BA / BF response time

[alrodopial]

Hi,
A bit of help needed here, probably from Garry / Mark

I set today the refresh rate to 0,2 secs and I had actual refresh rates of around 300ms.Ok is my connection etc , no problem so far.
I set excel to record line 5 ( where fav’s data is) at every refresh and during the recording I manually entered a back bet of 2 euros at this fav (using a macro).
I did this many times in the same race and in different markets (horse racing – in play).
Here is an example or the times that every step took place (I used the timer in VB – the numbers are secs):

A. 50747.546 - when the trigger bet was placed with the macro in range Q5:S5
B. 50747.593 - next refresh in excel (here BA gets my request for the bet?)
C. 50748.906 - next refresh in excel – here the bet ref has been placed from BA/BF – I know now that my bet is matched.

At this point in BA it says that the response time was 344ms.


My questions:
1.- I assume that BA sends my bet request at point B. I assume that BF sends it’s response that my bet is matched etc after 344ms of this point (344ms from point B).
Am I right?
2.- If this is the case why do I get these data (bet ref etc) after 1.4secs? (the difference between point C and B).

I did it many times and the more I got was 2.5 secs (pointC – pointB).This was when the actual refresh rate was around 500-600 ms (at this point BA was reporting 550ms response time).
The smaller I got was little above 1 sec.

I don’t know if between these two points BA was refreshing regularly (and simply didn’t send the data into excel).Without been sure I have the feeling it wasn’t been refreshing.

The sheet does not contain any formulas so no calculations are made within excel.
I had the calculations at the manual at some point.

Garry / Mark do you know what’s going on? These data is essential some times (if bet is really matched, partially matched etc) and must be available the quicker as possible.

One last thing:
For these 344ms in the example, is it safe to assume that the bet needed the half of this time (approximately) to reach BF servers , then lets say BF proceed it instantly (or very little time) and then the other half time (approximately) was spend to the way back to BA?

Thanks

[GaryRussell]

As soon as the bet response is received from Betfair columns T to W are populated with the reference, time, matched stake and odds. If you change your code to check for Target.Columns.Count=4 in the Worksheet_Change event after the trigger column has been populated you will see the time difference is similar to the response time displayed in Betting Assistant.

For these 344ms in the example, is it safe to assume that the bet needed the half of this time (approximately) to reach BF servers , then lets say BF proceed it instantly (or very little time) and then the other half time (approximately) was spend to the way back to BA?

I would say this is more or less correct. I'm no networking expert so someone please feel free to correct me.

[alrodopial]

As soon as the bet response is received from Betfair columns T to W are populated with the reference, time, matched stake and odds. If you change your code to check for Target.Columns.Count=4 in the Worksheet_Change event after the trigger column has been populated you will see the time difference is similar to the response time displayed in Betting Assistant.

For these 344ms in the example, is it safe to assume that the bet needed the half of this time (approximately) to reach BF servers , then lets say BF proceed it instantly (or very little time) and then the other half time (approximately) was spend to the way back to BA?

I would say this is more or less correct. I'm no networking expert so someone please feel free to correct me.

Thanks Garry , I'll check it and I'll post more info / questions.
I remember that you posted somewere long time ago all the refreshes BA makes. 16 columns for the odds , 4 columns for the bet status etc.
There were 3 or 4 updates, I don't remember correctly. Can you clarify it again?
Thanks

[GaryRussell]

I'll put something in the faq section. I just need to go through it again as it may be different from the last time I listed all the steps.

[alrodopial]

Here we go again.
I did what I say in my first post again and my findings:

with actual refresh rate of 200ms or lower when you place a bet you recieve the bet reference at the time BA says (344ms in the example - columns 4) but the actual refresh time of odds (columns 16) becomes now more that 0.7 secs - usually around 1 sec (or more). This hapens ALL the times after placing a bet. Points B and C in my first post (between these two points BA puts the bet ref).
Horse racing, before the off.
So I have an instant increase at my actual refresh period.

The strange thing :
At the same time a second instance of BA with the same market and same refresh rate (actual refreshes of 200ms or lower too) logs the refresh times (as the first instance of BA does) but in a second workbook.
At this case the actual rate remains the same and is not afected by the 'placed bet' from the other instance of BA. Thats why I think something 'wrong' is going on.
The throtle is at 20 at both instances.

If instead of two BA I use two tabs in the same BA and log the same market etc. at the time of bet there is a delay at the second tad but not as great as the delay of the first tab. It looks that there is also a 'problem' but smaller.

Garry / Mark can you look at it and report?
Thanks

[GaryRussell]

This is by design. After a bet is triggered BA refreshes the bets manager so that on the next refresh it can be sure the bets are up to date. It waits for this request to complete before allowing another refresh.

[GaryRussell]

We have plans to reorganise the code to avoid making the extra request to update the bets manager to increase the apparent responsiveness of the application when placing bets manually. When this has been done it will also make this extra request after an Excel triggered bet unecessary. It will be a few weeks before I can start work on this.

[alrodopial]

This is by design. After a bet is triggered BA refreshes the bets manager so that on the next refresh it can be sure the bets are up to date. It waits for this request to complete before allowing another refresh.

If i understand it correctly, is it possible (in a next release) that BA keeps updating the odds but if a bet has been placed and the bet ref has not been recieved it will discard this odds update.If at some point the bet ref has been recieved it will not have to send a new request for odds update at this point because there will be allready an odds request just before the moment bet ref has come.You gain few ms this way.
Hope I was clear.
Thanks