Category: Using Bet Angel
Many hands make light work
If you are searching for that elusive edge, have you thought about utilising Bet Angel’s many varied automated features? They say that many hands make light work and it’s true on these markets as well, even if they are virtual hands.
Using the spreadsheet functionality on Bet Angel it’s possible to construct very simple to very complex commands, instructions, tools and scripts to do pretty much whatever you want. You can also use it to test ideas or concepts fully …
Bet Angel for Betdaq
Somebody emailed me yesterday asking when we will be upgrading the Betdaq version of Betdaq. For those that were not aware, we did this in July; hence this post this morning!
Bet Angel for Betdaq is available free of charge and we were the first vendors to release a Betdaq version of our product way back in 2008. The upgrade in July was the first major upgrade we have done in a while. There are still some differences between products, …
What to do when Betfair API is down
Unfortunately Betfair suffered another outage this afternoon. Here is how I am set up to deal with such issues: –
I always have two version of Bet Angel running. One in API mode and one, with the refresh off, in non API mode (Log in via connection mode 1).
This means I can switch quickly between applications and if I am caught on one I can exit on another. We note that a site crash seems to happen in stages …
New in-running tool
Something has been annoying me for ages and that is how I’ll often sit between races waiting for the next one to start. It’s a lot of wasted time, so I recently decided it was time to do something about it. The result is a new tool for Bet Angel users.
The concept is a clickable user interface that shows you the progress of a race as it happens. Its the first ever product to allow you to click on …
The right connections
First a history lesson.
A long time ago Betfair offered unfettered access to their servers. You could smash into their servers by requesting price information at will. Back then there was no API and you could only screen scrape information from Betfair. Because of this an arms race developed and Betfair considered banning the bots, but thankfully that never happened. What actually happened was an API was born and Betfair started slowly but surely changing the way their site …
Free morning workshop
This summer we have been holding a series of morning workshops, we are currently conducting another one this morning. These have been aimed to improve your ability to use Bet Angel and your participation in the markets. Because of the small class sizes we do have a waiting list, but if you are interested in attending future courses, please register your interest now.
Look, no hands…
One upshot of Betfair’s recently decision to increase their rake from more successful users like myself is that I have revisited my love of interacting on the exchanges with spreadsheets.
I have taken some time out from ‘normal’ trading to work on spreadsheets a bit more. This is to see if I can create something that works fully automatically for me where the payoff will now be particularly high as it takes none of my time to execute. When something …
It’s all kicking off!
Yes the premier league is back. Twenty teams, OK maybe four, well maybe three battle it out for the greatest honour in football…. Who will sack their manager first!
As I have mentioned in previous posts the market tends to inefficient at the start of the season. I looked back over the two months at the start of last season to see what happened last year.
The first thing to note is that the market got the number of goals …
Botfair
I read some comments yesterday evening from some ‘traditional’ punters about how they were pleased Betfair’s new charges were going to get rid of the bots. Unfortunately for these posters, the opposite is almost certainly likely to be true. There is some pretty simple logic behind it.
Say you have a winning bot that makes money on a market and you suddenly face higher charges. At this level you would most likely work more aggressively to make more to offset …
Practice makes perfect
I thought I would make this post to remind people to upgrade / try the latest version of Bet Angel. I’m motivated to highlight this by the fact that only a portion of our users base have upgraded at the moment according to last months figures.
As a reminder, we recently introduced a very comprehensive practice mode in the latest release of Bet Angel, version 1.28. You can see more about it here: –
The practice / training / …
Morning workshop
Bet Angel has a ton of different functions in it. To help Bet Angel users get the most from our product. We have decided to start running some morning workshop sessions. We are doing them in the morning on quieter days when there is the least impact on the trading day and also to give you time to return to your own desks.
If you are interested in attending, you can get more information by clicking here.
Bet Angel in the FT
Have several people in my inbox saying we are in the FT this weekend. Thanks for the tip off, it’s nice to get some recognition after 11 years of hard work!
You can view the article here: –
https://www.howtospendit.com/#/articles/4599-the-smart-money-a-winning-psychology
Cat and mouse
I’m expecting a game of cat and mouse tonight at Old Trafford, both teams would like to score but both have very strong incentives not to concede. This is the only match that holds any great interest in the remaining quarter finals, the others are formalities it would seem. I’ll put some energy into this match this evening but I’ll be planning on doing something else tomorrow.
Man Utd vs. Chelsea is priced at 2.40 goals with a 0.25 goal …
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 …
New communications tool
I’ve created some new videos to highlight some of the new features in the latest version of Bet Angel. I will record some more in the coming week, but you can find a list of the current selection here. I have uploaded them to You Tube as well.
For some time we have allowed a lot of flexibility on how Bet Angel communicates with Betfair. This extends beyond the unique connection mode feature, to other areas of the software. …
Bet Angel 1.26 released
We are pleased to announce a new beta release of Bet Angel is now available. There are a number of changes in the latest version, some of them significant.
We will post some new videos up in the next few days which will better describe the changes we have made and allow you to confidentally use the new features, but here is a summary: –
Screen Layouts – the size and position of each of Bet Angel’s windows can now …
Automated trading
Early on in the development of Bet Angel I decided we should be able to link to a spreadsheet. Doing this meant that I & other Bet Angel users could experiment to their hearts content, create new views of the market or new trading tools using the spreadsheet. Since the first primitive implementation we have worked hard to add additional features so if you haven’t used it recently give it a try
There are many useful things you can use …
Underrated strategy
I covered the ‘lay the field’ strategy in some depth in racing ahead magazine a couple of months or so ago, it’s an easy strategy that works well and has been popular amongst exchange users for years. On Bet Angel you just need to set the odds, a value and click to lay the field.
To make it work, all you need to do is look for a market with a great deal of uncertainty about it. One market that …
Betfair for the iPad
I see Betfair have launched an iPad app. I quickly downloaded it but there isn’t a great deal to it at the moment, so don’t rush.
As the iPad has a much bigger screen it is possible to log in and operate via the Betfair web site which works pretty well, thought the username and password entry can be a pain. Simple additions like viewing my P&L for the day would make this app useful but that’s not available, just …
Betfair API problems
Just a short note to confirm that there were problems with the Betfair API this afternoon. For those that are new to Bet Angel you may be interested to know that we support API and non API connections. In the event of an API issue you can just switch from one mode to another to carry on you activity. There are some differences between the modes so make sure you are aware of those before switching connection mode.
Goodwood / New football season
This is turning out to be a good week so far. I think the research I did last year and this has given me some confidence to know exactly what I should be doing and when, also when to not bother! I don’t think it’s been easy, but that gives me even more confidence given the fact I am making it work well.
Today is going to be very busy so I hope that I can end the week with …
Goodwood day two
First race of the day struggled to stay in profit, small profit second race and a loss in the third. My winning run broken. But with the shackles off I threw caution to the wind and actually had a pretty reasonable day. It’s been pretty mixed though, but I am doing a better job than last year. I hope to keep that up for the next three days to complete a strong month.
The confusing thing is that I am …
Positive start
I didn’t expect Goodwood to be that easy and it wasn’t. But thanks to my preparation I did get off to a good start on the week. In fact I managed a clean sweep on all the races yesterday. Which meant, after carrying over races from Monday, I am entering today on 43 winning races in a row! While a run like that sounds great, it’s not. It just adds pressure to perform on the next race and you end …
Glorious Goodwood?
Goodwood starts today and I must say that in previous years I’ve often struggled to make this a glorious week. Goodwood does not seem a lucky course for me. Last year I had to work hard to try and get things right and it took me most of the week to get it and by then it was too late. This year I am better prepared so hope to do better.
We also have the Galway summer festival this week. …
Off to the House of Lords
I have been invited to the House of Lords today. I have been to Parliament before, when I was lobbying on an act of Parliament at the committee stage. But I have never been into the depths of the upper house before.
Why? It’s a long story, that I may find time to explain at some point, but it’s to do with a charity. I am looking forward to it. I don’t think pictures are allowed in the upper house …
Government to mop up betting cash
Following a pledge by the UK coalition government, MP Don Foster has been asked to compile a report into abandoned betting accounts estimated to amount to millions of pounds which could be used to improve public sports facilities and clubs in the UK. Basically the government are looking at ways to access dormant cash in betting accounts. This is more or less the same initiative that they have embarked on with savings accounts.
For the full story visit this link:
Just a month left
I don’t want to depress you, but in a months time the summer racing calendar will be shutting down. Most of the major sports events will be out the way and the evenings in the UK will start to pull in.
The days of ample opportunity and get out of jail cards will have been served and your approach will have to shift slightly to adapt to the prevailing winds. It doesn’t mean that opportunity has gone, just changed shape …
Getting stung
I got stung twice on Tuesday. Both incidents were pretty rare but taught me a lesson.
Sting one, we have a wasps nest in the Garden. Despite many attempts to get rid of it, they still persist. We called in the specialists in but that was only a temporary respite. So I took matters into my own hands and had a good poke around in the composter to locate it. Unfortunately the wasps were wise to me and one poke …
Betfair to float in the autumn
I’m told that according to Sky News today, Betfair are to list on the stock market in the Autumn with a target valuation of £1.5bn. That would be a multiple of 40 times last years earnings which is a significant premium to pay. Betfair appeared to dismiss the rumours earlier in the week during their forum chat.
Occam’s razor
In case you are not familiar with this concept here is a link to the Wiki page: –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor
Basically, most things are best explained in simple terms and explanations with much more detailed thought or rationale behind them turn out to be much less effective in explaining or moving forward a concept. I only learnt of Occam’s razor while watching a science documentary one night but it my experience Occam was right. If you can’t explain something works in …
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