Excel - How to tell if bet successful ?

[tkp]

Hi all,

Hoping for some help here.

Has anyone implemented a way of checking if a bet was successful in Excel - i.e. Specifically I need to know if a back bet was successful.

Or does anyone have any ideas on how to do this ?

Cheers

[Captain Sensible]

It'll show the bet reference in excel and also show the amount that has been matched. It updates this info on each refresh if only part was matched..

[tkp]

Cheers for the swift reply Captain.

I didn't make my plea for help very clear though.

I am trying to find out if the horse I have backed has won - via excel.

If I was only betting one horse per race I could perhaps do this with the account balance - but this won't always be the case - so I can't use this method.

Any ideas anyone ?

[GeorgeUK]

betfair have a feed that you can use - not looked at it for ages

Basically tells you who won or was placed.
Should be a webquery or something.

Edit: found the link.
http://rss.betfair.com/

just need to do a lookup formula or something for market type: winner and then your horse name.

[tkp]

Nice one George.

I have the RSS set up as a feed ....didn't think about using the web page it comes from.

Not sure if it will update often enough though - but I can test it out.

Many thanks,

[GeorgeUK]

I think data queries can be refreshed every minute.
If that isn't enough, you could try a macro that calls itself to run every 3 or 5 secs.

Just don't forget to put in a control to stop the code. If sheet 3 Range A1 = stop then endsub type thing.
Otherwise the only way to stop it is to use the esc key which migh interrupt any other code running.

[Mitch]

I know it's not foolproof but how about checking for the lowest "Last Price Matched"?

[tkp]

Cheers George - it's the Betfair RSS feed which doesn't get refreshed qucik enough - the US results are over 1hr behind - and I think from experience the UK racing is almost as slow.

Mitch - is the last matched price sent to excel ? Or do I need to catch it as the race ends ?

[tkp]

I've just noticed that exposure is now exported to excel.....so in theory I should know if a profit has been made on the last bet (presuming a quick betfair turnaround) by using a known starting bank..+exposure etc....

although Mitch I'd be interested in your reply on the last matched price - as might not get the account/exposure theory turned into a reality.

EDIT - Mitch I've just looked and noticed that there is a column for last matched price !! So long since I did anything with the actual export.

cheers

[Mitch]

Sorry, not been back on until now but I see you have the answer - in column O. The only drawback is if your market changes before you look at the spreadsheet, unless you code it to take the lowest when the market goes from in-play to suspended.

[tkp]

Hi Mitch,

My code checks the sheet at any interval down to 1 second - so I will keep checking until it reaches 1.01....that way I know which horse won.....

This method doesn't help me with Place betting though (because it doesn't go in-play) ..... so if anyone has any bright ideas....please let me know.

I think I'm going to have to use a web query in excel and parse the results.........big re-write of my code though.

[GeorgeUK]

I'd be interested to know what the best sites are for fast update of results.

Never really looked at it before, but curious now.

[dgs2001]

Hi All

I know this is not using my brain but can anyone let me have the lookup code for knowing the race winner.
If i understand this thread correctly it would be something to do with lookink up the first horse to get to back odds 1.01 and lay odds 1.01 once the event goes in play.

Hopefully this is the last bit in my spreadsheet puzzle


Thanks Duncan


Ok I was wrong again it's something to do with the last matched column still help would be appreciated !!

[Mitch]

Horses don't always get to 1.01 when they win, sometimes can be as high as 1.3 if it's a photo finish.

Once the race is over, this will tell you the row (with row5 - first selection - as 1) with the smallest last matched odds (I think.... not tested it)

Code: Select all

=MATCH(MIN(O5:O50),O5:O50,0)

[Mitch]

Almost forgot...

The quickest I've seen for results is Sporting Life "Fast Results" page, but there is live(ish) running commentary on thebettingsite.co.uk which may be quicker if you can pull the info from there.

Maybe teletext might be worth a look too?