How do I...

[Exfundmanager]

create a bot using Betfair that automatically goes through each handicap race, picking out the last named horse in the betting sequence, ONLY if its BSP is less than the last but one in the race order?

I am totally new to all this bot stuff!

Thank you.

[Captain Sensible]

The special Q11 triggers mean it's easy enough to move between markets, InStr for VBA or FIND as a formula will identify if A1 contains Hcap. For the last bit I think you need to give an example I've no idea if you mean the last race, last runner etc but VBA can easily handle arrays so whatever it is shouldn't be a problem

[Exfundmanager]

I mean, for example, in a ten horse race. I am interested in the 10th ranked horse on BF by odds, being less in odds than the ninth rabked horse.

[Exfundmanager]

By QII I suppose you mean the "Auto Select Markets" feature on Gruss. But where or how do I apply the InStr or FIND command to "A1"?

[Captain Sensible]

The auto select markets is probably best if you wanted to select at a set time before the race starts. You can also move around markets by putting numbers in the Q2 cell like -1 moves to the next market -8 deletes the market .

I'm guessing you don't know VBA so excel formulas are probably easiest and SEARCH rather than FIND as it's case insensitive. You'd just enter something like this into your cell to tell you whether it's a Hcap or not, that'd just say TRUE or FALSE

=ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Hcap",A1))


Luckily Excel has lots of options for finding the last vale in a column, LOOKUP,INDEX, OFFSET etc just use whichever you know best

=INDEX(Y5:Y100,COUNTA(Y5:Y100))

Would give you the last number in column Y where the BSP is sent on my sheet obviously change Y if its not the same on yours.

=INDEX(Y5:Y100,COUNTA(Y5:Y100)-1)

will give me the last but one value in column Y

[Captain Sensible]

You can also use the same formula to find the last horse so you can use it to match against the runners ensuring you only fire on the last runner

=INDEX(A5:A100,COUNTA(A5:A100))

Would return the last horse in column A

[MiniBlueDragon]

Captain's talking about using Excel.

I think you mean, as an example:

2.46
5
9.2
7.8
10.5
14.5
31
54

In the above you want to identify the 7.8 runner because the odds have shortened it to less than the runner below it?

If that's the case how will you differentiate between the one below having lengthened rather than the selection having shortened?

e.g. in the above it could be that the 9.2 runner has been pushed out causing the 7.8 to *appear* as if it's shortened.

For the above you could use a simple IF statement to flag any out of sequence runners:

=IF(F6<F5,1,0)

And fill down in Excel (make sure you don't autofill row 5 as that will flag as "1" even though it's the lowest odds in the race.

[Captain Sensible]

I think he is meaning to find the last runner in the list. People have a tendency to underestimate the chances of the outsiders on Betfair and the last runner in the list can be a decent bet. One of the problems with identifying that is the runner order can change throughout the day as it's set by reduction factor and odds from what I can tell, both of which do get altered by Betfair.

I'd stuck the formulas in a sheet as I was typing them and uploaded it here so you can see roughly how you might structure a bot. Obviously you try and cover all areas and add in extra criteria as needed but the formulas should give you an idea

http://www.mediafire.com/download/qjqx0 ... Book1.xlsx

[Exfundmanager]

I am definitely referring to the very last horse in the BF list, taken just before the Off.

[MiniBlueDragon]

Nice one Cap.

It's always a tough call with outsiders because they have far more value than the shorties which are often over-bet, however with the longer odds runners comes the longer losing run, statistically speaking.

[Exfundmanager]

Many thanks Captain for your replies. I am still learning how to use gruss with Excel, and wouldn't mind if you could answer the following question:

How can I link the Racing Post Betting Forecast prices into the live prices Betfair excel worksheet, so I can create a BACK by comparing live odds with forecast odds?

[MiniBlueDragon]

I believe there's a sample spreadsheet for that purpose in the Sample Triggered Betting Excel Sheets forum - http://www.gruss-software.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=8

[Captain Sensible]

Nice one Cap.

It's always a tough call with outsiders because they have far more value than the shorties which are often over-bet, however with the longer odds runners comes the longer losing run, statistically speaking.

Yep, gotta take the long term view and you can't really afford to miss one of the bigger winners as it'd take a long time to recover if it was in the hundreds which some are.

Many thanks Captain for your replies. I am still learning how to use gruss with Excel, and wouldn't mind if you could answer the following question:

How can I link the Racing Post Betting Forecast prices into the live prices Betfair excel worksheet, so I can create a BACK by comparing live odds with forecast odds?

I think Osknows did a sheet that grabbed the forecasts somewhere, trouble is they continually,change their website format, require you to log in, names don't match etc I think it may well be redundant now as it needs continually updating at any change and isn't worth the effort.

There's an additional column that sends forecast prices to the excel sheet but I've no idea where they're from or if Gary's just calculated them from the reduction factor values you'd have to ask him.

Maybe you should consider grabbing the timeform forecasts as they'd be easier to grab cos you already have the market ID and all names would match exactly cos betfair own them. Can't imagine their tissue would be much different to RP's either.
l

[MiniBlueDragon]

Nice one Cap.

It's always a tough call with outsiders because they have far more value than the shorties which are often over-bet, however with the longer odds runners comes the longer losing run, statistically speaking.

Yep, gotta take the long term view and you can't really afford to miss one of the bigger winners as it'd take a long time to recover if it was in the hundreds which some are.

Plus at what point do you "accept" the odds on offer rather than "asking" for odds? e.g. on a shorty you can take a reasonable guess at the odds the runner should reach in play and generally there will be enough bouncing around in running to get matched on a short priced runner, squeezing a little more profit.

On a long shot there's far less movement in running (other than a sudden dive in odds at the off) and if the odds have steamed before the off that means potentially 25% or greater reduction in odds you either accept or you ignore the bet and hope it's not the "winner" for the long odds system.

[Captain Sensible]

I never go for mixing and matching strategies tbh, whenever I do that sods law usually comes into play and messes things up


If you look at the stats for winners with a BSP over 200 you'll see only 63 of 116 traded higher in running and only 34 traded 25% higher so would be very costly holding out for a few extra ticks. If things aren't profitable without tweaking they're usually best left alone especially at those type of prices.