User Comments

Click on info email and send me your exact bot specification.

SPORTSBETTER posted on betfair forum following request: FOOTBALL CODING (DOUBLE BACKING) 

http://forum.bdp.betfair.com/showthread.php?p=14815 

I will not speculate about quality of his bot code, but will say what could go wrong when programming with betfair api, and what some software developers do not realize when implementing betfair bots. 

Our applications/bots communicate with betfair using betfair API in request/response manner through the Internet, and so a lot could go wrong.  

* Internet connection or latency problems 

* Terminated connection 

* Betfair api services problems 

All that could happen anytime, and the worst-case scenario is when our api request was processed by betfair but response was not deliver back. When communication problems happen during a bet operation, and it is not handled correctly by bot code, the bot can place double bets. 

Bfexplorer bots are implemented to correctly handle the above issues and more. What will happen, when part of bet is matched and offered odds moves? What will happen when bot placed a bet and market is suspended, so unmatched bets are cancelled? 

Those are questions bot developer should deal with some way in his bot code, so it means that bet place operation is not just simple call of betfair api method: placeOrders. 

For instance, when bot should place a bet under minimal stake amount, your bot must use betfair api methods:  placeOrders, cancelOrders, replaceOrders. 

All that means that your bot code is not just about betfair api methods wrappers, but more about operation flow, because your bot strategy could involve to place more bets on different market selections. 

Bfexplorer bots offer such operation flow adding the base betting or trading features, so hedge bet calculation, dutch betting and so on. Bfexplorer bots implement those base features for you, you do not have to think more about betfair api, but about your strategy implementation, so you program your trading or betting model, and use bfexplorer bots to orchestrate bet operations. 

The simplest way of implementing your own strategy is using the bot: Execute Trigger Bot, and you program your strategy logic in script code.  

In my video you can see how such script looks like when implementing "your strategy". You can use it just replacing your code in the function:  getMySelectionAndBetType 

In F# you can even use your python code if you want to: FSharp.Interop.PythonProvider 

You must select selections in NinjaTrader tool, so this way you declare which selection/s will be monitored when you click on Monitoring button. At the moment of clicking, in the Instrument column appears the selection name, so SEL1, ..., so in Ninja app you know which exact selection from betfair market is assigned to your chart.

So, man what you did? You clicked on Monitoring but having no selections selected, so no data were transferred to Ninja app. Actually, almost by chance, the first selection was almost selected when you resorted selections by clicking on a column, click on selection row, so the background of selection changes, you know that selection is selected right?

You are not 2 years old so you already learned, that when pressing on Ctrl keyboard, and then when clicking with the mouse on other rows/items in the list view/grid view, you add selections, are you familiar with that?  

In the old version of that tool, you can see checkboxes, left from the selection name.

I noticed you have got 0 on betfair account, so the chance is you have got delayed data from betfair.

Another point, man I really do not know what you do, but watch your video yourself, can you see in bfexplorer Open Events, any open market?

No, we cannot see it, so I believe the NinjaTrader tool, was left there from previous tests, there must be a link between bfexplorer and the NinjaTrader tool.

Forgive me, but please take my advice, just try to think when you do anything computer related. Yes, on your video I can see you are quick user, me in my 52 years, I am not so quick, so maybe, therefore, I have got time to read what UI presents on the screen, and think before clicking :-)

Did you read at least one of articles, the search result for ninja returns?

If not read this, and my comment:

Extension Ninja Trader

There are 4 steps you must do, and all will work, as you can read cardurco user confirmed that as well.

He used the new version of bfexplorer as well, as this website presents only articles to the new bfexplorer app. With the new release of bfexplorer I deleted all old articles, but I left the old ninja video as it is relevant information to setup ninja app first.

Ok, I have fixed the search url, but web page offers Searching on web pages, so you could just type in Search in site: ninja, and you would get the same search result.

It does not matter that video is for the old bfexplorer app, it shows what you must do on Ninja app, to allow feeding of market data to ninja trader app through bfexplorer app.

You must be familiar with Ninja app, to use it with bfexplorer, it seems you are not.

http://bfexplorer.net/Articles/Search?text=ninja

Please follow steps shown in the video to articles you can find on the forum, I gave you link to the search result.

Football Bot, is trigger bot, you must set the parameter: BotName to your trading or betting bot. We can call such bot declared by BotName parameter: action bot. 

So, the action bot is actually a bot that is going to place your bets, it could be bot settings of "Place Bet" or "Place Bet and Close Selection Bet Position (trading bot)" bot or whatever other bot allowing to place bets. 

Any bot settings allow entering "Entry Criteria" (click on tab Entry Criteria in the bot settings dialog). 

Here you can add, click on green plus icon, LastPriceTraded Is between x and y value.  

As in your action bot setting you can declare on which selection bot will place bet/s, the parameters: Selection/ExecuteOnSelection and SortSelectionBy, your bot will know which selection LastPriceTraded to evaluate. 

As your bot will use Entry Criteria, you can restrict how many times these entry criteria should be evaluated, just by setting the parameter: Market/EvaluateEntryCriteriaOnlyOnce. 

So, what will happen when your Football bot triggers your action bot? 

As the EvaluateEntryCriteriaOnlyOnce is set to True (checked), and Entry Criteria is set to evaluate LastPriceTraded Is between x and y value, then when LastPriceTraded Is not between x and y, your action bot will not place a bet, and ends its execution.

In the latest bfexplorer release I have changed placeholders for query parameters to:
{eventId}

{marketId}

{nMarketId}

{selectionId}

So, what useful urls could you add to your bfexplorer Web Browser tool?

Betfair Live Stream: 

https://videoplayer.betfair.com/

Match View & Stats:

https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/pop-out-live-stream/{eventId}?feedType=dataVisualization

Selection Chart:

http://sportsiteexweb.betfair.com/betting/LoadRunnerInfoChartAction.do?marketId={nMarketId}&selectionId={selectionId}

Race Charts from my test web app:

http://185.58.225.212:8085/raceChartDataEmbedded/{marketId}/true/15.0

Sean, I would really suggest to read what Visual Studio reports when you try to build your bot project.  

Similarly to betfair api project (BetfairApiConsoleFSharp) where you had to reference bfexplorer assemblies, in MyFsharpBot project there are another 3 libraries you must reference, libraries from devexpress.  

Well, I do not think you bought that libraries so default path to those libraries must be replaced to bfexplorer app folder: 

C:\Program Files (x86)\BeloSoft\Bfexplorer 

Yes, I bought license to those libraries, as I used them for bfexplorer UI. 

Just watch video I prepared, it also shows how to debug bot with Visual Studio and running bfexplorer app, just set: 

1)  

Debug / Start external program: 

C:\Program Files (x86)\BeloSoft\Bfexplorer\Bfexplorer.BotUI.exe 

2) 

Command line arguments: 

YourUserName Password True 

True at the end will say bfexplorer to run in practice mode when debugging your bot. 

3) 

Build / Output path: 

C:\Program Files (x86)\BeloSoft\Bfexplorer\ 

4)

Open VS as administrator, because VS will copy assembly/s to Program Files folder.

Now you are ready to debug your bot project, bot assembly/s will be copied to bfexplorer app folder, otherwise you would not be able to debug your code, your bot shares bfexplorer assemblies and bfexplorer loads your bot assembly. 

Frankly to say I do not remember whether I had given you Bfexplorer BOT SDK source code. I am very busy last month's with 2 other projects, so the chance is you are using old bot sdk projects, therefor you have got problems with changed interfaces and so on.  

I removed BOT SDK from public usage couple months ago when finding out that bunch of Indian developers uses Bfexplorer BOT SDK to quickly build betfair apps utilizing bfexplorer libraries.  

They simply used JayBeeBot project from Bfexplorer BOT SDK solution, and built customers projects from freelancer and similar freelancer web sites, of course they were paid, but no me, they stole my intellectual property, not saying that betfair itself do not support, or do not offer betfair api for developers from some countries:  India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or UAE. 

Actually, the fact was reported to me by accident, as one of those Indians customers who paid for such project needed to change some features in his betfair app, so he contacted the Indian developer but never got reply. He was clever enough to look at to app folder finding out that his app uses assemblies which names starts with: BeloSoft.Bfexplorer 

So he googled it and find my website and contacted me through my info email, asking why I did not respond to his emails.  Well yes, that is the Internet where there are quite a lot of fraudulent people.  

Be warned when you asked developers on freelancer to build you betfair app.

Read the errorr message:

Error FS0001 This expression was expected to have type
    'BotDescriptor list'   
but here has type
    'BotDescriptor []' 

so MyBots, and MyBotsCreators are list not arrays.

You are using old bot sdk against the new bfexplorer backend assemblies.

Try to reinstall the latest version of bfexplorer, it seems to be a problem with assembly obfuscation. 

By the way, you know that bfexplorer assemblies are built on .net 4.7 and F# 4.4.1. 

When you create a new project in Visual Studio, into your project are automatically included referenced libraries. 

Even the simplest program like Console.WriteLine("Hello world!") would not be compiled without referenced System.dll library. 

Your built app (project) must include all external libraries used by your app/by your code.

1)

For simple betfair api program using bfexplorer betfair api libraries, you must add 2 libraries, references:

BeloSoft.Data, BeloSoft.Betfair.API

2)

In your program code you must open namespaces of used libraries:

open BeloSoft.Betfair.API

open BeloSoft.Betfair.API.Models

In C# code we use: using keyword.

3)

Betfair api http servers expects http request with header Expect100Continue set to false.

To execute betfair api program you must set it either in code, or in App.config file.

4)

Now you can start writing your betfair api code. Visual Studio intelisense will help you with type/object or method declaration showing what properties are implemented, what parameters you must enter to methods and so on:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/using-intellisense

Familiarize yourself with .net programming first, it does not matter in what programming language.

Most of the videos you can see on this web site had been made to show bespoke bots or app features. It is simpler for me to make a short video and sent features description by email when finalizing bot project for my customer. 

I do not sell bespoke bots or apps made for other people who paid for development. 

I can build your bespoke bot or app, all what I need is your bot or app specification and then I can estimate price and time to deliver.  

I do not need long specification, just plain text explaining base features, in bot development you describe parameters to avoid giving knowhow or crucial parameters. 

The price really depends on time I will spend on development, for simple bots it starts from 80 – 100 GBP what is around 5 – 6 working hours for me. 

You have got my email, just look at on the web page header.

You can rearrange ladder columns, just by dragging column header and dropping it to the new position or through Application / Settings / Trading Ladder. Reverse bet placing is not supported as it breaks all rules: to offer a bet and to take bet at desired odds and volume. 

You can use NinjaTrader tool to visualize betfair data in charts, or any bot integration PRO allows to visualize data. 

NinjaTrader Tool 

Analyzing betfair data to trigger trading on horse racing markets. 

Betfair Market Charts and Data Analyzing 

You can change ladder colors and rules of how are data presented by clicking on any header by right mouse/context button on your mouse, then a context menu appears and you can click on Conditional Formatting / Manage Rules. Changed rules are not saved, so when restarting bfexplorer the default rules are applied again. Bfexplorer UI can be presented in light or dark theme (see Application / Settings / General). The column colors are blue and pink, but in light theme background colors seems darker, try dark theme to see difference. 

Ladder Column - Conditional Formatting Rules 

LPTV is last price traded volume, and it shows on ladder what amount was matched on best offered prices. When clicking wherever on LPTV column cell, the values are cleared, so then for best offered prices you can see how much volume of money was matched by backers, and layers.

And betfair reacts to such users as well, I have just received email from betfair saying:

"You'll receive delayed data when using a delayed App Key or when using a live App Key if your Betfair account has never been funded or if an override has been applied to your account, or App Key."

Hi, what you can watch on my video is commercial product I used to visualize betfair tennis data.  

I wrote simple bot for bfexplorer to save tennis match data, so time, price/odds, traded volume, player on server, sets score, games score, and points. From the above data I was able to produce charts in my video. 

Here is another article showing how to use betfair bot and bfexplorer console to make charts using JavaScript library called plot.ly: 

Betfair Market Charts and Data Analyzing

I do not know if you would be able (by using plot.ly library) to visualize market data similar like I did by using Tableau software, but if you are interesting and want to collaborate, then I can offer you to build bot to save tennis or football match data and scores, and you will deliver visualization code written with plot.ly, or d3js.org JavaScript library. 

I am able to stream such data from bfexplorer, so your JavaScript app would be able to present visualization in real time, if you like.

LPTV means Last Price Traded Volume, and it presents traded volume in current best price offered range, when this price range changes the indicator value/s out of this range is/are set to zero. 

Bfexplorer offers ladder customization, so you are able to arrange columns, and show or hide them. You can do so from Application / Settings / Trading Ladder, or directly from Column Chooser, just open it and drag and drop columns. 

Bfexplorer offers bot development as well, so if you are able to program a bot, then you can program one to visualize your model data on ladder, for now Odds columns allows such visualization only. 

Have a look at how I used this feature in my custom bots: 

Trading Indicators

Portrait Layout

Betfair Trading Ladder

I can add My Indicator column, and set its visual representation to gradient data bar, so you will be able to set your indicator values (-1.0 to 1.0).

What you can do now is add to "My Favourites Events" your football event filter for markets you want to bet on, so adding: MATCH_ODDS,  HALF_TIME, FIRST_HALF_GOALS_05, FIRST_HALF_GOALS_15, FIRST_HALF_GOALS_25 to Market types, so this way you could open all your events in the Event Browser view. 

In the Event Browser you can filter events by Total Matched, then you can manually check markets, and open only those ones fulfilling your criteria. 

Your subscription status is Basic, so it is actually the only option you have got. 

If you were Professional subscriber, then you are allowed to use bots, and Bfexplorer Console tool. Bfexplorer Console allows to execute scripts, and such simple script can be written for your purpose as well, checking total matched volume for MATCH_ODDS markets, and then loading associated markets and checking if total matched volume on these markets is as required. If all your requirements for total matched volume are met, script can open MATCH_ODDS market and required markets for you automatically. 

Read and watch video to this article: Filter and Open My Markets

SMS alerting issue. You need SMS provider, to send SMS from computer to your mobile. There are quite a lot of providers of SMS services, so yes it is possible to program SMS sending feature utilizing provider's API. This approach on the other hand requires constant monitoring of all markets, and again I cannot understand that as you subscribed to Basic subscription plan so no support for bots or custom built bots.

I think you are confused from using other betfair api software/s.  

Bfexplorer separates market data updating to two services running in thread pool. This way you are able to set two different update intervals, the one for active market and the other for passive market/s.  

It means that if you set update interval for the active market to 20 ms, and your internet connection latency to betfair servers is 50 ms, then the market data are updated every 70 ms, what is around 14 times per second. 

Passive markets, and you maybe know that you can open really a lot of markets for monitoring with bfexplorer, are updated in batches (for 25 markets in one betfair api request), therefor bfexplorer backend services do not use a lot of threads, so there is no need for what you call: "Maximum Parallel Calls". 

Of course any bet operation is executed in thread pool, but in manual trading how many times per second are you able to click on ladder? So again, no performance degradation for bet operations. 

If you run automated bot strategies, so bets are placed by bfexplorer bots, and if you open for instance 100 markets on which you want to place bets, then of course if you want to place bets on 100 markets at the same time, then bfexplorer can open two many threads in thread pool, but the question is who would like to do so?  

In most automated strategies Bot Executor executes bots at set time relative to the official market start time, so for instance if you would run your bots on all football match odds markets 5 minutes before kick off then depending on how many matches is played in a day, too much bet threads is not opened, maximal 10 threads. 

Bot manages its bet position, so if bet place request has been sent, bot knows about api request result, and if necessary bet is placed again.  

Betfair streaming api uses totally different approach in market data updating, there is no request/response, bfexplorer subscribers for updates and updates are stream through established connection/socket. 

You can see differences in this video: Monitoring 64 Markets - Market/order Streaming

In the latest release of bfexplorer I have enabled market streaming option, you must restart bfexplorer when changing this option.