Betfair Accounts

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PeterLe
Posts: 3729
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:19 pm

I just thought Id post an update
I received a call this afternoon from Robert at Betfair and he kindly confirmed that I am able to retain my accounts. He apologised and said that it was an error on their part as it had been flagged up during a verification exercise to find duplicate accounts.
Fair play to betfair in taking the time to call me and to be honest, maybe I was a little hasty in being dismissive initially
Regards
Peter
PS The new rules came in with the sportsbook, (Ive had my accounts many years before the Sportsbook started). If you (or I) were joining now we would be limited to a single account
Patrick
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:41 pm

Peter W has pointed this thread out to me as I've had a similar problem to the one described above.

I have a second BF account that's been dormant for four or five years, but which I now want to start using again. Since I last used that second account, though, my main account has begun to attract the premium charge. So I contacted BF to say i wanted to revive the second account and that it should be linked to my main one for premium charge purposes. In reply I got this:

"Unfortunately we now operate a one account per customer policy, so we will not be able to allow you to use two accounts at one time.

This is due to several reasons including your mentioned query about customers who pay premium charge.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Thanks,

*******

Betfair Helpdesk"

That wasn't a satisfactory response, obviously, so I went back to them asking for a clearer, or any, explanation and got this:

"We can confirm that it is a company decision that all customer now have only one account one of the reasons is to stop potential promotion abuse also customers payments cards can only be registered
On one account also only one email address can be used.

Thanks,

Betfair Helpdesk"

Which wasn't any clearer at all. We know it's not a matter of the premium charge, as Betfair can easily link accounts belonging to the same user; and is "potential promotion abuse" really a problem?

If anyone has any suggestions about how I might get this thing concluded satisfactorily, I'd be grateful!
PeterLe
Posts: 3729
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:19 pm

Hi Patrick,
I was using mine day in and day out for the last 8 years or so, so that strengthened my argument
As you've not used it for 4 or 5 years, I think your going to find it an uphill struggle?

(I assume you know that you can run multiple copies of betangel under the same name?)
Regards
Peter
Patrick
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:41 pm

Hi Peter

I didn't know that, but I'd still prefer to have two accounts in order to run separate strategies and to be able to analyse the results of each independently. Take your point about the dormancy of account no. 2 - that may be a problem. All the same, I don't see the point of Betfair's stance. I've no interest in the sportsbook, and if both strategies work out it's more commission (including premium charge) for them.

Also it would be nice to have a plausible reason or reasons expressed coherently. Can't say I've had that yet.
User avatar
Euler
Posts: 26473
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:39 pm

You may want to drop an email to [email protected] and see if they can do anything, or at least explain.
xitian
Posts: 457
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:08 pm

I'm pretty sure there is a master/sub-account system that is allowed within their policy for users. I'm just not sure if that's reserved for special people as well or not.

I did email them regarding my multiple accounts about a week ago when Peter had his issue, but my query just got passed around various departments until it just went silent.
steven1976
Posts: 1744
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:28 am

Why do they make allowances for old accounts, I dont get it? Well i do actually :roll: :!:

Seriously, i think the exchanges would be better if they made it the same rule for everyone.
Patrick
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:41 pm

Thanks, Euler, I'll certainly do that.
Patrick
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:41 pm

Hmmm. Just emailed bdp, and within ten minutes had a reply - but from the Helpdesk, giving the same non-reasons as I've already had. This is getting frustrating!
xitian
Posts: 457
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:08 pm

Did you ask them about setting up a second account as a sub-account instead of an independent one?

As far as I understand, it ends up being the same thing. Just that the sub-account is initially funded from the first (master) account. Other than that, the accounts should settle separately so that you can track different strategies.

Would be interesting to hear if they are restricting these to specific people too.
xitian
Posts: 457
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:08 pm

As an eventual alternative, I read somewhere that the API will eventually support tagging of bets with a reference which you can later retrieve bets by.

That would solve tracking different strategies. I just hope that they will support downloading of bet history and P&L on their website based on the reference too.
User avatar
Euler
Posts: 26473
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:39 pm

I've asked Betfair to clarify exactly what their policy is.
Wainwright
Posts: 108
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:10 pm

As an eventual alternative, I read somewhere that the API will eventually support tagging of bets with a reference which you can later retrieve bets by.

That would solve tracking different strategies. I just hope that they will support downloading of bet history and P&L on their website based on the reference too.
- the API supports this now, it's already possible for a single instance of client software to have any number of strategies executing simultaneously and be able to track their P&Ls separately. There is a trade-off in response time because orders are individually retrieved from the API rather than the overall "rolled up" position, but it's not that onerous.
xitian
Posts: 457
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:08 pm

For some reason I can't seem to find any documentation or release notes on this feature.

Wainwright, could you let me know if you are aware of any please? I might just not be looking correctly.

Thanks in advance.

On a separate note, I've noticed that the Race Status API has been released now too. This should tell you how close the race is to starting. Unfortunately the documentation doesn't link to a list of the possible statuses.

Does anyone know how reliable the Race Status API is for keeping track of when the race is about to start? I would assume this would be a really useful feature for BetAngel for people without pictures.

I've started a new topic here regarding the Race Status API to avoid hijacking this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11120
Wainwright
Posts: 108
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:10 pm

Xitian - you can use the customerRef field in placeOrders/placeExecutionReport to tie your strategies orders to Betfair's betIds;

http://tinyurl.com/gv2cwfp

http://tinyurl.com/ztb3rev

- you can then keep track of which betIds belong to which strategy & handle its position & P&L seperately
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