So this week’s been a bit of a non-starter. Sunday night/Monday morning saw the activation of Betfair’s new API-NG. I thought there might be a couple of teething problems and didn’t have a lot planned for my usual Monday off, so I thought I’d have a little dabble with smaller stakes than usual and see what all the fuss was about! First mistake!!
Around 2:05, I watched the horses walking into the starting tape tentatively as I anticipated the favourite would not actually start. In previous races, it had done just that, although this time with a handler leading the horse in, it all went to plan. Keeping the usual discipline, I did nothing. As you can imagine, when I went to the next race, I was a little surprised to find my balance was down around £1,400 from the usual. In a blind panic, I jumped back to the previous race where I found an open position on the very horse I had watched walk in and elected not to place a bet?! I closed out straight away for a substantial loss, completely confused and bewildered. Having called the Helpdesk and scrolled through a list of traded bets on the market, it appeared the mystery Lay bet had been placed ten minutes prior to the start. Completely baffled by it all, they’ve assured me they will check it out and get back to me, although it could have been the software in use – I’m still waiting for that return call.
It may well have been a software bug, although it’s pretty disappointing anyway. Throughout the day, I noticed on several occasions there was a lapse in the market where bets were placed rather slowly, with the general ebb and flow feeling a bit disjointed. Not as smooth as previously. A couple of others I speak to who use alternate software also said it was the same for them too. I was told the new API has been running for three weeks, which doesn’t seem like a long time to back-test something that affects so many people and their finances. Hopefully, it’ll improve soon and isn’t a case of a rushed release.
Worse still, today I resumed trading as normal, albeit rather cautiously (with the website open in a browser on the side to confirm all positions are closed at post time). Mid-afternoon, Vikekhal looked a fair call for a back-to-lay trade in-running, much like I did for the Betfair Traders campaign videos. Until the market was suspended at in-play and never un-suspended, leaving my trading position open as a standard bet. As you can imagine, it eventually lost, costing me my pre-race profit (£23) and an additional £30. Betfair said sorry on Twitter shortly after, although it looks like I wasn’t alone, with Steve, also from the Betfair Traders campaign, being exposed for £318, along with Peter Webb and several others complaining about similar things. As ever, they make the rules and terms and conditions seem to cover them no matter what they decide to do, a bit like the Voler La Vedette case the other year.
It’s pretty frustrating when things like this happen over the years. At points, I’ve suffered some hefty losses with the exchange crashing. I dread to think how much – it’s definitely well into four figures.
So with Monday and Tuesday out of the way, it just leaves today, Wednesday! My favourite day of the week… Premium Charge day. To my mind, Wednesday is usually a day where I work purely for Betfair, as my additional Premium Charge commission of the last week’s trading usually equates to around a day’s profit. But this week it’ll effectively be a losing day, as I’m heading into London to watch the footie and get pissed – see, it wasn’t that bad after all!
4 thoughts on “Not the best start to the week…”
Just out of interest, do you ever keep a back up bank in betdaq or any other exchange for situations just like this?
thanks paul
Hi Paul I don’t, others do and hedged out with the voler la vedette incident mentioned previously, then Betfair refunded all bets leaving those that did it screwed elsewhere
Yep , I wondered what the hell was going on with that race staying suspended during running, I thought maybe it was a glitch in the software I was using ,so I quickly logged out and logged into Bet angel as I have that as an alternative, same thing on there, fortunately I didn’t have any precarious positions open in the market, but I feel sorry for those who did, not good at all, Betfair need to get their act together.
That Vikekhal race is still infuriating and mystifying me. I had Vike layed to a liability of 1k at post at 2.7 and had some back bets in place at much higher odds. When market suspended and didn’t un-suspend I obviously started to panic. I sent a tweet to you, I sent a tweet to the helpdesk. I loaded the race in-browser to make sure it wasn’t a software bug. As I looked at the race in-browser I see the red exposure I have on Vikehal and also Paddy The Stout and green on all the others. Helpless, I watch the race. After a horrible, awful, experience I vow to reduce stakes until any API teething problems are resolved and I think “at least I won close to £900 on that race, how fortunate”. When I check my P/L I see that I only won £250 and going into the bet I see a mystery back bet placed on Vikehal at odds of 2.66 at exactly 1500, creating a small red and the profit coming from the lay % that ran on Paddy. This is not a bet I’d ever make. If I were going to green or red it would be much later than 1500. I could of course had decided to get out of the position, but I absolutely did not do that in that race. I message the helpdesk again who say that this bet must have been matched at 1500 exactly (even though I had so such bet) and nothing could have been matched in-play during a suspended market. I don’t even know how I can prove to them that this isn’t the case. My lesson from the whole debacle: If it happens again I need to immediately screenshot my software, the browser page, all matched/unmatched bets and ideally video them too otherwise it’s just their word against mine. I feel completely conned.