Betfair Data Feeds

[mickjohnson]

One of my customers asked about getting a Betfair feed. He wanted to automate his betting strategy. I advised him not to bother as the data is either well out of date or incorrect.
I`ll explain why.
It is something I wanted to do myself. I know a couple of companies that get a feed for the results and odds before and after the off. These are transmitted every few minutes so cannot give any useful, accurate figures. A regular snapshot is not good enough. I bet manually at Betfair and ALWAYS get better odds than these companies show. I tried to get a feed myself but Betfair wouldn`t sell me one!
I’ve sat at the races watching a race live, and watched the Betfair odds move before the off and whilst running in. I was trying to spot any movement in the odds that might indicate `a good bet` or any other finishing position information.
A good example was yesterday. I was watching Hill Fort at the 16:50 at Brighton. Before the off, it was at the favourite end of the betting. Running in, was bouncing about as favourite. It weakend in the last furlong. At the same time the Betfair odds shortened rapidly. The odds looked like he was romping home, far ahead of the rest of the field. Hill Fort came 7th by about 25 lengths at 4/1.
It looked like, either somebody, who couldn’t see the race, thought it was a going to be a late finisher and bet heavily, not knowing it had already eased off.
I`ve managed to ‘screen scrape’ their screens. I can`t watch the races and click `refresh` at the same time. It took some nifty programming as you cannot just save the html file locally. Their screens lock well before the final run in and well before the `Suspended` screen arrives. Sometimes, the Sporting Life web site shows the results before Betfair officially suspend betting. Something seems not quite right.

[chestnut]

Sorry I am not sure about Data Feeds, far too technical for me.

But to pick up on your point of watching the race live and comparing this to the Betfair odds. I have always been intrigued by people who do this, especially those who do this from a private box at the racecourse.

Regarding Hill Fort yesterday, the shortening of the price when he clearly was not going to win is this a common occurrence?

[mickjohnson]

Many years ago, there was a scam in Australian races where the delay in getting the results back to the UK bookies meant that UK punters could get a bet on a race when they new the result, if they had a phonecall from a friend in Oz before the bookies did.
With the internet, the timings are tighter, but the same method applies.
If you can watch a race at the course and get a bet on via the web during the run in, before the bookie closes bets, you have a better chance of winning. The odds will be shorter and shorter still the longer you leave it.
Obviously the exchanges know it too. I would guess that they freeze the bets before they officially say they do, to protect themselves. It is not beyond belief for them to falsely shorten odds rapidly on a horse that is not going to win, to catch running in bettors. You can see the amount of money that is bet very close to the finish.
All it needs is an employee at each meeting to push one of a couple of buttons on an app on his mobile.
The freezing the bets before they officially say they do happens on every race. The other, two or three times each meetings that I have spotted, but I only go to the meetings in my local area.

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