1. Betting Systems.
Each member has three different betting systems called System1, System2 and System3. Although they all use the same Betfair account, all other settings are independent. Therefore one system can bet, say on 1st favourites in horse racing, other in greyhounds using different staking plans and options. You can rename the systems on Profile page.
2. Bet firing time.
You can set a time before the scheduled race off to start firing bets on System settings page. If some betting conditions are not matched (e.g. min/max odds) the bot will continue checking conditions and try to fire bets until the race goes in-play, so the actual betting time can be any between the time you set in settings and the moment when the race goes in-play, depending on betting conditions. If you want to check conditions only once, at the time set in settings, tick ‘Check bets only once’. Then the bot will not continue trying if conditions are not matched. If betting time is set as negative value (-1), the bot will start checking conditions and firing bets right after the market is gone in-play.
3. Betting in-play.
You can enable betting in-play by ticking ‘Allow betting in-play’ in the Settings. This means the bot will continue checking betting conditions even after the market is gone in-play. Using a negative value as betting time automatically enables betting in-play. Note that the bet will be fired only if betting conditions are matched. The bot does not place any bets using ‘Leave in-play’ option in case they are not matched before the off. If you are betting in-play, bets might accidentally match above max or below min odds because of high price volatility and 1 second delay that takes place for most of in-play markets on Betfair.
4. Betting cycle in the bot.
Betting cycle is period of time between the moments when betting was started and stopped. It is very important to understand because the bot counts won/lost bets and profit/loss per betting cycle, not per day. These figures are used then to check ‘Stop at profit’, ‘Stop at loss’ and other triggers. So you should know that there is a difference between day profit and betting cycle profit. Betting cycle can last for several days or only for several minutes depending when betting is stopped (either manually or automatically). Every time when betting cycle is finished (betting is stopped) the bot resets all its counters back to 0.
For example, lets assume you’ve set ‘Stop at profit’ at £100. After two races you’ve made £60 and then for some reason clicked ‘Stop betting’ manually. Then after few minutes you’ve activated betting again. One could expect that £60 is already made, so the bot should stop automatically after another £40. However it is wrong because a new betting cycle was started when you clicked ‘Stop betting’ and the bot will aim to make £100 before stopping.
You can watch the Running profit, Wins # and Losses # in the System summary.
5. Prices to use for betting.
There are three price types available in the bot: Betfair live, BSP and on course odds. They can be selected on System settings page. Price type tells the bot what prices should be used to check betting conditions. ‘Live Betfair odds’ is best BACK or LAY price, ‘BSP’ is Betfair settled price, ‘On course odds’ – is current price from SportingLife.com available in ‘Live Show’ section of the race.
Please, don’t confuse these prices with price your bet is placed at. Bet is always placed at best back/lay or BSP odds (depending on your settings) while these prices are used only to check betting conditions. For example, you can set the bot to compare current BSP odds with your min/max odds condition, but the bet will be fired at best live BACK odds. For more details see description of ‘Prices to use’ option.
6. Small bets.
It is possible to enable bets less than minimum Betfair bet size by ticking ‘Allow small stakes’. If you don’t enable this option all bets below minimum bet size (£2) will be cancelled. Please, note that Betfair discourages betting below the minimum size. We advice to not abuse this feature by placing ONLY small bets. An acceptable pattern is when only a small part of your bets is below the minimum. Also note that placing small bets takes more time, therefore they have more chance to match slightly outside your min/max odds. Especially the time issue is noticeable when betting in-play.
7. Dutch staking plans.
The bot has several staking plans for dutching. Dutching is when you bet on more than one runner calculating stakes to make equal profit no matter which one of your bets wins. Dutching is very sensitive to price – if one of your bets is matched at price different from the one used in calculations, dutching will not give expected result. Results (profit/loss) will be totally wrong if one of your bets is unmatched. That’s why we’ve applied a special rule – the bot will not place bets at BSP if a dutching plan is used. It is because BSP price is not known before the race off. Also one of your bets may get unmatched if you set Min/Max odds for BSP. We also DO NOT recommend to use dutching staking plans for betting in-play because of high price volatility. We advice to enable ‘All runners must exist’ option in System settings to make sure that you place all or none dutching bets.
8. Min/Max odds and Prices to use.
From one side you can choose ‘Prices to use’ to check betting conditions (as stated in pt.5), from other side you can choose BSP or live odds betting (enable/disable ‘Place bets at BSP’ option). So a situation is possible when you choose, for example, to place bets at BSP but use live odds to check betting conditions. Obviously BSP and live odds are not same in most cases. In such case the bot will check live odds of the market. If live odds are within your min/max limits the bot will place a bet at ANY BSP price, even if BSP is outside the min/max limits. It is important to understand that the bot checks only the price specified in ‘Prices to use’. The similar way it works if you choose Betfair SP price type, but disable ‘Place bets at BSP’. Your bets will be placed at ANY available live price if current BSP is within your limits. If you want your bet’s price to always be within Min/Max limits then set ‘Prices to use’ at Betfair SP when ‘Place bets at BSP’ is enabled and at Live odds when it is disabled.
9. What happens if only part of your bets is placed.
If you have more than one selection per race it is possible that some of your selections will match betting conditions and others will not. For example, you’ve set Max Odds = 5.0, your selections are HorseA (3.5) and HorseB (6.0). Only HorseA is matching your betting conditions. In this case the bot will fire bet on HorseA. HorseB will be no bet. The bot will not continue checking prices for HorseB once the bet on HorseA is fired. If both horses are above your Max Odds the bot will check their prices until one or both horses match the condition. If bets must be placed only if all of your selections match betting criteria, enable ‘All runners must exist’ option in System settings.
10. Recovery staking plans.
Such staking plans as Back Progressive, Back Recovery, Back Pro and other plans that change stake size after a loss or win should not be used with more than one selection per race. Using multiple selections will cause invalid staking calculations. For example, loss to recover could be placed on both selections, making a double liability. Also you should enable ‘Consequential betting’ option in Settings tab to avoid moving on to the next race until all previous races are settled. Otherwise the bet might be placed without taking into account your winnings or loss from previous race. Simple staking plans (e.g. Back Level Stakes, Back Fixed Profit, etc), where stake size doesn’t depend on previous loses or wins, can be used without ‘Consequential betting’.