One of the top betting software options available, Gruss Betting Assistant continues to be a powerful tool for Betfair traders.
Amongst others, one of the most common questions we receive is: Which software should I use for trading?
Gruss is often the preferred choice for in-play bettors. However, thanks to its flexibility and robust features, it’s now equally popular among pre-race traders looking for efficiency and precision.
What Is Gruss Betting Assistant?
Gruss Betting Assistant is a 3rd party piece of software that can be used to trade on both the blue and purple exchanges. This means that you can place trades on the exchanges without relying on their website. Using 3rd party tools such as Gruss Betting Assistant will give you access to plenty of features that aren’t available through the exchange websites.
Gruss is owned by two brothers, Gary and Mark Russell. Gary stumbled across Betfair Exchange in 2004, just a few years after the site was launched. After initially using the Betfair website to place his trades, he decided to build his own software that would make trading on the exchange much easier.
The software uses the API to communicate with the exchanges and place the trades that you tell it to. These can be manually executed or you can set the software to automatically trade for you if you give it a set of rules. They do have some basic templates to get you started on their forum.
Note: An API (Application Programming Interface) is a method of allowing two pieces of software to talk to each other. It acts fairly similar to a translator and is widely used in other applications around the world.
Why Use Gruss Betting Assistant?
Using Gruss Betting Assistant in 2025 is almost essential for serious traders. The software’s features, including one-click betting and ladder interfaces, offer unmatched efficiency for pre-race and in-play trading. While it’s possible to trade directly on Betfair Exchange, the delays in placing or exiting trades can result in missed opportunities. By providing faster execution and access to advanced market data, Gruss Betting Assistant ensures traders remain competitive, especially in high-liquidity markets. The markets move fast!
Also; without the ladder interface, it’s very difficult to get a clear picture of the market. For example; you might see that there is a lot of money waiting to be matched at a key price on the ladder that is too far away from the last traded price to be shown on the website. This could change the price action if you weren’t expecting resistance in the market at that point.
Whilst trading software doesn’t make you a better trader, it can help improve your efficiency. You’ll be able to access market information more easily and place orders quicker than you would be able to without any software.
Software such as Gruss is probably less important for people who are placing simple, back or lay bets. The software is designed primarily for traders who need to enter or exit positions in the market quickly. Which is why it was so popular with in-running punters when first released. Unfortunately, Gruss isn’t as heavily marketed as others software so many new traders don’t find it. It’s a shame because it’s a good trading app.
Gruss Features:
Gruss Betting Assistant includes many useful features, with the standout being one-click betting. Perfect for pre-race and in-play trading, this feature allows users to place bets with a single click quickly. Without this, you’d need to manually input odds and stakes, often missing opportunities in fast-moving markets
Dutching Facility
Dutching means to bet on multiple outcomes of an event in order to produce a guaranteed profit. Gruss software can make dutching much easier by calculating stake amounts, automatic betting and the ability to set stop losses.
Ladder Interface
Originally used in financial markets, ladder interfaces allow the user to see all orders within a market. When using the Betfair Exchange website, you will only be able to see how much money is available at a small number of price points. The ladder interface allows you to see a much wider range of odds and the orders that are being placed/withdrawn within them.
Tick offset with stop-loss
A lot of traders find tick offsets helpful when scalping. When you place a stake in the market, the software will automatically place a trade on the other side of the book at an offset of your choice. For example, if you want to scalp for 2 ticks profit, you can enter “2” into the tick offset box. The software will wait for you to place an order and automatically place a closing trade 2 ticks away. Should anything go wrong, you also have the option to set an automatic stop-loss. I don’t believe in stop-losses, but still, the options are there.
Allows automated betting from Microsoft Excel
With some basic knowledge of Excel, you can put Gruss to work and use it for automated betting. They have plenty of tutorials on how to do this properly on their website. The software will work with an Excel sheet and place orders within the market according to commands within the sheet. These orders can be triggered once the odds reach a certain point.
Gary and Russell are quite open to suggestions and actively encourage people to get in touch with ideas to improve the software, which is great. If you visit the contact page on their site, you’ll find details to get in touch and inquire about more features.
Is Gruss Betting Assistant Software Safe?
Whilst you do enter your Betfair login details into the software, this information is not recorded by Gruss. It is simply referenced with the chosen exchange and if correct, you will be able to trade from your account.
Arguably the most important safety aspect you should be focusing on is yourself. With one-click betting enabled, it’s very easy to accidentally place an order that could cost you dearly. Because of this, you should try to remember to close the software down when you’re not actively using it, avoiding any miss-clicks.
When thinking about using any product or service around Betfair or Betdaq, it’s always best to check their respective apps directories. Much like this website, Gruss is listed on both.
Using Gruss Betting Assistant:
Most sports trading software works in a similar way. If you have used other sports trading software before, you shouldn’t have too much trouble using Gruss.
Gruss has a forum available to talk with other traders and ask for help when needed. You can also find plenty of useful resources on their website which includes trading videos and explanations of the software.
Using Excel With Gruss Betting Assistant:
The ability to link Excel worksheets with Gruss Betting Assistant makes the software much more powerful than on its own. On their forum, you can find lots of threads with examples of using the software with Excel to trigger bets into the betting market.
In 2025, the integration of Gruss Betting Assistant with Microsoft Excel remains a standout feature. Advanced traders use this functionality to automate strategies, monitor trends, and execute triggered bets with precision. Excel macros allow users to define custom conditions, such as automated stop-losses, greening up, or betting at specific price thresholds. This level of customization sets it apart from other tools, making it ideal for those looking to combine manual and automated trading approaches. Additionally, the Gruss forum offers an extensive library of Excel templates and guides, ensuring traders of all levels can maximize their potential.
What are triggered bets?
Using Gruss and Excel together, you can define conditions that will trigger the software to do something. These conditions can be anything from time, price movement to favoritism. Following these conditions being met. You can then set the software to automatically place an order or perform another action (such as greening up) automatically.
Triggered betting can be used for automatic trading or a combination of automatic and manual. For example; you might want to manually trade pre-race odds but then use the software to automatically green up before the off, just in case you forget!
Automated Scalping…
The Excel integration allows for all kinds of automated trading.
One of the most common forms of trading, especially for newcomers is scalping. This involves placing orders at either side of the book that are just a few ticks away from each other. This is best done in stable, sideways markets where there is little volatility.
Luckily, the Excel link with Gruss allows for scalping to be automated. But of course, it’s always worth keeping an eye on it and putting it to use in the right markets.
On the Gruss forum, you can find all kinds of shared Excel files that work with Gruss to help trading, be it manually or automated. Gary has shared a simple scalping sheet on the forum free of charge. You can find it here.
Gruss Betting Assistant For Betdaq…
“Betdaq Betting Assistant” as they call it, works much the same as other versions. Of course, there’s one major difference, that being that each will only work for the relevant betting exchange.
Volume on Betdaq has been improving lately and is well worth keeping an eye on, especially during big sports events. At major race meetings such as Cheltenham. Some traders can find it difficult to get matched as their orders are stuck behind huge numbers in the market. If you’re having the same trouble, it would make sense to get hold of Betdaq Betting Assistant and try your luck on the same market with less volume.
How Much Does Gruss Cost?
Gruss Betting Assistant costs just £6 a month, with no initial fee. At the price of a couple of pints (or one posh one!), it’s a great deal. For what you get, it’s priced more than some of the other trading software that are aimed at the Betfair automation market.
Payments can be made via PayPal which is quick and easy to set up. Alternatively, if you don’t have a PayPal account, you can use their payment gateway as a guest.
Download Gruss Betting Assistant Free
Gruss currently offers a free, 30-day trial of their software with no obligations. Most other trading software companies offer this too so it’s well worth downloading it and seeing how you get on. Most other companies offer a free 14-day trial, this is up there as one of the longest free trial periods available on the market.
Tech Specs & Requirements:
You shouldn’t have any problems running Gruss Betting Assistant on most Windows computers. The software itself is extremely lightweight and non-demanding. As it’s reliant on Microsoft Framework 2.0 to run, the software can only be used on Microsoft Windows machines. As their website advises, you may need to install Microsoft Framework 2.0 on older machines in order for the software to run smoothly.
Needless to say, you won’t be able to use Gruss Betting Assistant on an iPad, iPhone, or any other smartphone.
You should always have a backup machine at the ready in case anything goes wrong with your software, or the computer you are using. If possible, have a backup internet connection too. This can be a smartphone or anything similar, so long as it can log in to the exchange website and close out of a trade if you are having technical problems.
Our Verdict:
Gruss Betting Assistant is a great tool to use for most sports trading styles on either exchange. If you’re taking sports trading seriously, you should almost definitely be taking full advantage of API software such as this as it will undoubtedly make life much easier.
Compared to other choices on the market, it doesn’t have any groundbreaking features that competitors don’t. However, it’s just as cheap (£6 per month) and offers a huge 30-day free trial for you to test the waters. Although not unique to Gruss Software, the Excel integration is interesting to those who want to automate bets. There are also a bunch of resources such as trading guides and Excel sheets available for automated trading. The guys at Gruss have built a useful product here that’s designed with the specialist bettor in mind.
As far as manual trading goes, Gruss isn’t a bad option at all. Not quite as customisable as my preferred application although similar in price. I definitely wouldn’t deter anyone from giving it a go.
15 thoughts on “Gruss Betting Assistant Review: Will it Help You Win in 2025? Updated”
Hi Caan,
How much (as a rough % of time) do you use Gruss versus Geekstoy? Or do you tend to use them for different things (e.g. different edges)?
Cheers
I don’t anymore, although have used Gruss in the past. The bits that are of most use are the re-set volume bars and the different coloured shadings on them – but geeks has that too now, which is what I use.
I wouldn’t deter anyone from using Gruss software at all though. From what I know its best suited to in-play traders and automaters. 🙂
Cheers Caan!
Thanks for the review, interesting stuff…
Also how do you reset volume bars on geeks? ( I did try a search but no luck)
Hi Jason, they don’t have a reset function. Although if you switch from volume bars to the old style and back it does reset the immediate volumes (in a darker colour).
I appreciate the honesty of your blog. I read it
Thank you Louis, we try to keep it concise and to the point!
This seems interesting. I like horses.
Certainly, trading horses with software is one of the better ways to make a profit.
Hi,,Dear Caan Berry,,, I’m in Betfair trading about one year.but not profitable.So I’m learning about scalping.when I have came in scalping universe,I found you the king specially in horse racing.I visit your website, and decided to take your video course.I read your personal details,and really like your lifestyle.I never use any third party website.
Please ans. my two questions about scalping…
If I scalp in Betfair exchange using a third-party website,how can i lay and back a same horse.in a same account?will it accepted by bookie?
Or will I have to use two Betfair account at the same time?
I prefer to use GeeksToy, but that’s down to personal preference. It’s certainly easier to use and works perfectly in laying horses. Maybe I will check out Gruss soon.
Hello caan i am trying to send money through paypal to grussoftware
but it is not accepting it i have been with them for a long time
also i sent several email to them but no return emails
are they still active big thank you caan bought a few things
off you before eddie
This is worrying me as well before I commit to their product. Any update Caan?
What is worrying you?
Hi Caan, I have been using Gruss for a while and your review is accurate. I wonder what your take is on using Gruss to Dutch 3 selections with a total outlay of £1000. The market instantly reacts to this and the whole bet possibly can’t be matched. Also, if a 3 Dutch selection is placed and one of those becomes a Non runner how would you close all bets?