A
key driver in developing specifications for my “Power Trading”
systems was feedback from punters that there was a growing disquiet
about the distribution of profits amongst the Betfair masses.
Inevitably
there has to be some disparity to some extent between winners and losers
in the Betfair arena in that by its very nature for every winner there
has to be a loser.
But
exactly in the same way as Bookies were able to take advantage of
punters by setting excessive overrounds, there was a feeling that
professionals have an unfair advantage over the novice punter.
Perhaps
the primary driving force behind the techniques was a requirement to
empower advanced and intermediate traders with new innovative systems
that would enhance their betting strategies and complement existing ones
to provide an overall increase in profits from betting on Betfair.
Potentially
a lot more people should be able to profit through Betfair, and my aim
was offer anyone prepared to invest in their trade or hobby a chance at
winning.
I
advocate hard work and commitment throughout my work and techniques.
Nobody
should believe claims of instant life changing wealth through Betfair.
It doesn’t work like that.
Life
changing results can and do happen but not without effort and
dedication.
Experienced
gamblers know that in reality there is NO single racing system that
works all the time, throughout the racing season.
Even
further from ever being a reality is the possibility of a racing system
that can be automated by computer software that will work all the time.
Betfair
will be on the scene for decades to come and with gambling being
positively encouraged by establishments in Europe, America and Asia,
marketeers and unscrupulous companies are literally throwing systems
together in the hope of making a fast buck from the constant supply of
novice and desperate gamblers.
I
have long been an advocate of studying fundamentals and the greatest
racing experts make good profits by focusing their predictions around
races where they have gathered immense amounts of data and analysis.
Becoming
an “expert” in a given area of racing is well recognized as
providing enormous dividends over time.
Similarly
true, with the advent of powerful computer software and systems combined
with fastidious technical analysis and an advanced staking strategy,
punters can for the first time shift the odds in their favour without
being fundamental form gurus.
It’s
been several decades since professional bettors first came up with the
idea of automating betting systems to increase their overall profit
margins.
A
major barrier to being able to build “positions” in a betting shop
was that tax was levied on all wagers until as recently as 2002. Betting
shops also maintained the right to act against anyone who was deemed to
be in breach of their regulations, put another way, anyone who should
have the nerve to attempt to beat them!!
Bookies
and Betting shops were up in arms in 2001 with the arrival of Betfair
and other Betting Exchanges.
The
revolution that had been needed for years had finally arrived.
Commission
was charged by Betfair only on net winnings, and uniquely it presented a
two sided market, back to win or back to lose, so placing punters in
direct competition with each other, without the interference of the
third party bookmaker.
Punters
were allowed to recycle their money through the market, and build their
positions before an event had even started.
City
Traders, Betting Professionals, even Bookmakers themselves (after the
initial shock and revulsion) saw the opportunities that now presented to
take positions on sporting events in much the same was as one would in
financial markets.
It
came as no surprise to the industry that as soon as 2002 the tax rules
were finally changed in Betting shops from a tax on the punters wager,
to a tax on the Bookmakers profits (Pity the poor Bookie!!).
Scalping,
hedging, taking a position and greening up were born and have been well
documented in dozens of early online resources.
Newcomers
to Betfair can quickly learn the basic arts of trading and are usually
elated that they can build winning positions quite quickly. I myself am
a great proponent of Ladder Trading pre race via Bet Angel to increase
profitable positions or reduce liabilities on Dutches or Books that I
have made.
In
advance of designing my systems I conducted several surveys of Betfair
traders and the feedback I was getting was that aiming for £10 profit
from trading via the basic Betfair interface was really about all
punters could cope with on a daily basis.
Mitigating
factors people would talk to me about included stress, anxiety,
headaches, computer problems, broadband problems and a whole range of
issues that prevented them from achieving their goals.
Successful
steamer identification pre race is, and will remain a consistently
tricky business.
There
are an inordinate number of factors to account for in price movements.
Weight of Money can prove inconsistent, Market movers can manipulate
false prices, and without the benefits of SIS and other “hot” feeds
the average punter will always be several seconds or minutes behind the
professionals and other insiders.
The
Betfair databases were opened up in 2004 with the advent of the Betfair
API technology. This enables external companies to design their own
client/ server interfaces and robots as alternative enhancements and
improvements to the basic Betfair GUI.
Robots
are often referred to in the trade as simply “Bots”.
What
is considered to be the most advanced collection of interfaces and bots
was developed by Optic Ltd and presented as the package called “Bet
Angel”
The
interface covers everything needed by a financial day trader to make the
conversion to trading on sports events.
Features
presented include:
- moving
averages,
- enhanced
interface charting,
- one
click trading,
- trade
calculators,
- trailing
stops,
- stop
losses,
- offset
betting,
- matched
bets,
- fill
or kill orders,
- saved
bets,
- timers
- betting
logs,
- a
host of other features.
Bookmaking
and Dutching are the core “Bots” with an Automation Rules Interface
providing the trigger rule based events across the entire collection of
bots and trading tools.
During
requirements and specification gathering it became apparent that the 2
basic facets of the systems would need to be:
