Betfair Data Analyzer is a simple application I have built to test some new ideas for user interface design.

The bfexplorer tool: What if scenario will help you plan your entry points, and realize what your new bet position will be.

In this video I will show you how to run/start a betfair bot using Bfexplorer PRO.

My video shows a layout of Bfexplorer PRO windows/views, I use for trading on betfair tennis markets. I opened for monitoring 5 tennis Match Odds markets and added favourites to the Watched Selections window so I could watch price movements for these favourites traded on betfair.

To open markets for monitoring I could use Betfair In-Play Planner (Tools/Betfair Sites/ Betfair In-Play Planner), but for tennis matches I prefer to use tool: Betfair Coupons - Tennis (Tools/My Bfexplorer Extensions/ Betfair Coupons - Tennis ).

In my video you can see other tools as well, Close All Positions to monitor profit on all my opened bet positions and Market Bot Executor I used to show bot parameters on running bot.

To start a bot you need to instruct bfexplorer which bot your want to execute and on what market selection. To do so you must select a market selection and a bot in the Bot Executor. If you made your selections, you can start your bot by clicking on the Market menu item Start Bot, or by using toolbar buttons Start Bot. You can find such buttons on the main toolbar and in the Bot executor toolbar.

Later in my video you can see how to stop a running bot using Market menu, context menus on the Start Page or Market window, toolbar buttons on the main toolbar, and Bot executor toolbar, and finally on the Trade the selection (ladder) view toolbar.

If you set the parameter Auto Start then you can start selected bot on a market selection by clicking on the selection ladder. In such case your bot takes following parameters from the ladder: bet type, odds, stake, stake is my liability.

A bot is simply an automated way to do something you would do manually. It has several advantages we wish to exploit, and if anything we do negates one of these advantages we must reconsider whether it's suitable for a bot to be doing it.

1. Speed is of the essence. A bot can obviously act and react much faster than a human. Because of how the APIs work a bot can monitor many markets simultaneously and strike/cancel bets much faster than any human. This has obvious advantages as the earliest mover in a market to make the right decision typically will make the most money.
2. It will behave consistently according to design. We have all found systems, techniques and tricks that appear to be profitable. Those with strong discipline might even be able to stick to them. For the rest of us though, there is always a desire to have a quick punt or to break our system based on a hunch. It makes the statistical analysis of what we're doing borderline ridiculous. That's when losses occur. Bots will do what they're programmed to do, and only what they're programmed to do.
3. They free you up to do other things. Back in 2002 when I was first trading I was spending 10-12 hours/day at screen. It was demoralising and boring work grinding out a meagre existence. I would have rather spent my days enjoying watching the sport without needing to keep an exchange screen open constantly, or doing something entirely different instead. A bot can - and probably should - work completely unaccompanied and perhaps running on a server in a data centre so I don't even need my computer to be turned on if necessary. It should be able to work on markets whilst I am enjoying the fruits of its labour.
4. The nature of building a bot forces you to be more systematic and analytical. Rather than going with "it's a hunch" style of betting/trading, you must justify every line of code. Even better, following industry standard programming methods, a bot can be "iteratively" developed, that is to say tweaked and enhanced bit by bit based on data and results. This requires us to go back and revisit our assumptions regularly, and make new ones. It's a healthier way to think about what we're doing here.

So we want speed, consistency, complete automation and iterative development based on systematic and analytical thought processes. What could be easier?

The first idea for a bot I am going to test is one I expect to fail at the analysis stage (which is good! If it's going to fail, that's the point in time I want for it to fail, not after the bot is built and running out onto the exchanges with hard cash), but will be relatively simple to implement and therefore a good "starting project" for this blog. It is very simple to state:

Find non-handicap UK/IRE horse races which will go in-play, and back the favourite for 5% of my betting bank in the place market 5-10 minutes before the official off. Then lay it at a price giving a 10% RoI greened up with the "keep in play" option on the bet selected.

It's a very naive system based on the assumption that favourites in non-handicaps are priced fairly, and I currently have no evidence of it being profitable. Each component needs to be tested and verified before I build any code. I'm happy to modify my thoughts based on the results I get back, and I have plenty of other ideas for bots if this one doesn't stand up to analysis: the purpose of this idea is primarily to go through the analysis stages.

Having my own "bot" I decided to extend the bot: TriggerBotByMarketNameLookUpBot that can be found in BfexplorerCommunity Bots group under the name: Trigger a bot by name

I created this bot couple weeks ago and its main use was to execute a bot strategy on horse racing markets where you can exclude or include markets by race type and/or distance. I added a new parameter (AssociatedMarket) so a bot execution is made on associated market, in this case on the To Be Placed market.

To execute Paul's strategy I created a bot setting for trading bot Place bet and close position setting parameters: BetType Back, PlaceBetInAllowedOddsRange True, AllowPlacingBetInPlay True, AtInPlayKeepBet True, ExecuteOnSelection 1, Stake 5, StakeIsPercentageOfMybank True, ClosePositionImmediatly True, HedgingEnabled True, Loss 0, Profit 10, ProfitLossType Percentage.

Because the bot must be executed on the firts favourite I set the market criteria parameter Sort selections by Probability to win, and ExecuteOnSelection 1.

This is the universal bot setting for trading on favourite, with no stop loss target and opening stake as a percentage of available bank. You can execute this bot on any betfair in-play market. I named this trading bot:

• Trade backing on favourite, 5% bank, 10% profit

To execute this trading bot on non handicap to be placed market I created second bot setting using the bot Trigger a bot by market setting parameters: BotToExecute Trade backing on favourite, 5% bank, 10% profit, AssociatedMarket To Be Placed, Exclude Hcap. I named this bot setting:

• To be placed, non-hcap, Trade backing on favourite, 5% bank, 10% profit

This bot must be executed on win market because only this horse racing market has information whether the race is handicap or not. There is no such information in betfair api data for To Be Placed market therefore I need this bot with parameter AssociatedMarket.

In my video I tested the bot on handicap and non handicap race, and you can see that all works fine, the trading bot was executed on non handicap to be placed market only, and the trading bot was executed on the first favourite at the moment.

Later in my vide I showed how to use the tool: Trade opportunity lookup, to execute Paul's trading strategy on all today's UK horse racing markets, setting the time for bot execution to 2 minutes before race off, the parameter Start monitoring -120 (seconds).

2. You can trade at betfair, or betdaq.

3. You can trade anywhere and anytime using Bfexplorer for Windows Mobile.

4. You can create your automated betting or trading solution just by setting bot parameters.

5. If you are familiar with programming in C# or Visual Basic, you can create custom bot script or bespoke solution directly integrated into the Bfexplorer PRO so utilizing all features the Bfexplorer PRO offers.

For instance if you want to create betfair trading bot that would close bet position in profit by hedging when 2 ticks profit is reached, and close position in 3 ticks loss by NET stake, then you can use following bots: Place bet, Close position, Wait for profit or loss on selection, If profit then else, and Chain execution on selection.

To create this custom betfair trading bot I started with the bot: Close position. Close position bot as the name suggests, closes bet position by hedging or by NET stake, at preset profit or loss targets. This bot closes bet position at preset time as well, and I used this feature setting parameters ClosePositionOnTime to -23:00:00 and ClosePositionOnTimeEnabled to True. So I set the time to 23 hours before official event start time, as we trade just couple minutes before race off, this setting effectively closes bet position at current odds when bot is executed.

I prepared two bot settings:

• Close position by hedging (HedgingEnable True)
• Close position by NET stake (HedgingEnable False)

To place the opening back bet I used the bot Place bet, offering my bet at better odds (PlaceBetOnBetterOdds True). I named this bot setting:

• Back 10 Euro on better odds

I want to create a trading bot, and this bot will be created by using Chain execution on selection bot. Therefore I will need a bot which will trigger a bot to close bet position. In this case a bot which will wait for my profit or loss target, because Chain execution bot executes a next bot in the chain only when the previous one is stopped.

I used the bot Wait for profit or loss on selection and named my bot setting:

• Wait for 2 ticks profit or 3 ticks loss

To close bet position either by hedging or NET stake depending on current profit I used the bot: If profit then else. I named my bot setting:

• Close position by hedging or by NET stake

That is the last bot setting I need for my trading bot, and in my bot scenario I have got:

• Back 10 Euro on better odds
• Wait for 2 ticks profit or 3 ticks loss
• Close position by hedging or by NET stake

To execute these bots in chain I used the bot Chain execution on selection. I named my bot setting:

• My trading bot, 2 ticks backing or 3 ticks loss

And this is the bot I will use. Later in my video you can see how I tested this bot in a profit and in a loss scenario. When testing loss scenario the bot was not closing bet position, because I forgot to set the parameter: ClosePositionOnTimeEnabled to True, so the bot was waiting for profit or loss target, but as I set them to 0, so was waiting for 0 loss bet position to close.

In Chain execution bot I did not set the parameter: SetDataEnabled to true. If you set this parameter, and in Bot Executor you set Auto Start, then you will be able to execute your bot by clicking on ladder. In such case your bot will take BetType, Odds, Stake and StakeIsMyLiability from the ladder setting, so even if I set my trading bot to place back bet as the opening bet, if you would click on the lay column on the ladder the bot would start Lay/Back trading session.

To execute my trading I will use the bot: Place bet and close position. This bot offers a lot of parameters for setting its behavior when the bot opens its bet position and closing it.

When you open Bot Criteria Editor and select the bot you want to configure, Bot Criteria Editor offers default parameters for each bot, so all you have to do is name your bot criteria and click on OK button to save them. In my case I left most of parameters with default settings, and set the following parameters: BetType Back, PlaceBetInAllowedOddsRange True, AllowPlacingBetInPlay True, PlaceBetOnBetterOdds True, Stake 100, ClosePositionImmediatly True, HedgingEnabled true, Loss 3, Profit 2, ProfitLossType Ticks.

To test the bot setting I switched Bfexplorer PRO into the training mode and I used the tool: Debug my bot, to simulate different market price conditions. In this case I moved market prices up and down to show you how bot reacts when chasing odds in allowed odds range (PlaceBetInAllowedOddsRange True, PlaceBetOnBetterOdds True).

To simulate my bet matching I set the last price matched to 200 Euro at odds 3.65 and clicked on Last Price Matched button, and because my opening back bet was currently offered at 3.65 and the last price matched was bigger than my bet stake100 Euro, my bet was matched and you could see that my trading bot reacted on this by placing hedge lay bet in 2 ticks profit (ClosePositionImmediatly True, HedgingEnabled true, Profit 2, ProfitLossType Ticks). You maybe wonder why I had to click on Debug My Bot buttons to force the bot reactions. Well it is because any bfexplorer bot is executed only when market prices, or status changes, and of course bet status changes.

You can test your bot in the trading mode on the real market price updates, so when bfexplorer actively monitors your market. You can do your test with real money using small stakes as well, but I would suggest to test any betting or trading strategy using bfexplorer bots in the training mode.

• Betfair Bot SDK for Bfexplorer PRO2 
• How to program betfair bots

And read this article to learn what you can develop using Bfexplorer BOT SDK: Bfexplorer BOT SDK and what betfair bots you can program in C# or Visual Basic

My preferred programming language is C# so my bot examples are in C#, but you can use any .NET programming language for your betfair bot development. Visual Studio directly supports C++, C#, F# and Visual Basic, and support for other languages such as M, Python, and Ruby among others is available via language services installed separately. I assume that readers of this article have at least base understanding of OOP.

To understand what you can do and how by using Bfexplorer BOT SDK, you must first understand what it is a betfair bot in Bfexplorer PRO2 context. Most betfairians would say that bfexplorer is a bot. Well that is not quite the truth.

If you want to build your betting or trading strategy from scratch then first you must learn how to use betfair api and build your own interface for interaction with it. Create some kind of market monitoring system, because you would like to monitor more markets, not just one. Create a base user interface for showing market data, bets, and so.

Using Bfexplorer BOT SDK to develop your betfair bot you implement just bot logic. Bfexplorer BOT SDK allows to develop two types of bots: IBot and ILookUpBot. The first one, IBot is able to run on a market. The second one, ILookUpBot is used by tool: Trade opportunity lookup. The bot interfaces say more.

public interface ILookUpBot
{
    string Name { get; set; }

    bool DoYourJob(MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket);
}

public interface IBot
{
    DateTime LastTimeExecuted { get; }
    MonitoredMarket MonitoredMarket { get; }
    string Name { get; set; }

    void DoMyBetsUpdate(MonitoredMarketStatus monitoredMarketStatus, 
       BetTaskType betTaskType, long betOperationId);

    bool DoYourJob();
}

The above interfaces are implemented by set of classes from which should be derived your own bot classes. In the BOT SDK you can find following bot classes: Bot, MarketBot, RunnerBot, MyMarketBot, MyRunnerBot and LookUpBot. The Bot class implements:

public abstract class Bot : IBot
{
  protected const int MaxTimeToMatchBetInSeconds = 15;
  protected const int MaxTimeToPlaceBetInSeconds = 60;

  protected IBetfairService betfairService;
  protected BetStakeCalculation betStakeCalculation;
  protected bool betStateConfirmed;
  protected bool? haveMatchedBets;
  protected bool? haveUnmatchedBets;
  protected DateTime? lastTimeBetOperation;
  protected DateTime lastTimeExecuted;
  protected MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket;
  protected bool stopLossActive;
  protected TradingState tradingState;
  protected bool updatingActive;

  public Bot(IBetfairService betfairService, MonitoredMarket monitoredMarket);

  public BetPrice BackBetPrice { get; }
  public DateTime LastTimeExecuted { get; }
  public BetPrice LayBetPrice { get; }
  public MonitoredMarket MonitoredMarket { get; }
  public string Name { get; set; }

  public abstract bool DoYourJob();
  public virtual void DoMyBetsUpdate(MonitoredMarketStatus monitoredMarketStatus, 
              BetTaskType betTaskType, long betOperationId);

  protected bool CancelAll();
  protected void CancelBets(List betsToCancel);
  protected void CancelBetsAndPlaceBet(Runner runner, 
              BetType type, double odds, double stake, bool atInPlayKeepBet = false);

  protected void PlaceBet(Runner runner, 
              BetType type, double odds, double stake, bool atInPlayKeepBet = false);
  protected void PlaceBets(IList bets, bool atInPlayKeepBet = false);

  protected void UpdateBet(UpdateBet betToUpdate);
  protected void UpdateBets(List betsToUpdate);

  protected virtual bool ConfirmBotState(BetTaskType betTaskType, long betOperationId);  
  protected virtual void DoMyBetsUpdateUnmatched();

  protected abstract void DoSetBetPosition();
  protected abstract long GetBetOperationId();
  protected abstract bool GetHaveMatchedBets();
  protected abstract bool GetHaveUnmatchedBets();

  protected bool GetIsSafeToOperate();
  protected abstract List GetUnmatchedBets();
  protected void CheckBotStatus();
  protected void SetUnknownBetState();
  protected void ShowMessage(string message);
}

You can use Object Browser and browse publicly available classes for BeloSoft.BetfairService assembly in the namespace: BeloSoft.Betfair.Trading to see what other bot classes are implemented.

In the BOT SDK project you can see source code for more bots, have a look at for instance the class: PlaceBetForRequiredProfitBot to understand how you should implement your bot when you want to place a bet and manage it till the bet is fully matched.

In this project you can see how you can build a bot assembly that can be loaded by Bot Executor, and simple bot scripts, have a look at namespace: Bfexplorer.Scripting

Here you can see what is difference between RunnerBot or MyRunnerBot, and MarketBot and MyMarketBot. Simply said when you need to write some very simple bots that you do not want to add to the bot assembly list then use MyRunnerBot or MyMarketBot.

Have a look on this screenshot to understand what I mean by bot assembly:

The project bots from the namespace: BeloSoft.BfexplorerCommunityBotExecutor.Trading are listed in the Bot Criteria Editor, have a look on the interface IBotExecutor, to learn how it is done.

If you want to build your betting or trading strategy with an user interface (Bfexplorer PRO plugin) then you have to implement IBfexplorerPlugin or IBfexplorerPlugin2 interface for your UI.

On the screenshot below (click on it to zoom it), you can see the source code for football betting strategy, on the right side of the screenshot there is Bfexplorer PRO2 running this betting strategy, so you can see how your UI could look like.

In the source code you can see that I build Bet365DataProviderService, to get live data (match score and time, and market odds) from bet365 website.

The betting solution uses MyFootballSolutionTradeOpportunityLookupService to browse football match odds markets from betfair.

To execute this betting strategy I created MyBotLookUp to start bet placing at preset critria, this LookUpBot is executed by MyFootballSolutionTradeOpportunityLookupService. Because the betting strategy required decision making depending on current match score and odds offered by bet365 I created another action bot (MarketBot) MyBotStarterMarketBot, and finally the bot for bet placing: (RunnerBot) PlaceLayBetsBot.

If you want to add your bot to Bot Executor, you must create a bot assembly implementing IBotExecutor interface. In the Bot SDK solution you can find BfexplorerCommunityBotExecutor project with source code for all bfexplorer community bots. In this project you can find an implementation of LookUpBot as well.

When debugging your betfair bots in Microsoft Visual Studio you can set Command line arguments:

YourBetfairUserName YourBetfairPassword True

So three parameters separated by space. The last parameter True, sets the practice/training mode, so after you start debugging bfexplorer automatically login to betfair and switch the training mode on.

If your bot requires interaction with the user interface of Bfexplorer PRO 2 then you can utilize IBfexplorerPluginContainer interface. Have a look on the bot: ShowSteamersDrifters where the bot selects a selection, in this case a steamer one, so the selection whose odds decreased most.

If you want to add a new feature for Bfexplorer PRO 2 and this feature requires some kind of user interface then you can create bfexplorer plugin/extension implementing IBfexplorerPlugin or IBfexplorerPlugin2 interface.

Bfexplorer PRO 2 already offers 14 extensions. My favorite ones are Close all positions, Betfair Coupons - Football, Ninjatrader betfair data feed and Market data visualiser. As a betfair bot developer you could find interesting Market bot executor, and of course you can build your own betting or trading solution. For instance on the screenshot bellow there is a horse racing trading solution I created 2 years ago for one bfexplorer user.

You can download Visual Studio project with the betfair source code in C#.

Our first bot will not place any bet just sends a message to the Output window: Hello Betfair.

In the video you can see how to execute your bot in Bfexplorer PRO 2 and how to debug your bot in Visual Studio.

You can download Visual Studio project with the betfair source code in C#.

The Bfexplorer PRO supports bot script development in Visual Basic or C# programming languages. So if you are a familiar with one of those language you can write your own trading and lookup bot scripts. The Bfexplorer PRO has a simple text editor for writing bot scripts, the bot script source code can be compiled so you can check this way if the code you wrote is without errors, but there is no support for debugging nor the text editor has no capabilities offered by integrated development environment like the VS2008 so this editor is suitable only for small changes of code or changing parameters in existing bot scripts. If you want to write more complicated bot scripts you should use Bfexplorer BOT SDK .net trading platform.

The BOT SDK contains two projects, one in Visual Basic and the other in C# so you can open it in VS2008 Express and write, debug and test your bots. The Bfexplorer infrastructure is exposed by BotTestService interface enabling the base features of the Bfexplorer platform for testing purposes. The result of your coding effort can be then used in Bfexplorer PRO either as a trading or lookup bot script you can use in the Bot Executor or in the Trade Opportunity Lookup Service.

Features

• The full source code of all bfexplorer bot scripts
• A simple project showing how to use the bfexplorer infrastructure
• Debugging and testing of your own bot scripts for the Bfexplorer PRO or building your own solutions
• Full transactional betfair API access for the price of monthly subscription for the Bfexplorer PRO

And now it is time for bot debugging and testing.

If you are an experienced bettor or a tipster willing to offer your tipster services to betfair bettors, you can use the Bfexplorer Tipster Service to publish your bets and distribute them to your customers just by clicking on the Publish button. The Bfexplorer Tipster Console is used by tipsters to prepare a set of bets which are published by the service and consumed by customers using the Bfexplorer Tipster Client application.

The Bfexplorer Tipster Console is used to prepare your bets. You can define the odds range and the time the bet should be placed at betfair market before its official start, write some description about your selection and define if the bet is just placed on the market or traded out if preset conditions are met.

The Bfexplorer Tipster Client is used by bettors, your customers to automatically load your selections and place bets on the betfair markets just by clicking on the Start button. The bettor can change individual parameters for any selection, sets its default stake or accept all your selections or just place bets on selected ones.

The Bfexplorer Tipster Platform can be used by the bettor himself, to prepare set of bets using the Bfexplorer Tipster Console and then the Bfexplorer Tipster Client to place such set of bets on the betfair markets automatically.

Bfexplorer Tipster Console

Bfexplorer Tipster Client

Bfexplorer má další užitečný plug-in a to Dutch Markets Selections.

Umí jednoduše dutchovat jakékoli výběry z jakýchkoli trhů. Pro snadnější pochopení jsem udělal videa. Jde o tyto modelové případy:

1) fotbal - Dutch 3x Outsiders
2) fotbal - Correct Score 0-0, 1-0, 0-1 vs. Over2,5
3) fotbal - 1 goals or more  vs. Correct Score 0-0

1) Dutch 3x Outsiders
Záměr je rozložit na 3 vybrané outsidery sázky tak, aby v případě výhry jednoho z nich byl zisk 20euro.
(pro načtení trhů je používaný plug-in Betfair Coupons - Football, v závěru pro přehled podaných sázek plug-in Close All Positions)

More in this forum article: Bfexplorer - Dutch Markets SElections plug-in

• BetType
• Odds
• MinOdds
• MaxOdds
• AllowPlacingBetInPlay
• AtInPlayKeepBet
• PlaceBetAtBetterOdds
• PlaceBetAtOdds
• PlaceBetOnRunner
• Stake
• StakeIsMyLiability
• StakeIsPercentageOfAvailableBalance
• StartFromTime
• StartFromTimeEnabled

The bet is placed either on the preset odds or when offered odds range is met at the moment when bot is executed. Setting the BetType to Lay and Odds parameter to 2.2 with the parameter PlaceBetAtOdds set to true will place the lay bet at odds 2.2.

Setting the parameter PlaceBetAtOdds to false and defining the odds range by MinOdds and MaxOdds will place a bet only when offered odds are in preset odds range. In this mode you can define the PlaceBetAtBetterOdds parameter to true, so the bet will be placed at better odds when backing on the best offered lay, and when laying at the best offered back odds.

You can restrict bet placing only for pre event trading by setting the parameter AllowPlacingBetInPlay to false. If the market supports keep bet feature for in-play market you can set the parameter AtInPlayCancelBet to false, otherwise set it to true.

If you place a bet in odds range criteria and market moves against your position the bot automatically chases the odds if the offered odds is in range.

If you want to lay you can set the parameter StakeIsMyLiability to true if you want your stake to be your liability.

If you want to place a bet with a stake as the percentage of your available balance set the parameter StakeIsPercentageOfAvailableBalance to true.

To enable bet placing from preset time only before the event starts you have to set the parameter StartFromTimeEnabled to true and the StartFromTime parameter to time span, for instance 0:01:30 if you want the bet placing was executed 1 minute 30 seconds before the event starts.

Case studies

I want to lay a favorite 10 seconds before the event starts, not after the market is turned in-play, if the favorite is trading at odds from 4.5 to 5.5. The stake of 100 is my liability.

You need to set following parameters:

As you want to place your lay bet at a favorite you must use the market criteria and sort the market selections so the bot will really place the bet on the favorite.

I want to back the favorite in-play when traded under 1.2.

In this case I want to take anything offered on the favorite at the place market for horse racing, so the back is placed at 1.01 or better to set it on the odds under the bet placing trigger criteria set by the Selection Criteria to <= 1.2.

About the Martingale System

The Martingale system is most commonly used in roulette, but it can really be used in almost any gambling game, even in best online casinos. The Martingale system is a negative progression system, which means every time you lose, you raise your bet. The idea is that since say, red comes up on the roulette wheel slightly less than half the time, sooner or later you will win, and when you do you will win more than you have lost, resulting in a net profit. It sounds good in theory, but doesn’t always work so well in practice.

The Martingale System in Action

The Martingale system works like this: You place a bet of $5 on red on the roulette wheel. If you win, you go home with your $5 profit. If you lose, you bet $10 on red. If you win, you collect your $5 profit and move on. If you lose, you bet $20 on red, and so on until you win.

The Martingale System and the Gambler’s Fallacy

The gambler’s fallacy is the assumption that past short term events have an effect on future events. In this case, the assumption that if red comes up ten times in a row, it is less likely to come up the 11th time than black. The reality is than in the short term, a certain outcome can come up many times, and with a progression, the numbers can add up fast. In the example above, it would take only ten reds in a row before you have invested over $5000 in order to win $5. Yes, if you could bet indefinitely you would eventually win your $5. The reality, however is that you will eventually reach the limits of your bankroll or of the table’s allowable bet. When this happens you will be left with a massive loss that will wipe out all your $5 wins leading up to it.

On the chart above I used the following indicators:

• VOL - Volume
• MACD - Moving average convergence/divergence
• VMA - Variable moving average
• Bollinger - Bollinger bands

How to use NinjaTrader Betfair Data Feed

1) Install NinjaTrader application

2) Open NinjaTrader and click on the menu item Tools / Instrument Manager...

3) Add a new Instrument list called for instance Betfair, or you can add new instruments into Default list.

4) Add 10 new instruments and name them: SEL1, SEL2, ..., SEL10

5) When adding a new instrument fill in the following (My example is for instrument SEL1):

Master instrument: SEL1

Currency: Euro (or currency you use on betfair account)

Description: SEL1

Exchanges: switch on the last one Xetra

Switch to Misc page and in the parameter External type: 1

Click on OK button to add the new instrument. Repeat this for all other instruments, SEL2 .. SEL10

6) Open Bfexplorer PRO and login to your betfair account.

7) Open a market for monitoring.

8) Click on the menu item Tools / My Solutions... and open the plugin: NinjaTrader Betfair Data Feed

9) Select a market selection/s for which you want to show NinjaTrader charts and click on the toolbar button: Map the market

10) In the Mapped column you will see what instrument is mapped to betfair market selection (for instance SEL1)

11) Switch to the NinjaTrader application and click on the menu item File / Connect / External Data Feed. You have to do it just once per charting session.

12) Click on the menu item File / New / Chart... and select the assign instrument (SEL1). Click on the New button, and change the parameter Period / Value to 3 seconds, or leave a default setting. Click on the OK buton to open a new chart.

13) Switch to Bfexplorer PRO and in the NinjaTrader plugin click on Data feeding enabled

14) In the NinjaTrader chart window you can change different parameters for charting or add different indicators. I would suggest to familiarize yourself with NinjaTrader and its advance features for charting.

15) If you want to stop market data feeding from Bfexplorer PRO click again on Data feeding enabled and unmap market selections. Because market selection are mapped to instrument before reusing instrument name you should restart NinjaTrader. If you want to close Bfexplorer PRO, first stop data feeding and then close NinjaTrader application. After NinjaTrader is stopped, you can close your Bfexplorer PRO.

The Bfexplorer PRO offers three types of user interface for bet placing, the market grid view similar to the user interface on betfair web pages, the selection list view (“ladder”) user interface for placing, updating and cancelling bets, and Bfexplorer Trader for multi selection trading on the list view interface.

After a bet is placed at betfair the market selection on which you placed the bet is automatically added into the Watched selections window so you can see the odds movement and your current position. If you want to close your position (trade out with equal profit) you simply click on Profit button, or on the Close position in the Watched Selections window.

You can monitor as many markets as you want quickly switching among them through Watched Selection window or Market list.

The application offers a set of Bet Wizards for placing bets when preset criteria are met, bet wizards for placing a bet and closing position, backing or laying all selections, back or lay dutching.

As this application is used by traders it offers trading strategies for any of mentioned user interface components and extensive bot script support both by built-in bots or customizable bot scripts. This unique feature enables you to write your own bot scripts in Visual Basic or C# programming languages. For users who are not familiar with any programming language the Bfexplorer PRO offers a Bot Executor with Bot Criteria Editor which can be used to setup different scenarios for bet placing or trading by utilizing all offered bots (including customize bots). Such bot criteria is then used on the selection when needed, just by clicking on the start bot toolbar button, or for your fully automated solutions which can run on the Trade Opportunity Lookup service. The application supports the Excel automation as well.

The Bfexplorer PRO offers any available information you can get from betfair, presenting the market data on charts where you can see the price/odds movement and weight of money in time, traded and available volume, market statistics, choose your selection window where you can sort selection by six different parameters, everything you need to decide the right moment for opening or closing your position when trading on a market.

Thanks to extensive bot support the application can be used to host any bespoke solution built as a plugin for the Bfexplorer, you can see some of such solutions in the My Solutions menu.

Features

• Practice mode
• Start page with possibility to switch between preset home page and the application status window
• Possibility to open a market by clicking on the market link on the betfair web page
• Browse event markets
• Today’s card next race for horse racing and greyhounds
• Market status notification and market time (countdown and event time)
• Preset stake, stake is my liability for lay bets, bet verification
• Market details with price movements, volume and weight of money in time all presented by charts
• Market grid view for bet placing with reverse bet placing and Profit/Loss button
• Trade the Market for trading with four different trading strategies
• Bet/Bot wizards for placing bet and dutching
• Bfexplorer Trader for multi selection trading
• My bets with all bet operations, placing, updating cancelling, and changing the bet status for in-play markets
• Watched selections
• Market watch list
• My favorite events for today
• Bot executor with bot criteria editor
• Trader opportunity lookup
• My bots support for bot script development
• Possibility to integrate any bespoke solution
• Microsoft Excel automation
• My results also supported in practice mode
• Output window for the application and bot status notification
• The user interface with dock-able windows with layout persistence

Start trading and stop betting, it was never so easy as it is now using Bfexplorer PRO.

What we offer

The bfexplorer is not only betting or trading platform for betfair, but also the platform you can use to automate your betting and trading systems. With the bfexplorer we deliver the right tool for all, an occasional bettor or an advance user or a full time trader, and also everything that a bot operator needs.

For bettors

• Market grid view for bet placing with profit/loss button
• Bfexplorer Trader for bet placing on multiple selections
• Bet wizards for bet placing, dutching, and four different trading strategies
• Watched selections
• My favorite’s events for today
• Market navigation directly also through betfair web pages

For traders

• Market grid view for bet placing with profit/loss button
• Trade the market, list view for bet placing and trading on one selection
• Bfexplorer Trader for bet placing on multiple selections
• In Play Trader with unique presentation of the volume
• Bet wizards for bet placing, dutching, and four different trading strategies
• Conditional bet placing and automated or triggered trading
• Watched selections
• Choose your selection
• My favorite’s events for today
• Market navigation directly also through betfair web pages
• Traded and available, and market statistics
• Find in-play events

For bot operators

• Excel automation for trigger betting
• Bot script development support in Visual Basic or C#
• Bot Executor with Bot criteria editor
• Trade opportunity lookup service
• Plug-in integration of bespoke solutions and bot strategies

What else we can offer

We offer our help in building any bespoke solution or customizing user interface of the Bfexplorer for your needs. The Bfexplorer infrastructure is flexible enough to build any solution you can imagine. Bot operators can utilize direct bot script support to customize already prepared bot scripts, or build their own ones, in such cases we offer Bfexplorer bot SDK (betfair bot C# .net source code included).