How do you deal with outage/disconnect liability?

[stueytrader]

Maybe a little bit paranoid (can happen in trading I find) but how do you all cope with the problem of potential liability with outages such as BF going down (the most obvious) or even something stupid like power cuts/loss of internet, during a bigger trade?

I am often a layer, so that adds some fairly scary looking reds in temporary sense of course. I wouldn't want those going into a 'bet' situation, ever. But there are possible scenarios where I couldn't control it, such as above.

What do you do on this issue?

[jamesg46]

Not really that much we can do about BF outages but you can generally feel when something isn't right and the forum is very quick to pick up anything.

Power cuts & Internet outages don't concern me in the slightest. My laptop has an 8 hour battery life and I've always got my phone if I need to hit the cash out on the BF app using my phones data, not WiFi.

[Dallas]

https://www.betfairtradingblog.com/betf ... age-crash/

[stueytrader]

Thanks guys - I use a part of these approaches, but maybe need to look more into the phone (4g) alternative for internet/powercut side too. I don't have that set up, but probably should!

[stueytrader]

One complication, even given all the options, is sometimes not knowing if bets were matched during a crash on BF - e.g. sometimes the take bets are matched, but sometimes not? So, you are guessing what your position is?

[stueytrader]

The other question is the 'voided' one also - will they void matched bets during a crash.

[Dallas]

The other question is the 'voided' one also - will they void matched bets during a crash.

They don't void bets if they have a crash, that's been the subject of debate for a long time on what they should do in these situations (there's a few threads on here popped up over the years usually after a major outage).

Once the bet is marked as SP bet they'll reconcile that manually once they've fixed the problem so the bulk of your bet/trade is covered.

Edit, just remembered this one I started several years ago
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15501

[stueytrader]

The other question is the 'voided' one also - will they void matched bets during a crash.

They don't void bets if they have a crash, that's been the subject of debate for a long time on what they should do in these situations (there's a few threads on here popped up over the years usually after a major outage).

Once the bet is marked as SP bet they'll reconcile that manually once they've fixed the problem so the bulk of your bet/trade is covered.

Edit, just remembered this one I started several years ago
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15501

Thanks, is that absolutely certain whenever you select the 'take sp' option - so they would get matched even if the exchange was completely down?

[Anbell]

The other question is the 'voided' one also - will they void matched bets during a crash.

They don't void bets if they have a crash, that's been the subject of debate for a long time on what they should do in these situations (there's a few threads on here popped up over the years usually after a major outage).

Once the bet is marked as SP bet they'll reconcile that manually once they've fixed the problem so the bulk of your bet/trade is covered.

Edit, just remembered this one I started several years ago
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15501

Thanks, is that absolutely certain whenever you select the 'take sp' option - so they would get matched even if the exchange was completely down?

TakeSP is never guaranteed. FOr some reason they rank below SP. e.g. if a horse is 2.0 and there's $100 to back SP and $100 to lay it, the TakeSP is 'not needed' and the bet won't get placed. This doesnt happen very often in practice. LimitSP is also a separate rank, I think below TakeSP.

Also, there's another catch with TakeSP. If there is a non-runner that is removed before the race, then the TakeSP bets get immediately converted to SP, and are you can no longer cancel them.

[stueytrader]

I'm rather confused must admit, about the last two posts about the 'Take SP' option.

Dallas states they become guaranteed to get matched once selected, but this last post states they are in no way guaranteed to be matched?

[stueytrader]

Thought just then was going to be my first test for outage liability and 'Take SP' bets...

It just went down with me holding some 'take SPs' for race early this afternoon.

So, I looked at the other posts about Take SP, and it seems the same claims as this thread - some have said they are matched during an outage, but some still dispute that?

[ShaunWhite]

Thought just then was going to be my first test for outage liability and 'Take SP' bets...

It just went down with me holding some 'take SPs' for race early this afternoon.

So, I looked at the other posts about Take SP, and it seems the same claims as this thread - some have said they are matched during an outage, but some still dispute that?

Depends where the outage is. If Betfair has gone down then they ain't gonna settle any bets. If it's just the api and their matching engine is still operational, and your takesp bet is already lodged, then it will.

[Trader Pat]

I've never had any issues regarding SP bets not being taken, they've always been reconciled for me

[stueytrader]

Thanks both - but this issues still seems a little equivocal sadly!

There are still arguments presented for both the surety and lack of surety for Take SP bets it seems is the answer - which is not very reassuring if you hold large liability on a trade in an outage.

[weemac]

I can confirm that once or twice in the past I have seen BF take the industry SP and add 10% or so to these prices until a 100% BFSP book is reached.

I'm 99.75% sure that if you have a Take SP bet in the system, you'll get matched at BFSP, however it's arrived at. I have never once been left crying, "Hey why didn't my TakeSp get matched?", and I do use it a lot.

But really only BF can fully answer the question. Good luck with that one!