Bet Angel Connection Modes

11/03/2013 | By Tim | Reply More

Connection mode

Bet Angel has a unique advantage when it comes to connecting to Betfair: A Dynamic Connection Mode.

Connection mode setting in the log-in screen

To understand what this does we need to understand the different methods of connecting to the Betfair exchange. There are two methods:

Full-API
Non-API

API stands for ‘Application Programming Interface’ and is a special connection available to Betfair users providing advanced features such jockey silks, full depth of market, bet persistance (Keep Bet, Take SP) and Last Traded Price (LTP). In addition it provides quick execution of bets and orders.

Connecting via a Full API mode will provide you with all the above advantages. It is worth noting that Betfair do charge for API access. However, Bet Angel have a commercial licence that covers this for our customers.

The API is enourmously beneficial to users of the Exchange and is the preferred method of connecting.

But what if the API is offline?

This is not a problem. Bet Angel will automatically switch to a non-API connection mode if it detects that the API is not available. This means our customers can still get online and use the software and contuinue to trade.

However, connecting via Non API (also known as screen-scraping) is the least preferable method of connecing Bet Angel to Betfair due to the lack of aforementioned features.

So which mode is which?

There are three connection modes currently in use:

0 – Full-API
1 – Non-API
13 – Hybrid (mixture of non and full-API)

The default connection mode is 0. This is a FULL API mode and gives us advanced features such as last traded price, full market depth (this is the amount of money available to trade and that has been traded shown in the ladder at ALL prices not just the three either side of the book as with the Betfair web site), bet persistence such as Take SP, or Keep Bets.

Mode 1 can be selected as the default and can be useful to use if the API is showing signs of strain.

Mode 13 is a hybrid mode and releives some of the strain on the API by using the non-API connection for some of the data.

Any other mode numbers are out of date and no longer work. Do not use them.