Actual start time source?

[tlkjb]

Hi!

When you are using a bot and not watching yourself any live stream, is there a - mostly reliable - source where you find the delay of the race / a "Not before X start time"?

The goal : The bot should close any position in the market before the market goes inplay. This means either stopping at the planed "Event Start Time" or manually interfering. Both are suboptimal solutions.

Thanks

tlkjb

[jamesedwards]

Hi!

When you are using a bot and not watching yourself any live stream, is there a - mostly reliable - source where you find the delay of the race / a "Not before X start time"?

The goal : The bot should close any position in the market before the market goes inplay. This means either stopping at the planed "Event Start Time" or manually interfering. Both are suboptimal solutions.

Thanks

tlkjb

Not that I know of. You could write something that tracks the time difference between due off and actual off times from the previous race then use that as a broad assumption as to the approx delay of the upcoming race?

[Derek27]

Delays to any sporting event are entirely unpredictable. Horses can bolt a minute before scheduled time or any predicted time.

Nowadays, if somebody needs an ambulance, you'd be better off taking him to a football match and telling a marshal he's ill. He'll get immediate medical attention from the staff while they hold up the match and then the stadium ambulance to hospital.

[ShaunWhite]

I don't know a feed for what you're looking for but if you just wanted to achieve the goal, you can make your closing bets TakeSP bets at 1000 and 1.01. Cancelling and replacing where necessary, and then you can bet right up to the point the market turns in-play. SP will be approx the price when the market suspends so if you refresh the stake on your closing bets as your liability changes or the prices move you can get pretty close to green across the card. That's what I do anyway.

"The goal : The bot should close any position in the market before the market goes inplay. " - Check

"This means either stopping at the planed "Event Start Time" - Nope.
"or manually interfering." - Nope

[Derek27]

I don't know a feed for what you're looking for but if you just wanted to achieve the goal, you can make your closing bets TakeSP bets at 1000 and 1.01. Cancelling and replacing where necessary, and then you can bet right up to the point the market turns in-play. SP will be approx the price when the market suspends so if you refresh the stake on your closing bets as your liability changes or the prices move you can get pretty close to green across the card. That's what I do anyway.

Do you ever get stung in Australian markets with a big discrepancy between price at off and BSP?

I've never been an SP man but a lot of traders used to complain about a gap between the two in Australian markets when the market usually goes in-play a few seconds after the race is off?

[Euler]

This is very prevalent in the UK in my experience but less so in AUS because they go off on time more often. BSP in the UK is a bit shot due to Betfair starting it way after the real off.

[ShaunWhite]

Do you ever get stung in Australian markets with a big discrepancy between price at off and BSP?

Yep, some big ones. But it's both ways and I'm trading about 600 Aus selections a day (between 1 and 8 per market) so they wash out pretty quickly. Seperating out just the closing bets they're very slightly +ve so it's not having a detrimental effect.