Laying at half sp

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Laying at half sp

Postby jayalexander » Sun Nov 28, 2010 2:09 am

Would this program allow me to lay at half the starting price, the evening before the race?

If so, would someone please give me step-by-step instructions as I'm just getting to grips with this piece of kit!

I will be eternally grateful.
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Postby GaryRussell » Sun Nov 28, 2010 9:34 am

Sorry it is impossible to place the bet the day before. By definition the starting price is not known until after the start of the race.

The only way it could be done is to monitor the SP using Excel and trigger the bet at half the price. You will need to leave the program running to monitor the race until after the start to do this. See the user guide here for information on the Excel triggered betting feature.
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Postby jayalexander » Sun Nov 28, 2010 10:32 am

Ok thanks for your reply. I did wonder if excel would be the only way to do this, but thanks all the same. I will take a look at the user guide.
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Postby jayalexander » Tue Nov 30, 2010 10:42 pm

I have never used Excel as a trigger, so would it mean ensuring that 'tick offset' is checked, along with 'Tick = %' on Bet Assistant and then having the correct trigger on the workbook?

If I can get this working then you'll have one more subscriber :D
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Postby GaryRussell » Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:51 am

jayalexander wrote:I have never used Excel as a trigger, so would it mean ensuring that 'tick offset' is checked, along with 'Tick = %' on Bet Assistant and then having the correct trigger on the workbook?

If I can get this working then you'll have one more subscriber :D


The tick offset options you refer to are for manual betting, they have no impact on triggers. You have to use the appropriate trigger modifier to specify tick offset. For example to place a back bet at SP then lay at 50% odds you would use BACK-P50-SP. In the odds column you should use odds that will not get matched to ensure it is converted to an SP bet at the off so I recommend using 990.
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Postby jayalexander » Wed Dec 01, 2010 8:36 pm

Ok thanks for your technical assistance.

Just so I can be sure, however, using this trigger will not initiate a back and lay bet, as I only want to lay?

Once again, many thanks.
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Postby GaryRussell » Wed Dec 01, 2010 8:54 pm

jayalexander wrote:Ok thanks for your technical assistance.

Just so I can be sure, however, using this trigger will not initiate a back and lay bet, as I only want to lay?

Once again, many thanks.


It's not suitable if you just want to lay. There isn't a specific trigger to just lay at half SP, that's not what tick offset is designed for.

If you want to just lay at half SP then you will need to monitor the market until it turns in play (cell E2="In Play"), calculate half the SP and then fire the LAY trigger.

The SP can be output if you select it from "Additional columns" when setting up the Excel link. Additional columns are output starting at column Y so if SP is the only additional column selected it will be output to column Y.

The actual SP is calculated by Betfair just after the market turns in play so I recommend you record the contents of column Y about two seconds after E2="In Play". You will have to use VBA to do this. Before the actual off the SP column only contains the forecast SP.

I'm sorry, it's not any simpler. It would be if BA provided a specific trigger for this, but it does not.
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Postby jayalexander » Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:11 pm

That all sounds a bit too advanced for me with my limited Excel knowledge.

Would it be simpler to back a selection at sp (with £5, for instance) then lay it in running when it hits half sp with £10?

If not, it looks like I'll have to start learning!

Cheers
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Postby GaryRussell » Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:28 pm

After further thought, VBA is not necessary.

1. Select "SP" from Additional Columns when setting up Excel link.

2. Insert the following formula into cell T1.
=IF(LEFT(D2)<>"-",(HOUR(D2)*3600)+(MINUTE(D2)*60)+SECOND(D2),-((HOUR(SUBSTITUTE(D2,"-",""))*3600)+(MINUTE(SUBSTITUTE(D2,"-",""))*60)+SECOND(SUBSTITUTE(D2,"-",""))))

3. Insert the following formula into cell R5.
=((Y5-1)/2)+1 (This is for the first runner)

4. Insert the following formula into cell Q5. =if($T$1<=-2,"LAY,"")
(This is for the first runner. You would put this formula into Q6 for the second runner.)
Last edited by GaryRussell on Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby GaryRussell » Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:30 pm

Sorry, if it sounds too advanced, but this is the best BA has to offer at the moment. If it's too complicated BA may not be the best solution for you.
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Postby jayalexander » Thu Dec 02, 2010 12:02 am

Haha, no that wasn't complicated at all. Thank you very much, sir!

Now all that would be left for me to do is enter a stake, and hey presto, the selection will be layed if it reaches half sp in running?


Thanks for taking the time out to assist me.
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Postby GaryRussell » Thu Dec 02, 2010 9:07 am

Sorry my brain was not in gear yesterday. My solution would place the lay bet 2 seconds after the scheduled start of the race, not the actual start of the race which it needs to be to get the actual SP.

Instead of using the formula I provided in T1 you will need a small amount of VBA to monitor cell [E2] for "In Play" and then insert the elapsed seconds in cell T1.

1. Press alt-f11 to display the code editor.
2. Double click Sheet1 under VBAProject to the left of the code editor.
3. Paste the following code into the editor.
Code: Select all
Option Explicit

Dim inPlayTime As Date
Dim turnedInPlay As Boolean

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
    If Target.Columns.Count = 16 then
       Application.EnableEvents = False
       If [E2] = "In Play" Then
           If Not turnedInPlay Then
               turnedInPlay = True
               inPlayTime = Now
           End If
           [T1] = DateDiff("s", inPlayTime, Now)
       Else
           turnedInPlay = False
           [T1] = 0
       End If
       Application.EnableEvents = True
    End If
End Sub

4. The trigger should now be =if($T$1>=2,"LAY,"")

Yes, just enter your required stake in column S. I recommend using a small stake at first like £0.10 to test it.
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Postby jayalexander » Thu Dec 02, 2010 1:51 pm

I'll give that a try cheers. Can I lay with such a small stake then?
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Postby GaryRussell » Thu Dec 02, 2010 4:30 pm

jayalexander wrote:I'll give that a try cheers. Can I lay with such a small stake then?

Yes, BA "cheats" to get the bet on by laying at 1.01, updating the stake which creates a 2nd bet, cancelling the first bet then changing the odds of the remaining bet to your required odds. Betfair tolerare this, but if you bet exclusively like this they would warn you. It's definitely ok to do this occasionally when trying out a feature.
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Postby jayalexander » Thu Dec 02, 2010 11:47 pm

Fantastic stuff! I will test it on Saturday when I can be here to monitor proceedings :D

If it does the job, you have a new happy subscriber!
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