Back at BSP then lay in play

[posimmo]

Hello, it's me again

I have a question and I'm sure the answer will be so obvious I'll be ashamed of myself. I back one or more horses in a race at Betfair SP. I then want to lay these horses at lower odds and higher stakes in play using a linked excel sheet. How can I make sure that only the horses I have backed at BSP are laid during the race. I've tried linking the trigger to the Profit and Loss figure but as that changes once lay bets are matched, I end up laying more horses than I want to.

Regards

Pauline

[Captain Sensible]

If you're already backing the horses at bsp via excel any reason why you can use those details to identify which horses need laying? Have you considered using offset triggers where the offset bet in generated from the odds of the opening bet. Otherwise you also have a sheet called MyBets where you can log details of all matched or unmatched bets in the market you could use to decide which horses need closing and for how much.

[posimmo]

Thank you, Captain Sensible.

The thing is though I am not using the excel sheet to place back bets. I just place them manually on selected horses through BA first thing in the morning so no details of my back bets are actually recorded on the excel sheet. I thought, as I said, I could link the trigger lay bet to the profit and loss column which of course shows that bets have been placed previously, but as it alters in running as lay bets are matched, it's not enough.

Regards

Pauline

[Captain Sensible]

Any reason why you don't use excel to place and close the bets, that's usually the easiest option as you'd have the program open on the market t close anyway. Plenty of people use excel for dobbing where they place a bet at BSP then offset in running, there's varius triggers that'll offset at an amount of ticks or percentage to green up at. Some example sheets showing how to set the program up to bet on specific horses here viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3557

If that's not viable then you'd just need to use the MyBets sheet to find specific bets placed on the runners and use that to offset any BSP bets, you'd probably need to use VBA or complicated formulas to do that though so if you're too clued up with excel the first option is the easiest.

[posimmo]

Thank you, Captain Sensible

I see what you mean but, just to make the situation clearer, the lay bets I want to be placed are placed immediately the back bet at BSP is placed. So, in effect, I don't want any more bets of any kind placed after that. Is there a way I can stop the excel sheet doing anything, say one second after the race has started because all the bets I want placed will have been done by then.

Regards, and thanks

Pauline

[Captain Sensible]

Thank you, Captain Sensible

I see what you mean but, just to make the situation clearer, the lay bets I want to be placed are placed immediately the back bet at BSP is placed.

Do you mean when the BSP bet is matched rather than placed? Or do you know what odds you want to placed the lay bets at regardless of what price the BSP returns. If there's no connection between the lay odds and back odds you might be better off setting up custom columns to place your bets

[Captain Sensible]

Is there a way I can stop the excel sheet doing anything, say one second after the race has started because all the bets I want placed will have been done by then.

Once a bet reference is in the the excel column no further bets will be placed on that selection until the reference is removed, if you want to stop all bets you'd just need to put some criteria into your trigger. Lots of people just use a sum of the bet reference column, if that contains entries then no bets are placed. Otherwise using VBA to fire your triggers gives you much more control, it all depends how clued up you are with excel as which way to use.

[posimmo]

Thanks for your patience, Captain Sensible, but I fear we may be talking at cross purposes because I've not made clear what it is I want.

Here is a likely sequence of events:

At any time, I place two back bets in the normal way on two horses in one race, these bets to be placed at BSP.

At the off these two back bets are matched at BSP. Important here to note that they are not placed through Excel so no bet reference is on the Spreadsheet.

Because they are matched at BSP there is a potential profit showing in column X for these two horses. This figure triggers two lay bets at 50%, say, of the BSP odds showing in column Y. This all happens within a second of the off.

If the lay bets are matched later in the race, all the other runners then show a profit in column X and so further lay bets are triggered on the other horses not the ones I have originally backed and laid.

I want a way to tell Excel that its work is done after one second after the off.

Hope that makes sense.

Regards

Pauline

[Captain Sensible]

Is there a way I can stop the excel sheet doing anything, say one second after the race has started because all the bets I want placed will have been done by then.

Once a bet reference is in the the excel column no further bets will be placed on that selection until the reference is removed, if you want to stop all bets you'd just need to put some criteria into your trigger. Lots of people just use a sum of the bet reference column, if that contains entries then no bets are placed. Otherwise using VBA to fire your triggers gives you much more control, it all depends how clued up you are with excel as which way to use.

If you only want to place one set of bets just add another condition to your current trigger to count the blank columns in the bet reference column T

A formula like COUNTA(T5:T100) counts the blank columns, when no bets are placed that will equal 0, as soon as any bets have been placed that will count however many you've placed and no longer be 0, so all you need to do is include it in your current trigger with an AND statement like so

Say your current trigger is

=IF(X5>0,"BET","DON'T BET")

You'd change it to include the COUNTA(T5:T100) formula so it only bets once and COUNTA(T5:T100)=0 i.e. no bets have been placed.

=IF(AND(X5>0,COUNTA(T5:T100)=0),"BET","DON'T BET")

[posimmo]

Thank you, Captain Sensible

It is clear that you did understand the issue, I just didn't understand that you understood it, because I had never heard of the COUNTA function. It is a really elegant way to solve the problem and I thank you sincerely for this.

Regards

Pauline