Data output to MySQL etc

[mctash]

Hi all

Would it be possible to dump out the price data on a particular runner (or the current market) to a database? Possibly connecting to mysql etc.

I could make a separate program which collects the data through the api but I fear the data charge when running two programs making calls at once.

My motivation for this request is to be able to build an app to rerun the action from a particular market.

Now I could do this by recording the screen but that removes the ability to have the good old pc analyze the data after.

I had a quick look at the excel connection and i guess a way could be bodged through VBA to relay the data to a back end db. This is obviously less efficient than having BetAngel do it directly.

Having this ability (and therefore the data) would provide scope for many tools for post session analysis and review.


Any thoughts?

John

[Bet Angel]

We did have a product that would allow this but Betfair asked us to remove it from the market. They will not allow us to provide products that allow people to actively archive historical data unfortunately. They want to charge users for any individually exported data.

[PeterLe]

Hi John,
You may fnd the book "Automatic Exchange Betting" by Colin Magee helpful. (A bit heavy technically though, but some great ideas within)..
He also has a web site called Betwise..have a look around there..
Regards
Peter

PS I've exchanged emails with the author. He is extremely helpful.If he isnt currently able to help you..he may take it on as a commission for a fee?

[Bet Angel]

That's the silly thing about it, anybody can extract data with a bit of effort. So why can't publishers let customer create tools to do the same?

[mctash]

Thank you both for your replies.

The reason I wanted to do this was because i'm learning to trade and as you can imagine (and may remember ) it all a bit 'quick' at my level to both trade and study the effect different factors have on price concurrently.

Do Betfair explicitly disallow the capture and storage of market data from the api?

I'm a hobbyist programmer and did start my own trading software, then I discovered BetAngel and decided not to reinvent the wheel. Especially since it would take an age for me to get it to anywhere near the sophistication of BetAngel.

I guess I'll just make my own program to do this then. Just another hurdle on Betfairs track . The downside of this is the markets I'd like to capture are precisely the ones I should be trading.I suppose I could just take the data charge on the chin by running both. Actually thinking about it, is it possible to have two bits of software connected to the api using the same account?

Anyway, thank you for your input

John

[iguess]

Hi mctash,

I am in the same position as you only I landed on the forum later.

>> Do Betfair explicitly disallow the capture and storage of market data from the api?

That will be good to know.
Can contact me at [email protected]

Cheers

[arospt]

I have the same interests as you.

mail me arospt[at]gmail.com

[Bet Angel]

Betfair don't specifically dis-allow capture of data from the API they just don't allow it to be redistributed or resold without their permission, they actively try to discourage it. We ask them every other month to change their mind as it would be so simple to put data capture into Bet Angel be each time we ask if we can do this they refuse permission.

However it would be perfectly possible for somebody to write a data capture tool and send it to members of the forum for them to capture their own data. I don't see the difference to be honest?!?!

If you want to analyse markets in more depth I suggest you use the spreadsheet tool in Bet Angel as a starting point.

[mctash]

I quite agree. The only real stumbling block for anyone is not being able to program. As you rightly say the info is there and is easily to hand.

I had started writing my program with great enthusiasm. Imagine a 4 deck tape player, each one capable of recording concurrently (I figured as resolution of 3 or 4 samples per second per market to be sufficient). Alas, I'm limited to 60 calls to get market prices (compressed) per minute on the free api.

So its back to sampling just one market at a lower resolution than I'd like Never mind.

Anyway, my IDE is calling me.....

John

[iguess]

Actually what I did is reading the browser and getting the odds for all the bookies.

At the momment I cant hadle the data as per day I get 40 000 rows at a scan interval of 10 minutes... not to mention the relatedtables that get filled - horses and races etc.

So is not very usefull for me for the moment so I put that on hold.
But if somebody wants it let me know.

[Mug]

You can use the bet angel charting spreadsheet to capture data, if that helps.

[mctash]

Had a quick peek at that now. When you start the chart the next sheet starts to fill data horizontally.

I could pump that out to a db but I think it will just make the separate app anyway. Its a hobby so I enjoy it (Well as much as you can enjoy the API documentation).

J