Betfair data usage charges

[spreadform]

About a week ago I received an email from Betfair that I had incurred data charges but they would not charge me for this first occurrence. This was a surprise to me as I specifically had adjusted the throttle setting in BA (Options > Preferences > Throttling) and another program that I use concurrently to 10 requests per second. The two together should not be more than 20 I figured.

Well, I was wrong obviously. I requested my usage chart from Betfair Developers Program Support, and they quickly obliged. The peak usage was 34 requests, and there was heavy use at well above 20. After this, I lowered my throttle setting to 6 requests per second and asked BDP Support to send me my usage chart for Saturday, which is probably the heaviest use day of the week. The new usage showed a peak at 24 and three occurrences at 21. This is still slightly over the 20 limit, so I verified with them that such usage would not incur any charges. This was confirmed.

Bottom line: Set your throttle at 12 requests per second at the most if you are using one program only such as BA. The total requests per second should not exceed 12, so it will be 6 for two programs, 4 for three programs, etc.

Caveat: Because I am using two programs at the same time, there is no way for me to separate data usage for BA specifically. It is possible that the other program is the culprit or both are at fault.

[GaryRussell]

Obviously I cannot prove it, but I doubt BA was at fault. I am confident the throttling code is reliable. It even takes into account requests that have not received a response. So if for example the throttling is set to 10 and 10 requests were made the previous second, but 5 requests still had not received a response then only 5 requests would be allowed in the next second. This ensures that requests do not bunch up at Betfair's end and result in you going over the limit.

[spreadform]

Thanks Gary. I will investigate this further to find out which program is at fault.

[mak]

i have 2 BA's open every day with 4 & 3 tabs accordingly
i have set it to 5 & 15 req/sec and they are working fine...

[olisav]

I thought the maximum requests were 10/second?

[GaryRussell]

I thought the maximum requests were 10/second?

You are allowed 20 per second before Betfair charge. The default throttle limit is 10 in BA because Betfair requested this. You can change it in preferences. If you set it to 20 you must make sure you are not using any other API software or even the website because you will definitely go over 20.

Request charges and the limits are explained in the user guide. See http://www.gruss-software.co.uk/Betting ... p/help.htm and read the section titled "Request Charges".

[spreadform]

I have requested and now received a chart from BDP Support that breaks down requests by application. While BA did exceed the 6 per second limit imposed on it just once in five minutes (it made 7 requests), the main culprit was clearly the other program by regularly exceeding the same limit.

[GaryRussell]

I have requested and now received a chart from BDP Support that breaks down requests by application. While BA did exceed the 6 per second limit imposed on it just once in five minutes (it made 7 requests), the main culprit was clearly the other program by regularly exceeding the same limit.

I'm actually quite surprised there is one single instance of it exceeding the limit. If it did that every 5 minutes it would be 0.29p over 24 hours and that is not acceptable. There is no accounting for how Betfair count the requests in our defence. I am sure this does not cause a problem for the vast majority of our customers. I will obviously have to get Betfair to do some more checks on our throttling.

[doris_day]

spreadform, it seems to me that your best solution is simply to bet at a higher level. I regularly run at 50 requests/sec and don't have to pay any data charges. And I'm certainly not what I would call a big bettor.

[spreadform]

Thanks Gary. I believe one of the issues is that the Betfair timeframe might not align with the computer's timeframe so even though requests are throttled for the computer, the limit could be exceeded once in a while due to this variable offset of frames.

[spreadform]

Doris-day, naturally, which will come in time as the bankroll grows.

[GaryRussell]

Thanks Gary. I believe one of the issues is that the Betfair timeframe might not align with the computer's timeframe so even though requests are throttled for the computer, the limit could be exceeded once in a while due to this variable offset of frames.

Exactly. Also Windows is not a real time operating system therefore any timers used in an application are not exact to the millisecond. They can vary up to 15 milliseconds which would be enough to make a difference at Betfair's end.

[spreadform]

And the only proper solution to this enigma is to have Betfair measure requests per minute (or some period much larger than a second) and average it over the second. So, for example, they could specify 1,200 requests per minute rather than 20 per second plus add an allowance of a second's worth due to misalignment (i.e. 1,220 requests per minute would be acceptable in this example).

[Drunkenight]

Betfair's stated policy is not to try and make money out of the data charges or the transaction charges. Their idea is just to warn people when they are exceeding their usage and try to bring them in line. I am currently running at roughly 250 requests per second at peak times and sometimes I get data usage charges. As long as you only go over the data usage limit occasionally (once a month) then they will probably wave the charges if you email them. I have found Betfair particularly helpful when you email them to ask about usage and transaction charges. They will send you data and graphs about your usage, they are just as keen as you are to make sure your data usage and transactions are as efficient as possible

I have tried to suggest to Betfair that they change the period (to say a day), but have had no joy.

As doris_day says it may be worth increasing you betting levels to ensure that you pay enough comission to cover the data usage charges.

[2020vision]

Betfair's stated policy is not to try and make money out of the data charges or the transaction charges.

That is a load of BS - Betfairs policy is to SCREW AND MILK YOU FOR EVERY PENNY THEY CAN!

All the best - Michael