Betfair In-Play data

[doris_day]

I've been analysing the Betfair in-play data they give out to Timeform and other 3rd party data providers like Proform and can say that not only is it meaningless, its actually misleading.

Some of it isnt in-play at all and because they don't have a reasonable filter for the amount matched (anything matched will do, even £1) they're often quoting very low in-play prices when in reality the 'real' price should be much higher.

You just need to look at the Traded and Available table after each race to see what I mean. I think they need to implement a reasonable minimum amount matched filter, like £100 or so to come up with a more accurate low in-play price.

I'd encourage everyone to contact Betfair to outline their concerns otherwise we'll continually be fed this misleading data.

Your opinions would be interesting.

[Tradyann]

Hi,

Sorry for my english... i don't know if I have well understand :

why don't you extract yourself this data (low prices) with a filter in access ?

[doris_day]

I do and that's why I think the Betfair data they show in Timeform and other places gives people misleading low/high in-running prices.

[Tradyann]

Ah ok, I haven't understood that you speak about timeform's data

[KevinTHFC]

I thought that the lowest price traded on Timeform was the lowest price that had at least £100 matched, is this not the case?

[doris_day]

I've emailed Timeform to clarify, but Proform use £2 as the minimum and so does The Sportsbook.

[doris_day]

Proform have read this thread and appear to be unimpressed by it for some reason. Here is my reply to them.

"What's important to me (and should be to you too) is that the data I use is accurate and relevant.
Proform is a great piece of kit but if I have a valid opinion that it can be improved I'm happy to debate it.
If you notice , I've asked for other's opinions on my statement and if the general feeling is that I'm wrong then so be it.
Debate should always be encouraged. I may have strong opinions but I'm never fixed and will always accept good, logical argument and change my conclusions in the face of them. In this case I dont see a case for a £2 minimum but I'm happy to be persuaded by logic."

If anyone feels a £2 minimum volume filter for in-running low/high prices is justified then give me the argument. I'm quite happy to change my mind.

[doris_day]

From Timeform:
"Thank you for your enquiry.

The prices refer to bets with a payout of more than 100 GBP."

Well that's a bit better...hopefully Proform will follow suit

[Captain Sensible]

I'm not too sure why you think it's misleading as amounts are being matched at those prices and referring to "prices with a payout of 100GBP " isn't any better than having a £2 minimum displayed, in fact it's worse over 50/1 which is where the majority of the 'amazing' prices are matched.

At the end of the day betfair only release those price data for promo purposes it's all down to how people like Proform and Timeform as to what format they display it and whether that's actually useful.

I'd imagine anyone using the data for their own betting would be using the data.betfair.com and promo.betfair.com/betfairsp/prices/ data files and filtering things to their own needs. I'm quite happy for timeform and proform to display these amazing prices if it manages to bring in more mugs punters looking for them.

[doris_day]

You're exactly right about that and that's why you're 'Sensible'

[NorthView]

The download page promo.betfair.com/betfairsp/prices from today produces a page error which I've reported to Betfair (twice).

Strange coincidence.