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I have owned two pieces of really good software which were getting great results for me & both were ruined by the Authors updating them.
I bought Pro Punter Gold by DGA Software for the Amiga-It was £150 I’m sure & had an impressive ROI in handicaps with over £10000 win prizemoney.
First time I used it was at the 1994 Derby meeting where I doubled up Erhaab & Balachine(derby & Oaks) & both won at 7/2 & 6/1.
It was tedious typing in almost all the stats, names, jockeys ect.
It had a great track record in better class races Nh & Flat, so much so that every bet I put on at my local bookie was given to the manager to peruse before deciding to ok it.I was told I was getting banned if I had any more good lifts from a girl I knew who worked in the shop.
Upgraded to a PC & got that version at a big discount £20 I think-& the results were not as good.
Apparently the workings were changed to incorporate better results in lesser races.Stopped using it as it was plain to see The package had been wasted.
I then heard great things about Profile NH (Aesculus press) and was fronted by Richard Hudson -Editor of Odds On magazine, who did books & finally a software version which was updated by disk or email.Again this was about £150 & £35 per month to update.
This identified traits in a horses form & although you were not to take the top rated blindly-I had 11 winners in a row from it.
After a hugely successful season I was informed the software was being upgraded & paid about £100 to do so.
Almost immediately I noticed the results were shockingly different & phoned Richard Hudson to tell him how disatisfied I was with the "improvements".He actually told me they full thing was going backwards & he regretted doing it.
I asked if I could return to the "original" version-but too much money & changes had occured to let this happen.I stopped the service.
I told Mr Hudson about Pro Punter as well & he said it was well named "Pro Punter Gold" & if I had the original Amiga version to keep it as it was the best on the market-not to bother with later incarnations.
Both these software programs are now off the market-Profile going fairly soon after the changes.
Now these were both operating well in the nineties-Why is there no similiarly good programs in the millenium-not to my knowledge.
Brimardon was taken to court a few times for false claims & I was advised never to buy it.
Please discuss
ThanksI’m not sure exactly what you are looking for, but imo Raceform Interactive is the best out there.
If you are looking for something to make selections for you, or for the holy grail, then I have no idea. (other than that it was found in Alexandretta in ’38 )
No Im not looking for the HG.
There isnt one.
Just the best prediction programs-Ive had them-Why arent there anymore.
Probably there are really good ones about but are not marketed as they make too much money.
The wealth of info nowadays is astonishing compared to 15 years ago.
As I said before-Pro Punter Gold in a demo run by the Racing Post & some Amiga magazine proclaimed it "The best Horse Racing Prediction Program"-bar none.
The mag made £8-9000 when doing a study on £10000+ H’caps to £100 stakes.
David Atherton was the AuthorI think for simple predictor software, Compunter was the daddy in the mid to late nineties. The C module in high-value races did very well and was based on the VDW methods. It also only took about five minutes to do each race and it even advised when to bet.
Sadly the author of the software passed away but if you can get hold of a copy, the C module wasn’t updated each year so would still be useful.
On the subject of Pro Punter Gold, I still have an old Amiga gathering dust in the loft so if anyone has a copy I would be very interested to have a go at it!Pro Punter Gold by DGA Software
.. I used to have this, the memories come flooding back ..
I think there aren’t any of these around anymore because if developers come up with something that works they would make more money backing winners on the exchanges than trying to sell it, to a cynical public.
I had a sub to the software version of Profile. Fond memories of the floppy disk updates in the post each week. It was a great little program, the Profile approach has really caught on over recent years, although a lot of their info is available on the web for free these days.
Pro Punter Gold
I have a copy somewhere for the amiga.I will see if I can find it.
The last time I heard from David Atherton he was working on a new program similiar to PPG.
He thought it would take a year & its now over that period.
Profile was a great program as well & the free downloads from ttp://www.ukracestats.com/downloads.asp show the basics of Profile are not forgotten.Not tried these over the jumps so will now.My take on this is that back in the day (early 80’s) when 8 bit personal computers were first emerging and programming for the general public was in its infancy, most if not all programs were developed by one person in a back bedroom. If the programmer had delusions of grandeur it was three blokes in a garage.
There was a whole shed load of Horse racing programs developed and sold through small black and white adverts in the back of computer magazines.
Sadly the world has moved on and programs are either developed by teams at large corporations, or for entertainment software more akin to film studios.There does not seem much room for the small independent developer.
The big question – Is there a market for horse racing software that is worth pursuing? On an American forum where there is a lively discussion on the development and use of software it is estimated that the market in the USA is 5000. I am not sure if this means you could expect to sell at the most 5000 copies, or whether there are 5000 people that might be interested.
The only current title that I am familiar with (because they keep sending me emails) is RaceXpert. I have never used or seen it and have never seen it discussed on any forum.
For an idea of what is available today try Racing Index and look in the software section. They do not sell it just provide information and links to the various items. Most software today centres around bots, bet placement and staking.
I’m pretty sure things will go around full circle Dolus, you can if the slickest bots and staking software in the world but if you don’t know how to get value then your really just kidding yourself on.
If you want a software package today, I think you would be better off developing some sort of download and analyse package for yourself and have a lot of fun doing it.
Dave – Is there a market in this country for predictive software? Perhaps it is a catch 22 situation. Punters don’t know they want it until they see it, and no one will produce it until Punters want it.
You already mentioned why would anyone want to sell successful software along with the headaches of packaging, advertising, postage, VAT, the Taxman etc, as opposed to picking the bets then going to the pub for the rest of the day.
What form would it take. I can’t imagine people wanting it old school, typing in endless reams of data, though this can be an advantage giving the punter some form of control. When software publishers started providing the data to download that defeated the point of having the software. Getting people to buy the software then downloading the data and everybody getting the same selections, the publishers might just have well sold the selections as tips or in the form of ratings.
The software scene in the USA appears a lot more active. This may be because there are firms that specifically produce race data that can be used in a lot of different software whether bought or self written. It makes writing the software easier as the publishers can make the software as simple or complex as they like knowing that any prospective purchases probably already buy the data, and prospective buyers know they do not need to learn a new regime when buying new software.
As for the DIY approach I have been doing that for years since learning BASIC by typing in listings form ‘Computer & Video Games’ and pulling apart the likes of ‘Coursewinner’, ‘Pro-Punter’ and ‘Formaster’ to see how they work.
I had a discussion with David Atherton a few times & he told me PPG was based on VDW Methodology with stats/trends.
He is trying to re-incarnate it-but I wonder if it will be as his last was-ie-Buying either his tips or a buying from a company who input/analysed all the races.
There was no doubt in its day it was a serious winner finder.
bioBiotechy,
I purchased a program a couple of years ago.
It’s called Formcracker. It’s free to use for 30 days. Then it’s a one off £9.99 I think for the code.
It is a brilliant little program and once you have sussed the best type of races to use it gives very impressive results.
Virtually no typing to do just download the racecards from Ladbrokes.
Highlight then (control copy & paste.)
There is a facility for saving the race results and analysing later which builds into a database.
I found it works just as well without saving.
Also a Greyhound prog as well. Not tride it.
SparkySorry forgot to mention web address.
http://www.rawcomputing.co.ukI run the Racing Ahead monthly mag – when we started we always thought we would have a software section just like the old Odds On mag did but, with a few exceptions, we have barely had any software developers contact us about their wares.
We have reviewed the Boxform software before, and OIAL but that’s about it. We have covered Raceform Interactive etc but it would be great if there was more software out there to talk about. If anyone reading this has produces predictor software get in touch!I have used Racexpert which is a good program but like all expensive software(and it is.) there are so many options to the selection that it is sods law you will pick the wrong one.
I used it for 3 or 4 years but always ended up worse off.
sparky
Biotechy,
I purchased a program a couple of years ago.
It’s called Formcracker. It’s free to use for 30 days. Then it’s a one off £9.99 I think for the code.
It is a brilliant little program and once you have sussed the best type of races to use it gives very impressive results.
Virtually no typing to do just download the racecards from Ladbrokes.
Highlight then (control copy & paste.)
There is a facility for saving the race results and analysing later which builds into a database.
I found it works just as well without saving.
Also a Greyhound prog as well. Not tride it.
SparkySorry forgot to mention web address.
http://www.rawcomputing.co.ukSparky
Meandered over & downloaded it.Gave it a dry run 1 out of 8 & it was 8/13.
Will have a wee check at it-maybe run it over 100 races & see how it fares-more out of curiosity than anything else.I study for hrs sometimes & dont strike a bet for weeks on end.Im very busy just now with work & family so I dont have the time to do it.I have had times where I had very good sequences of winners- but a few consec losers dumb my confidence & appetite for it as a bet could take a few weeks of study then lose.It really pisses me off.Sometimes I would just like to go to the pub with my mates with 4 horses to bet off the TV-for a bit of fun.
Due to the sometimes catastrophic consequences of bad luck over the Jumps through the years I just tend to do the Placepots on AW racing courses now for a bet.Hi gang
let’s produce our own Horse racing software program. Yeah…. i am up for it!
Programming isn’t that difficult
List (my ideas)
===1. it will need a name
2. require NO manual inputs
3. keep us betting sensibly
4. isolate solvable races
5. rely on quality raw/refined data
6. suggest ONLY value for money selections(btw good value is present when reward out weighs the risk involved)
byefrom
carlisleps if it starts to look "promising" i will kill every last one of you
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