Looking to hire a developer

[nickmartin85]

Hello,

Looking to hire a developer to create a simple excel sheet for me for integration with bet angel.

There are a number of features required such as ease of input for horses and race times, betting at certain times and betting depending on price movements, stake change depending on price movement etc.

If anyone is able to help please let me know.

Also if this isnt allowed, sorry, please delete the post.

Thanks,

Nick.

[ShaunWhite]

It's allowed. That sound like a very open-ended spec, what's your budget?

There's plenty of programmers knocking around on here so If it's worth their time I guess you'll find someone.

If you do get something done then try and get as much as possible configurable by the user (you). It's inevitable that you'll want changes and you don't want to be putting your hand in your pocket again too often. Some addition extra spend up front on a 'soft' system would be wise rather than a budget job that's frustrating to use, slow to get changes and costs more later. If your original coder goes awol later you'll need to doco too probably so someone else can maintain it for you.

[nickmartin85]

I dont have a specific budget in mind as not sure how much something like this would cost!

I'd rather PM all the details but I dont believe its anything too complicated.

Yes all the inputs would be cells which can be changed & turned on/off.

Cheers

[ShaunWhite]

I dont have a specific budget in mind as not sure how much something like this would cost!

I'd rather PM all the details but I dont believe its anything too complicated.

Yes all the inputs would be cells which can be changed & turned on/off.

Cheers

I'd help Nick but I'm a bit too busy. As an ex-dev guy I'd suggest you organise a fixed price and agree a detailed spec up front. These things can creep on a t&m basis and so can the scope. I know that all sounds a bit formal for a smallish job but even simple things can lead to situations getting messy with people.

That said there's lots of people here who'll give help and advice for free, and if you search the forum there's quite a few threads about Excel development from a real beginnners level. It's not as hard as you might think and a couple of months' study would open up a whole new world of doing anything you can imagine for yourself, for free. Idemy.com also have some decent free Excel & Excel VBA courses. I'd always suggest investing in learning a new skill vs paying for someone to do things.

[johnsheppard]

I dont believe its anything too complicated.

I'm sorta fairly experienced, but not experienced enough to NOT say anything about this...(the really experienced guys I presume would just roll their eyes and move on)

EVERYTHING to do with programming is complicated. Then on top of that there's formulation of ideas, and late changing changes based on new information brought to your brain via those late changing changes. Once ya nut through all that stuff....then your boss will have caffeine and the whole plan will change...

In the open market...I believe it turns into a lemon......
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons

Edit: Well. The market for lemons is an interesting thing to read about. It's not exactly a market for lemons, but it is close to one. There is a LARGE information asymmetry between buyers and sellers. As Shaun suggestes, learn it yourself, the know how can be invaluable. There is a large opportunity cost. So you'll probably get burned either way you go *pause* Hey look it's sunny outside... in the very least it'll reduce the asymmetry when you do go to hire someone......

[nickmartin85]

Ok so; it's basically a way of betting on a few horses during the day using the best exchange prices it can.

I'd need to be able to do the following:

Select horse and race time (sometimes the each way market).

Select number of points (based on a separate stake cell).

I can input the target price, if the price is available on the exchange (or better) it'll place the bet and job is done for the day on that horse.

If the target price isnt reached before say 200 mins before the off then it follows a couple of other rules.

If the price between times x & y (say 200 mins before the off and 10 mins before the off) drops a certain number of ticks, place the bet.

If neither target price or the tick drop rules have activated, then it will place the back bet at 9 minutes before the off if the price is no less than z% of the original target price.

Record profit/loss/misc info.

I'd potentially like an option where if a bet has already triggered, if the price is massively different 6 mins before the off it could either place it again (or a %) - this one isnt an esential just something I'm considering.

If this works, I'd be happy to pay a fixed price just on these variable rulesets, then can try and adapt it myself if anything else is needed.

Thanks,

Nick.

[The Silk Run]

Hi Hi Nick

Some signpost suggestions. You could pitch your idea on Betfair Community sub forums, Developer, or Labs.

Or, search for developers with sports trading knowledge, and experience on an outsourcing site, example:
www.freelancer.com/algorithm/developers

Stay safe
Minnie LAI

[Wolf1877]

Ok so; it's basically a way of betting on a few horses during the day using the best exchange prices it can.

I'd need to be able to do the following:

Select horse and race time (sometimes the each way market).

Select number of points (based on a separate stake cell).

I can input the target price, if the price is available on the exchange (or better) it'll place the bet and job is done for the day on that horse.

If the target price isnt reached before say 200 mins before the off then it follows a couple of other rules.

If the price between times x & y (say 200 mins before the off and 10 mins before the off) drops a certain number of ticks, place the bet.

If neither target price or the tick drop rules have activated, then it will place the back bet at 9 minutes before the off if the price is no less than z% of the original target price.

Record profit/loss/misc info.

I'd potentially like an option where if a bet has already triggered, if the price is massively different 6 mins before the off it could either place it again (or a %) - this one isnt an esential just something I'm considering.

If this works, I'd be happy to pay a fixed price just on these variable rulesets, then can try and adapt it myself if anything else is needed.

Thanks,

Nick.

I could probably do all of that stuff but I prefer not to get involved in writing code for a private individual and I think most professional developers probably feel the same way. Basically coding is far more time consuming and error prone than non developers expect plus skilled developers are generally fairly well paid commercially. As regards using freelancer.com then the problem there will be that non Bet Angel users wont really understand how guardian and excel work together. Quite a few Bet Angel users dont understand it either!

I'd suggest that instead of going down the excel route via a 3rd party professional developer that you try writing two very simple Bet Angel Automation files for yourself as follows:

(1) a Bet Angel Servant just to set Shared Stored Values to the Servant Context Price and Servant Context Stake for your required selection, plus maybe setting additional shared stored values at x% of Servant Context Price if the 200 minute rule fails to place a matched bet

(2) a Bet Angel Automation File that is run continuously by Guardian for all markets with the following kinds of rules
(a) a Place Bet rule that runs up to 200 minutes before the off with a condition checking if the Best Price is at or above the Shared Stored Value set by the Servant

Once you have got (1) and (2)(a) working you can add additional rules to your Guardian script for periods below 200 minutes before the off e.g:
(b) rules for the 200 minute to 9 minute period
(c) rules for the 9 minute to 6 period

You might also want to take into account that a bet can be triggered and not matched because the funds were available to trigger your bet but have gone in the by the time your bet has actually reached the market.

The flaky part of your spec is "if it drops a certain number of ticks". Drops from what and how quickly? The best price at 200 minutes? The highest point after 200 minutes before dropping x ticks? etc. You would probably have to write rules to track the post 200 minute high point in a stored value and then place a bet if it is x ticks below that high point.

Dallas can probably point you in the direction of some threads and/or some sample automation servants and sample scripts.