Betting
Bots For Horse Racing And Betfair
Okay -
so here we launch in to a brave new world - automated
betting bots.
Let me
tell you here that as at May 2011 I know two fifths
of three quarters of diddly squat about betting bots
other than what I have read from time to time on the
web. To be frank, they scare me a bit as I take betting
very seriously and the thought of giving control to
a computer bot worries me greatly.
However,
that being said, I do understand the value of Betfair
and also understand the value of betting as late as
possible in to the market. I assume that you do too.
One of the biggest problems therefore is making sure
you don't miss out on a sequence bet by being "too
damned slow" in making the few keystrokes to get
set. Now I am very familiar with internet betting but
every now and again you type in the wrong amount or
number or any other of a myriad of things and you then
have to go back and correct and by the time you've done
that they've jumped and, well, you can write the rest
of story ..... doesn't matter how computer literate
you are, that's just the way it is.
So if you
have a set of criteria that are set in concrete are
betting bots the solution to those "missed"
opportunities? I read heaps of articles on forums about
people getting bots and then disaster befalls them.
From what I read though, it is always a case of rushing
in and not understanding the settings you are using
for the bot to operate on, never having a good test
run of the programme before sending it out "live"
- in other words, not reading or UNDERSTANDING the instruction
manual. (Yes, just like DVD recorders. Go back. Read
the instructions.)
From what
I have read this more often than not is an issue in
the area of arbitrage betting and not someone more using
the bot to eliminate missed bets. There is also the
issue that if you are betting on a seven day a week
method and are working full time, how do you accommodate
what you want to do with what you have to do?
A few weeks
ago, one of our "regulars" communicated with
me on just this subject. He uses a bot and is very very
happy with it so I thought it worthy of investigation.
Which started me off on this journey (yet to be completed).
It would seem essential to me that if you are going
to go down this path, make sure you understand that
it is probably going to be a longish journey as you
will likely be dealing with unfamiliar terms and issues
that take a fair bit of thought and understanding. This
is NOT a quick fix to your punting problems. Then again,
as you would probably understand, short term solutions
are NEVER successful in the long term.
Whichever
way you choose to go with bots I strongly recommend
that you look for a few things BEFORE jumping in. Make
sure you get a free trial of this type of software so
you firstly can ascertain that you can actually understand
what it is you are trying to achieve. Remember, bots
can ONLY act on the information that YOU put in to them
and if you don't understand what you are doing, the
bot will never live up to your expectations.
It is is
imperative that any bot you buy comes with a test mode
so you can set it up to test-invest on the horses you
want to with your settings and test it to see if it
would do what you hope it will. If there is no test
mode DON'T buy it. You simply have to be able to test
it FIRST before going "live". Any other option
is not an option - it is a recipe for disaster.
It is also
helpful if any bot package you buy also comes with inbuilt
staking plans for you to play around with and for those
who do work full time, make sure you can install the
licence on more than one computer so that you can also
put it on a lap top you may take to work with you as
well. In the interests of educating all of us (me included)
a bit better, if you do have some helpful thoughts on
using these bots please drop me a line so I can publish
it for the benefit of all.
© RaceRate.com
2011
