From making a bet to getting the result

[Roger]

Gary, You did a great job of explaining the bet reference coming back after a bet is made. Could you please give me the sequence of getting the result, please?

As I understand it, if bets are being laid in races every five minutes, as soon as a bet reference is available, it will be sent to the spreadsheet and can be read from there until it is cleared out, which happens when the next race loads. The presence of the reference stops another bet on the same horse; if more than one bet on a horse is to be made, you must clear the bet reference first, and then another bet reference will be returned.

Where I am confused is in the way the results are logged. If you have specified Log Results in a sheet, an entry will be made in that sheet giving a result. It used to be for matched results only, but now unmatched bets are logged too. Apart from the RESULT_WON, RESULT_LOST and RESULT_NOT_AVAILABLE entries, I believe I have read of a PENDING result? At five-minute intervals, it may be two or more races later when the full result for each bet in the race is available. If I ignore any result entry other than won or lost, will every bet reference where the bet was matched eventually be logged to the sheet? I don't lose them? If I do, is there a way of recovering entries?

I did some experiments a while back, and found that erasing some part of the sheet would refresh the whole log. That was manually, but presumably I could use VBA to do it. Is there any other technique to use? Sorry to ask so many questions.

[GaryRussell]

You are correct about the bet ref preventing further bets being replaced until cleared.

I was asked a while back to also include unmatched bets which until now have been logged as RESULT_NOT_AVAILABLE. There is no PENDING result, it was either RESULT_WON, RESULT_LOST or RESULT_NOT_AVAILABLE. I have updated the latest build of version 1.1.0.21 to include a 4th result type. If the bet was cancelled for whatever reason, eg. not matched before off, then the result will read CANCELLED. Uninstall your current version using the control panel and re-install from http://www.gruss-software.co.uk/Betting ... a_Test.msi to get this version.

What happens internally is that every time column T is populated with a bet reference it is added to a list that Betting Assistant keeps track of so it does not matter if the ref gets subsequently cleared from column T. This list will continue to grow as more bets are placed, bets are never removed from the list, unless of course the program is closed down.

When the market is changed the first thing it does is to update the results worksheet. Everything is overwritten which is why you will see bets reappear even if you cleared the cells. This update only occurs when the market is changed.

[Roger]

Thanks Gary. Just to clarify, what will be in the results sheet, assuming there may have been multiple bets in some races, some of which will have been only 5 minutes apart. What I think I'll see is an entry for every bet reference since the program was last started, either a won or lost for those that fully matched before being cancelled, or with a P suffix for partially matched. If a bet wasn't matched at all and was then cancelled, that would be a not available entry. (It still gets a bet reference, doesn't it?) The top few entries would be not available, because the results haven't had time to be settled yet. Have I missed anything?

[Roger]

Apart from the CANCELLED ones you're changing to...

[GaryRussell]

You will get an entry for every bet whether matched, partially matched or fully cancelled.

The result will be as follows.

RESULT_NOT_AVAILABLE: The bet was matched or partially matched, but has not been settled therefore the result is not yet known.
RESULT_WON: The bet was won
RESULT_LOST: The bet was lost
CANCELLED: The bet was cancelled without any portion being matched

Every bet will be listed every time the market is changed, there should not be any missing because they haven't been settled, they should still be in the list showing RESULT_NOT_AVAILABLE

[Roger]

Many thanks, Gary, that seems clear enough even for me! LOL

[Frinck]

Hi Gary,

Interesting info about getting results in Excel. I have a couple of questions off the back of it:

1) Is it possible to look for results more frequently rather than just when the market changes?

2) Sometimes my Excel workbook will crash, causing me to close BA and reload everything again. Following on from what you say about BA retaining a list of bet refs in memory, any results I've got pending will never get retrieved since BA has been restarted. Therefore, would it be possible for BA to recreate this list of bet refs somehow?

Cheers,
Frinck.

[GaryRussell]

1) Yes, it's possible and I promised to look at this before so I am working on this currently.

2) I'll see what I can do.

[GaryRussell]

The latest build of version 1.1.0.21 accepts -6 in cell Q2 to update the bet results. You also now have the option of restoring the bet refs from a previous session. For the restore to work BA must have been closed normally, not crashed. When you start logging you will see a button under the results worksheet drop down list if there are bet refs available to restore. Click the button and it will turn green to indicate they will be restored when logging commences.

Uninstall your current version using the control panel and re-install from http://www.gruss-software.co.uk/Betting ... a_Test.msi to try it out.

[Roger]

Do you know Gary, you are one special guy! Thanks ever so much for these changes.

[Frinck]

Brilliant - thank you for incorporating these requests - especially so soon!

Cheers,
Frinck.