Where Angel’s don’t fear to tread
Just over a week ago we had the Betfair upgrade and first outage.
Betfair has a chequered history of outage’s, but have been much better in recent years. Because Bet Angel was around before the API was created, we have always maintained a dual mode of operation. You can connect to Betfair via non API (The website) or API modes.
I tend to connect by the API but I have both available at all times, just in case there is a problem at Betfair’s end. One of the characteristics that we saw last week was that Betfair had a tendancy to bring the website back up first after an outage. Therefore Bet Angel users were able to get online quicker than others. At moments like this timing can be critical, especially if you have an open position. This capability in Bet Angel pretty much pays for itself alone, in this mode Bet Angel becomes an insurance policy. I traded where others didn’t last Monday and that paid good dividends on what was a tough week in general.
The other side effect from last week is that I gathered data on how the market acted when the API was down. By doing this we could ‘see’ what effect knocking out the API had on the market and its participants. It was a unique opportunity to get under the skin of the market. So, there you have it. While it created some problems, it was also an opportunity.
Let’s hope things are back to normal now and we can settle into a ‘normal’ pattern again. Only thirty five days to Cheltenham!
The market was very different last Monday afternoon
Category: Betfair, Using Bet Angel
