Building a Betfair Bot
 

Can a Betfair bot be built with no programming knowledge whatsoever?

I've looked around on this site and others and it seems you need some semblance of programming knowledge. The developer site on Betfair are going on about some gobilty gook that I don't understand.

Also I didn't want to spend any money on it as I can do what I would like to do with the BF Bot Manager multi strategy bot but that costs something like $30 per month.

Ocho,

The simple answer is yes a simple bot can be built by using the samples.
The long answer is it depends on what you want to do.

Let me know what you want to do and I can give you a better guide.

Learning to program takes years of full-time effort for the average person, and then it would take at least a few months to put a non-trivial bot together.

When I started punting I already knew how to program, and if I had found something that did what I needed for $30/month I would have jumped on it and saved myself a whole lot of time.

I've been wondering the same thing myself lately. I've got limited program coding knowledge but i've built websites essentially from scratch and worked with macro's in excel etc a fair bit now. Of late I've wondered if I should/could create something that automates my bet placement and race/form recording for me so it could even run while I'm not home.

I understand its a pretty monumental task but it would be pretty rewarding and potentially time saving once it was in place.

I think the biggest issues is not really having any idea where to start. I'm pretty good at picking things up once I have some initial direction or examples to work with.

Since you know excel.

Start here for sample code...

https://api.developer.betfair.com/s...?pageId=3834079

and then read the getting started guide.

https://api.developer.betfair.com/s...ted+with+API-NG

If you know some simple VB then this should be easy enough for you to work out.

I've seen some samples on a web site or two but wouldn't have a clue what to do with them. Do you just download them and run them? As I said, I wouldn't have a clue.

LOL, I'm stuck at the first instruction: Clone the repository at... What does that even mean?

And then it says: Open the Excel workbook. Obtain an app key and session token (from where?) and enter them into sheet Example cells B3 and B4 respectively.

Oh well, I thought it was worth asking.

Google DIY Betfair Bots forum, lots of info there :)

:confused: Me to
And therein lies the paradox, it works for some straight off the bat,for others it's possible, and I don't know what else there is.

What they are saying is, "we won't sell you or give you a "car" to drive or play with, unless you build your own from scratch in accordance with these specific tools,(program code) then you can play, and it does not come with a warranty."

So basically it becomes a white elephant after hours and hours of figuring out the language, trying to look for similarities with basic Excel VBA Recorded Macros and it's a totally different ball game. But in the mind many know what they want to do, yet can't put it out here or there cos it's simple yet complicated and everyone has an opinion.

Woops, there goes another race, must rush, em bot off off to the TAB before it's missed.

Puntz just a quicky .. are you still off the death sticks mate?

Cheers LG

Hi

Having written 3 bots myself (using the old platform), one based on Gruss excel and 2 on VB.net I think I have some experiance to impart here. I know it will be a long while before I tackle a revamp using the new one platform recently introduced. Purely due to the work involved.

Each of my builds took me somewhere between 3-4 months of full time work and each time it involved more complex programing and language as I was learning. Looking back at it now I could do it better but then I was learning and a great amount of my time was spent on research rather then coding.

Anyone can do it, and those that have the aptitude to overcome the struggle to learn the skills necessary will eventually create a working bot.

Having said that please be under no illusion that you'll throw together some code samples in excel and have an actually functional betting machine. There is a huge .... gigantic void between being able to fire of a bet using some skeleton program and actually having a useful bot. The latter needs to deal with errors , price changes, partially matched bets, lays, multiple horse betting or laying, green outs tracking of your bets and much much more and that is before you even try to marry up your selections with the betfair track and horse name protocols. Race time changes. What about a actually testing it .... how much money do you invest in firing of testing bets ? Deal with loops that bet the same horse many times, or the wrong amount or not at all due to a logic error on your part. What will happen when you start pumping hundreds through it will it stand up and will you trust it? The list of things that you'll encounter along the way is endless.

Finally you build a bot that has worked painlessly for 5 years and then they change the codes ....... yea that is my story and its not plesent having to face that again.

So my recommendation is to pay the fees for someone to take care of the "how to" and you concentrate on the "what" to bet. You can use Gruss and use excel knowledge to program triggers for the bets. Its how I started and its far easier heaving to deal with just your betting logic and Gruss dealing with betfair. Starting with that Your betting will eventually tell you if its time to move on to a more complex personal platform or if what you have is more then sufficient.

Having said that if you are determined to do it, all the best to you! It is a highly rewarding experience.

With my last post for 2014 I wish you all HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015 !

That's just using github. Just go there and download the file. If you had a git account then you could just clone it.

You just want to click on SampleCode.xlsm and then Raw File and then save it to your PC. Thats the first step done. A whole 2 mins.


Next go to

https://api.developer.betfair.com/s...pplication+Keys

Go down to the section "how to create an application key". Follow the instructions (and links). There is a link there that tells you how to get your session key but just in case here it is :

https://api.developer.betfair.com/s...NG+-+Visualiser

To me this is fairly easy stuff and I forget others aren't use to following these types of instructions. I could knock up a fairly simple bot in about 20 mins.

The new API-NG is much better than the old API and its really useful if you learn it. It will take time to learn but its worth playing with.

LG asked:

Yes

CHAMPION. Really good to hear that.. have a good one mate

Cheers LG

Thanks everyone for your help. Unfortunately what comes easy to you UB is just plain gobilty gook to me. It sounds like a lot of hassle as explained by Michal and I wouldn't know what to do with excel to use Gruss (even though that is a cheaper monthly option than the one I would use).

Happy New Year everyone!

Thanks LG.
( there was a sense of "power" at our NY feast of not having to get up to walk outside of the man-cave for a smoke.)

All the Best for 2015

Well you all know i have been using Gruss and excel for many years and have uploaded full working bots on here, all the code is there to use just have to make the changes to suit what you need.

In the past i have spent a lot of time helping others but find it time consuming these days to get to involved but am always willing to answer questions or point you in the right direction on what to use and how to use it.

There is not many things i have not written in excel that is used in punting, i started with adapting sheets that already worked and added what i needed to get them to do what i wanted.

Hello
Shaun.
How do we access the current uploaded bots? Mooee once said to activate our own signature but that does not seem to work.

Mine are spread through out the forum, you could search my name and see what you find.