Posts Tagged cross matching
Betfair – Cross matching
Posted by Peter Webb in Bet Angel on July 22nd, 2011
Cross matching has slowly been implemented across many sports markets on Betfair and earlier this year on the big one, horse racing.
There are still some odd things with cross matching. Prices for the API and for the Betfair web site are different. This is because cross matching is not exposed via the API. We put the cross matching algorithm into Bet Angel, but quite a large number of API applications still show the ‘wrong’ prices. Betfair also never tell you when it is on or off, this only adds to the confusion.
When it was introduced on Horse Racing it was positioned as follows: -
“Cross-matching was introduced on most sports during 2008 and has had a significant, positive impact on liquidity.”
As you may be aware, because we are in the market all the time, we keep very detailed records on just about anything that happens. This gave us the chance to observe what happened when the cross matching was switched on in the horse racing markets.
Curiously the implementation caused the fill rate to drop from it’s previous level. What we found was that if you put an order in the market and waited for it to be filled, it filled twice as fast before cross matching was implemented than after it’s implementation. That seems a bit odd. Some of it could be accounted for by the fact that money now appearas elsewhere in the book when it can’t get matched at a certain price, but the average queue size doesn’t seem to reflect that.
Currently we are studying the markets post the 18th July. We are doing this because we do expect another change. We will report back when we have enough data as to how is has changed from this date.
A different sort of cross matching
Betfair widen cross matching net
Posted by Peter Webb in Bet Angel on January 15th, 2011
Today will see the launch of cross matching on pre-off horse racing markets. Having studied the markets for a long, long, time, I think I can guess the impact that this will have, but I am open minded. Change will occur though, so keep your eyes out.
In-play cross matching produced a curiosity which we hadn’t thought of, so it may be that pre-off does as well. We have collated data over very long time frames and can see at least one strategy that will suffer because of the change. But we will be actively monitoring the data to see what actually occurs. I’ll report back one we have some decent data under our belt.
I must admit to preferring a freely traded exchange market, warts and all; rather than tweaks, changes, modification and new rules. It’s obvious that Betfair are now likely only to adopt things that benefit them financially, but it would be nice to stick with some firm ground rules. It would always have been nice to see an exchange only vendor out there, but that’s not going to happen now as we are too far down the bookie path on all fronts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still better than what went before and I’m not being negative here, just philosophical. Even small increments in change can produce quite large long term differences and that’s what we have seen.
Anyhow, I will report back anything interesting on the blog in due course.
This weekend promises to be a really good sporting one, so best of luck whatever you are doing!
Betfair widen cross matching again
Posted by Peter Webb in Bet Angel on November 30th, 2010
Betfair have gone for the big one and are going to ‘trial’ cross matching on pre-off horse racing today at Lingfield. Cross matching was initiated to ‘improve’ the fill rate on markets and eliminate the possibility of the book going over broke. As users subsequently found out, the first iteration also improved Betfair’s bottom line.
As you know, I am a keen market watcher and given enough races will be able to see the exact impact that this change has had on the market, it is likely to have an impact you would think. We will keep an eye on things and update the thread on the forum as we learn what is happening. It may be time to alter your strategies.
One very big open question is what happens when there is a withdrawn horse. We have asked Betfair for clarification as it’s not impossible for a trader to get cross matched in certain circumstances and there is potential for problems depending on the way Betfair are going to try and resolve the withdrawn horse. We await a response.
Cross matching goes live on inplay racing
Posted by Peter Webb in Bet Angel on November 23rd, 2010
See Betfair announcement. Looks like they are planning to go live tomorrow on all racing: -
“Following a previous trial earlier this year, we are now running another trial of in-play cross-selection matching (‘cross-matching’) on the win markets at Lingfield Park on Tuesday 23rd November. Cross-matching will only be activated after the markets are turned in-play.
Cross-matching was introduced on most sports during 2008 and has had a significant, positive impact on liquidity. It has meant that a customer’s bet is more likely to be matched than would have been the case without cross-matching. When a bet request cannot be matched by an opposing bet on the same selection, cross-matching will attempt to match the bet request with unmatched liquidity on the remaining selections in the market. Cross-matching incorporates ‘best execution’ meaning that whenever the bet matching algorithm can match a bet request at a better price than requested, it will do so, resulting in the customer making the bet request getting the best possible price.
We don’t expect customers to notice any material difference in the way the win markets operate at Lingfield Park.”
Betfair extend cross matching
Posted by Peter Webb in Bet Angel on March 26th, 2010
Betfair today announced that they had extended their cross matching algorithm to include a trail on in-running horse racing markets. Full announcement is detailed below: -
Improved bet matching algorithm trial on today’s in-running markets at Carlisle and Sedgefield
For the win markets on today’s cards at Carlisle and Sedgefield we will be improving our bet-matching algorithm to include cross-selection matching (‘cross-matching’). Cross-matching will only be activated after the markets are turned in-play. Please note that this is just a trial for these two meetings today.
Cross-matching was introduced on most sports during 2008 and has had a significant, positive impact on liquidity. It has meant that a customer’s bet is more likely to be matched than it would have been without cross-matching. When a bet request cannot be matched by an opposing bet on the same selection, cross-matching will attempt to match the bet request with unmatched liquidity on the remaining selections in the market. Importantly, cross-matching incorporates ‘best execution’ meaning that whenever the algorithm can match you at a better price than you requested then it will do so, resulting in you getting the best possible price.
The potential for non-runners which may require the application of Reduction Factors has prevented us from introducing cross-matching on horseracing to date. For pre-play markets Reduction Factors remain a hurdle. However, Reduction Factors are not applied to bets matched in-play.
We don’t expect customers to notice any material difference in the way the markets operate today. We will assess the results of today’s trial and should a further trial be undertaken or if we seek to apply cross-matching to in-play horseracing markets on a more permanent basis, we will announce that in advance.