Please Read - Practice Mode

[Groovyelms]

I just thought I would repost this as it seeems relervent..

by Groovyelms » Wed Sep 28, 2011 8:20 am

Hi All,

Just a note about practise mode (forgive me if this has been mentioned before!). I had my account suspended for contravening some rule or other whilst using the practice mode... a phone call and a slightly grovelling email sorted it out.
I don't know what the rules are on this, but I am sure BA support would be able to help with the usage/data guidelines ?
It was a suprise and a bit of a shock to get caught out in this way! as I do think that the practice mode is an excellent way to improve!!!
luck to all,
Groovy

[1sbro]

Hi, my first ever post! I am presently operating pretty much exclusively in practise mode, and quite likely would be perfectly happy to work with the "Historical Data services" mentioned in the Betfair communication; I have just now had a quick look on the Batfair site but can find no mention of them. Can anybody tell me how to access them, and, very importantly, would I be able to access them through BA (in practise mode of course!)?

Think the only real way to study the data is via Fracsoft, its quite interesting, I used it awhile ago, only just re-installed it again, you pay per meet, its good for viewing the market, and trying to understand how and why the odds moved in a certain direction after the race has come and gone. think per meet its 69p or it was I believe.

EDIT: Just checked, its 71p per meet, covers win and place for each race at the meet, so roughly 10-16 markets, Football markets are 82p

[Euler]

Or why not use Bet Angel to export the data to a spreadsheet for later analysis for free! See spreadsheet section.

[1sbro]

Can you still use it the same way though doing it that way?

Or can you only analyse it from within the spreadsheet?

[Euler]

Once you have it in a spreadsheet you can do what you like with it. It's quite easy to set up a scroller to look through the data and replay it and analyse it in more detail.

[purpletrader]

Hi Euler

A walkthrough guide on how to do it would be handy for the non-experts like me

[1sbro]

Yea that could be good, regarding practice mode, I had a voicemail from Betfair, so was like hmm better stop using practice mode for the meantime!

[bakujohnd]

First post ever on any forum (also probably my last).
Software people live on a different Planet. I believe Betfair recently "Sold-Up" and moved there main base to Gibraltar. When this happened the original commercial competitive edge of Betfair was lost. Now accountants run it. (I believe a Spanish Bank now owns it).
Commercial use my backside. I have contributed -£35,000 to other fortuneate Betfair Members over the past 5 years. Ok This would imply Betfair did no make a fortune from my account, as I seem to be a perpetual loser. BUT without my losing bets there would be no winning bets by others. So Betfair profit from "Turnover" as for every ;losing bet there is an equivalent winning one. BetAngel is initially a VERY sophisticated programme, but without the practise mode then it's use would be similar to Microsoft Excel. Namely good software capable of fantastic things BUT only 5% of the functionality is used by Joe public.
More important Betfair Historical Data is useless. They have made zero effort to offer filters on the download. A simple days racing download is truncated as it exceeds the number of rows in Excel. (approx. 65,000!!!!)
Fracsoft (yes I am a user), is a "toy". I have only used it on Football where it "time cycles" through the game. BUT no info on Over/Under, Correct Score etc etc. All the data is relative to Match betting. This has more detail but still useless as data to base gambling REAL money on.
In conclusion, this "thread" is a smokescreen, it does not address the real issue. It is nonsensical. Betfair is in esscence a "Bookie", a different methodology but Tax classification wise that is their real business. Practise mode should be considered a "Loss Leader" same as ASDA or TESCO. It brings the punters in. I believe the original Betfair owners were not so short sighted and understood this but something has been Lost in Translation during the takeover. Accountants are like Lawyers. How do you know when a car has had to swerve to avoid killing a cat or an accountant. (There are brake skid marks when it is a cat)

[gutuami]

1 Software people live on a the same Planet
2. BetAngel is indeed a VERY sophisticated software
3. The number of rows in 2007 is 2 to the power of 20 = 1,048,576 rows:
http://news.office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?a ... 8&zoneid=9
4. You could use ba data instead of fracsoft
http://youtu.be/0F5v2bKtJNE
5. Try to trade and not gamble
6. Do give up if you feel it's not for you

[1sbro]

Gutuami, have you got a copy of that spreadsheet please?

[gutuami]

that worksheet is part of a project so it would not work just like that. It was posted as a demonstration to show up some possibilities of using captured data.
Have a look at this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2385
or here
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3846&p=28870
It should help you to get on track..