Why is this happening?!

[andak fedal]

So, I have developed my first horse racing 'bot' which deploys possibly the most obvious and basic of strategies - firing in lays when the overround is over a certain amount between certain odds ranges as short at 1.2 but no more than 10.

This worked pretty well when I first tried it out on Saturday but ever since it's rapidly bleeding me dry!

What I don't understand is why I'm failing to strike value bets. More times than not I'm either laying winners at double figures or get double the amount of lays on one of the favs and it duly romps home.

I Would really appreciate some insight into why this wouldn't work like it should in theory, not that I really expected something so simple to do so but I feel I need t understand why this might not work to move on and develop a more comprehensive strategy!

Thanks in advance

[Captain Sensible]

Not too sure what you're trying to do. Are you trying to get an overround book over 100% for risk free cash? or just hoping just cos the overround is above a certain figure it all the sudden becomes value?

If you're firing bets in play you need to remember there's a delay so just because bets have been put up doesn't mean you'll get them especially as so many people are playing with much better feeds and more likely sent in bets based on what they've seen first.

In play you'll most likely only have your poor value bets taken plus betfairs cross matching grabs most of the overrounds these days for itself which will also mean any poor value bets quickly get swept up.

As for getting double the amounts of lays you need to look at your coding and ensure you're not duplicating bets unless that's what you want to do.

[andak fedal]

Thanks for your input Captain. Basically I'm just hoping that because the overround is extremely high I can lay lots of bets at value until it stabilises again but it seems I am not getting much value at all!

I don't see how this is possible. How can people have faster feeds? We all have a one sec delay don't we and I cancel the bets if they're not matched imediately.

[Ian]

By faster feeds, the Captain means faster picture feeds, varying from real time for those actually at the track, to those at home who are up to 7 seconds behind.