offered only by bfexplorer pro so if you want to run your automated solutions you need to subscribe with bfexplorer pro.

Generally, am I right that trading success depends on bot setup? To say by other words the human analyses the market and uses his conclusion for bot setup? Or maybe there is another situation here it doesn’t matter for the application where odds go, anyway we get the profit?

When trading your success depends on the right moment at what you enter on a market, as simply said you only profit when backing high and laying low, that is the only criteria you need to make a successful trade. A bot is just a program executing its algorithm at parameters you set.

A bot really does not guarantee you any profit, if you setup a trading bot at parameters to close your position for a profit or loss, then the bot will really close your position in the profit only if you run it in a time frame when odds goes down if you executed the back/lay trading transaction, but if your stop loss criteria are met (the odds goes up), the bot closes your position in loss.

Is it enough for my purpose to use Auto Trader or I need to use Bot Executor? Am I right that Auto Trader is some simple solution but Executor gives us more possibilities to get more complicated setup if we need it? So what of them I need to work?

The bfexplorer for bettors offers 4 bot wizards which executes the base logic for simple bet placing or trading. If you want to use the Auto Trader bot first you need to know what trading algorithm this bot executes. In the documentation you can read this bot opens its position by using the “be the first in queue” strategy. If you want to use this strategy then yes you can use this bot, if not you can use the other trading bot: Place the Bet and Close Position.

Any bot logic the bfexplorer offers can be divided into two parts the market or selection criteria evaluations and the direct action which the bot executes, it can be just one bet placing or trading.

The Bot Executor extends the possibilities which this action bots offers simply by providing the possibility to extend the market or selection criteria, so then the bot executor executes the action bot only when those criteria are met.

The Bot Executor also offers possibility to create different parameter settings for offered bots, so this way you can prepare a set of bot criteria settings you use most and when you decide to execute it you simply select it in the Bot Executor and executes it on selected market just by one click without need to enter bot parameters as it is when using a Bot Wizard and without selecting particular selection as your bot criteria setting can include information on which selection you want to place a bet or execute trading.

How can I setup my bot for working with all markets during the day (or for some period of time)? Should I open each market I want to work with and open the bot on each market and push “Submit” before I go to the office?

Using the bfexplorer for bettors you can only open up to 5 markets and run bot wizards on selections you select manually.

To run your betting/trading strategy automatically on selected markets or on all horse racing markets for instance you need to use the bfexplorer pro and the trade opportunity lookup service (TOLS) either with bot criteria settings or with customized lookup bot script. In this case you will use bot criteria settings you prepared before with the Bot Executor and its bot criteria editor. As the bot criteria settings includes the market or selection criteria and also the action bot settings the TOLS will first evaluates market and selection criteria and executes the action bot only when this criteria are met.

The TOLS operates on all markets you add into its list, starting the market monitoring at preset time automatically evaluating all your bot criteria settings you add into its list.

The second alternative to run automated betting or trading strategy is bespoke solution which can be developed according to your specification.

I want to start with practice mode to look at this for a couple of days in the beginning. But when I tried to do it with Bfexplorer for Bettors – “My Results” was empty in spite of the application opened and closed positions. I was rather upset. It’s hard to be happy when you understand that you understand nothing!

If you want to master your trading skills or test betting or trading strategies without risking your money you should use the practice mode.

In the practice mode the bet placing is just simulated so you should be aware of this fact if you want to be as close as possible to the reality you need to take what is offered. The results of such betting is evaluated using the betfair results feed: http://rss.betfair.com/

The bet settling can be done only for markets for which betfair offers the result feed. In the settings dialog you need to enable my results for my betting, otherwise the bet settling is not evaluated in the practice mode so no bet results are listed in the My Results window.

Originally published at wbx forum. 

Originally published at wbx forum.

• Multi market monitoring
• Grid view user interface for bet placing
• Trade the market “Ladder” user interface for trading
• Watched selections
• Market watch list
• In-play trader 
• Closing position on a selection or on the market
• Bet Wizards: back/lay all, back/lay dutching

How to start

1. Install the BXTrader for Betdaq here.
2. To run the BXTrader for Betdaq double click on the icon BXTrader for Betdaq on your desktop or the Start menu.
3. To login into your betdaq account click on the BX icon, and then on the Login menu item.

If you want to execute any betting or trading strategy on all market selections you need to use the bot script you can find in MyBots folder:

• Bfexplorer.Scripting.SetupBotOnRunners.cs

To better understand how this bot works first I will explain how bot criteria settings are entered into the bot executed on the market selection. Any bot parameters are entered into the selection property. When you open a market with bfexplorer pro and click on the menu item View / Selection Property the Selection Property window is displayed, in this window you can see all parameters which can be used by bot script. The parameters are grouped into 5 sections:

• Analyze
• Bot
• Bot Parameter - Place Bet
• Bot Parameter – Trading Odds

Not all parameters are used by a bot, some of them use just couple parameters the others more than 20, when writing your own bot script you can use any of these parameters and actually it is the only way how to enter any parameter from the bfexplorer user interface you have got, with the new release of bfexplorer pro 3.0 this mechanism will be changed.

How to use Bfexplorer.Scripting.SetupBotOnRunners

Have a look on some trading strategy you would want to run.

I want to trade a selection starting to lay with 100 on better odds when odds are in range from 4 to 6, if matched trading out with the profit of 3 ticks or a loss of 20% of my liability closing my position at the official start time if not done before.

To create such trading strategy you need to use the bot: Place bet and close position setting the following parameters with the Bot Criteria Editor:

It is a good idea to test these bot criteria parameters in the practice mode executing them on the market selection with the Bot Executor, to ensure that no parameter was missed and bot works as it was intended.

Now we can finally setup these bot criteria setting to run on all market selections. As it was mentioned at we will need to setup MyBot: Bfexplorer.Scripting.SetupBotOnRunners and as the parameters we will use the bot parameters we used for the PlaceBetClosePosition bot adding the following parameters:

We can again test it first in the practice mode starting these bot criteria setting with the Bot Executor.

You can download the bot criteria setting to import into the Bot Executor here.

The Bfexplorer PRO supports the Microsoft Excel automation so users are able to create their own trading strategies or trigger betting utilizing the Excel macros or VBA code. When implementing this feature into the Bfexplorer PRO I left on a user to decide which markets he wants to monitor in the Excel worksheet as the opposite to the Trade Opportunity Lookup Service that makes it easier to create a fully automated solution simply by setting the bot criteria without any programming of Excel macros or VBA code, just by setting parameters.

What I prefer is of course the Trade Opportunity Lookup Service and bot scripts written in C# or Visual Basic that is just because it is more powerful solution, but for those who likes the Excel automation there is a way how to open markets automatically with the Trade Opportunity Lookup service.

I prepared for Excel users a LookUpBot script:

• Bfexplorer.Scripting.OpenTheMaketInExcelLookUpBot.cs

This bot only opens a market into the Excel worksheet at the preset time before the official event start. If you want to change this preset time, open the script and change the following constant:

private const int StartBeforeInMinutes = 5;

In the bot script code:

using System;
using BeloSoft.Betfair.Data;
using BeloSoft.Betfair.Data.Betting;
using BeloSoft.Betfair.Data.Statistics;
using BeloSoft.Betfair.Trading;

namespace Bfexplorer.Scripting
{
  public class OpenTheMaketInExcelLookUpBot : LookUpBot
  {
    // Const
    private const int StartBeforeInMinutes = 5;

    public OpenTheMaketInExcelLookUpBot(IBetfairService betfairService)
      : base(betfairService)
    {
    }

    public override bool DoYourJob(MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket)
    {
      if (GetIsTheMarketXMinutesBeforeStart(monitoredMarket))
      {
        betfairService.StartMonitorThisMarket(monitoredMarket);
        betfairService.StartMonitorThisMarketExternal(monitoredMarket);

        return false;
      }

      return true;
    }

    private bool GetIsTheMarketXMinutesBeforeStart(MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket)
    {
      return DateTime.Now >= monitoredMarket.MarketDetails.MarketTime.AddMinutes(-StartBeforeInMinutes);
    }
  }
}

To run this bot with the Trader Opportunity Lookup Service add this bot by clicking on the icon Add a new bot and enter for the Bot Class Name:

• Bfexplorer.Scripting.OpenTheMaketInExcelLookUpBot

Then just select your markets you want to monitor this way with the Microsoft Excel. Read more about the Trader Opportunity Lookup Service here.

The application offers a set of Bet Wizards for placing bets when preset criteria are met, bet wizards for placing a bet and closing position, backing or laying all selections, back or lay dutching.

If you want to place bets or trade a market on more selections the application offers Bfexplorer Trader with selection list view (“ladder”) user interface for placing, updating and cancelling bets. Bfexplorer Trader offers five trading strategies you can use at trading.

Features

• Learning mode
• Start page with possibility to switch between preset home page and the application status window
• Possibility to open a market by clicking on the market link on the betfair web page
• Today’s card next race for horse racing and greyhounds
• Market status notification and market time (countdown and event time)
• Preset stake, stake is my liability for lay bets, bet verification
• Market grid view for bet placing with reverse bet placing and Profit/Loss button
• Bet/Bot wizards for placing bet and dutching
• Bfexplorer Trader for multi selection trading
• My bets with all bet operations, placing, updating cancelling, and changing the bet status for in-play markets
• Watched selections
• My favorite events for today
• My results also supported in practice mode
• Output window for the application and bot status notification
• The user interface with dock-able windows with layout persistence

Bfexplorer for Bettors, the thinking man's trading software!!

You have got option in using 10 types of bots already built-in into any bfexplorer product which you can configure with different parameters, so they can place bets, trade, dutch as you want.

Basically after you set conditions for placing bets or trading, you can either run such bot criteria settings manually on selected markets or leave it running automatically for all UK horse racing markets, or whatever you select.

For instance you can prepare bot criteria settings to lay 2nd and 3rd favorite if the favorite is traded at some odds level, and the 3rd favorite is up to preset odds. The possibilities are endless as amount of different parameters you could setup to evaluate as conditions/triggers for starting bet placing or trading, also the amount of different types of bots is not limited only by the one already built-in the bfexplorer.

The third possibility is to build your own bespoke solution, if you have got a strategy which can be programmed, what actually is possible with any strategy.

Simple examples of such bespoke solutions can be found in the Bfexplorer PRO by clicking on the menu item Tools/My Solutions, the advantage of such bespoke solutions is simplicity of using, in the control panel you set your parameters and click the start button, as preparing bot criteria settings for Bot Executor require at least the base understanding of what you try to achieve with this tool.

If you want me to build your own bespoke solution then first test your strategy, if profitable write a project specification which simply describes what you want to achieve and how, I mean in terms of betting or trading at betfair.

• Green All Over
• The Gambler
• PUnt.com A Professional Gambler's Blog
• cloning Arteta sports betting tips and opinion
• www.jimmakos.com
• Don't give up your day job
• Slipperytoad from punter to professional investor
• Wizardgold Blog and Podcast

I agree with this statement absolutely. In fact, it’s my approach that I have been fine-tuning since joining Betfair, although I didn’t consciously think of it that way before.

I’m not saying that I don’t believe that ‘systems’ never work (they do if they always represent value), but the poster was spot on when he said that success or failure lies with the overall approach. Having been a Betfair investor for over four years now, I have five golden rules (mostly learned the hard-way) as to what attributes an ‘approach’ needs to have.

1. Software – never invest when you are tired, emotional or when you are euphemistically tired AND emotional. (Drinking and smart decision making have never gone together very well. How many of us would be here today if that were the case?)

2. Hardware – have reliable computer equipment and internet connection and a back-up. There is nothing more frustrating than being unable to exit a position due to a technical glitch.

3. Discipline – never be in a hurry to invest. Wait for an opportunity that looks like value, but never bet just for the sake of it. Some days there may be nothing to bet on. That’s ok, tomorrow there may be a hundred. For this reason I do not advocate having short-term goals. They sound fine in theory, but they put pressure on one to invest when one shouldn’t and vice-versa, to stop investing when one should be making hay. Also, and this should go without saying, never bet more than you are comfortable losing. The fact that a bet is good value is no guarantee that it will win. Expect the worst, understand that the bet was a good bet even if it lost, and look at the long-term picture.

4. Specialise – concentrate on what you’re good at. I have a number of sports and markets that I just can’t get ahead on so I just stay away from them and focus on those markets that I do understand and that make me money.

5. Records – keep accurate records. It is a well known trait of gamblers to remember (and inflate) the wins and forget the losses (ask a gambler how he’s done over the past year and the answer is usually “won a few, lost a few, slightly ahead overall”) but to see exactly what works and what doesn’t, it is essential that you keep track of your results. Numbers don’t lie. I have a spreadsheet dating back to 1/1/06 (one of the few New Year’s resolutions that I have actually kept for more than a week) and it allows me to plot fancy charts and calculate moving averages to my heart’s content.

Originally published at green-all-over.blogspot.com.