Betfair Hedging
- Betting Hedging
- Betfair Hedging Calculator
- Betfair Hedging Stocks
- Betfair Hedging Meaning
- Betfair Hedging Vs
- Betfair Hedging Strategies
On Friday 19th June, without any prior notification, Betfair introduced some changes and new rules to their API. This had the effect of preventing ALL API software users correctly hedging position on the Betfair betting exchange.
Hedging or hedging betting is a type of betting when a bettor puts 2 bets for the same even but with different outcomes selections. Hedging bets is usually done to minimise the risk of losing money. Nowadays, punters can manage their bets online and hedge even. Greening up: Applying maths to hedge your profit. Share this story. 5 Use your Betfair account credentials to log on to the App. Your vendor will provide guidance and support on getting up and running on the App. Learn more Got it. X Watch the Video.
Betting Hedging
Typically this would have exhibited itself when trying to implement greening. The Betfair exchange wasn’t accepting orders correctly, leaving stray orders in your unmatched bet area. This meant that customers were left with slightly uneven positions in the market which they were trading.
Changes to the API should be announced in advance and that gives us time to implement and test any key changes. On this occasion Betfair changed the API without informing us, so the first we knew about it was when we spotted it ourselves when trying to hedging our own trading postions. Betfair didn’t acknoledge any changes until much later than evening.
Why did this happen?
Betfair felt the integrity of the exchange was threatened by an exploit that existed.
There has been a loophole in the way Betfair round bets for many years and is often exploited by a few users so it’s is something that’s been on their radar for quite some time, obviously though something must of happened during last week to prompt them into doing the sudden unannounced change when they did on Friday.
For example – a 13p @ 1.06 back bet is ‘unfair’ as it ‘ought’ to win 0.78p, but actually – due to the old rounding – wins 1p, which is a 28% uplift in profit.
However having hundreds and thousands of tiny bets like that hitting the exchange from various accounts purposely exploiting this loophole is bad for API stability which effects us all so its not a bad thing Betfair have taken decision to close this exploit once and for all.
What we did
Although no one was aware of this change coming, we spotted something was wrong within hours and moved quickly to release an updated build of Bet Angel later that same evening to our forum to try and reduce the wider impact these new changes were having on customers using stakes below the £2 Betfair minimum, particularly when greening up with small stakes. This enabled Bet Angel users to continue using the software and their trading throughout that weekend.
Once we were able to speak with Betfair and get clear confirmation of what exactly what it was they changed and what the new parameters and calculations now being used were we could then issue another build of this Bet Angel at the start of this week with tighter coding.
Updating Bet Angel
We recommend updating Bet Angel. These updated versions will still allow you to continue to place bets and green up with small stakes still. But due to the new Betfair rounding rules, there may be times when your P/L still ends up uneven by a few pence. So we have also updated the Bet Angel logging to spot when the API rejects these bets due to rounding, this allows users to see clearly if that was indeed the reason their order was rejected or not.
If that does happen you will see an error written to your Bet Angel log which looks like ” While Greening Up Unable to Place Lay Bet Due to Befair’s Rules Regarding Payout/Liability Rounding”
The latest builds of Bet Angel are now;
These can be downloaded from both our forum and main website, once installed you will see one of those build numbers in the bottom right corner of the blue login window or by clicking the ‘about’ tab once logged in.
If you are installing the latest version of Bet Angel to a VPS you may need to follow the specific instructions listed on this blog post.
Note; If you are not using the latest version, you will also see a pop-up message at login prompting you to download and install the latest version.
For full details of the changes made by Betfair on 19th June please see this post from their developer’s forum
The post Betfair API – Greening / Hedging / Cash out issues appeared first on Betfair trading blog Expert advice from Professional Betfair trade.
If you have heard of the term ‘hedging your bets’ then this calculator will allow you the opportunity to do precisely that.
The Hedge Bet Calculator (also sometimes known as the Lay Calculator) is a way of betting on both markets (to win and not to win) in such a way to ensure that regardless of the outcome, you will make a profit.
How to use the Hedging Bet Calculator
There are three sections to the Hedging Bet Calculator and we’ll explain how to complete each one below:
Top Section: Entering Bet Details and Commission
In this top section of the calculator, you need to enter in the bet details and also whether the bookmaker charges any commission on backing (which is unusual – hence the default setting of 0%) or laying (which is more common, usually between 1% and 5%) a selection.
In the first box, you enter details of the price that you backed the selection to win, which must be entered using decimal odds format (so odds of 2/1, would be entered as 3.0).
After that, you enter in how much you have staked on that selection to win.
In the next box, you enter what the lay price of your selection is once again in decimal format; this is the price you are backing the selection not to win at.
Once you have entered that price, you then need to enter any commission that you would need to pay to the bookmaker when backing (in the Back box) or laying (in the Lay box). You do this simply by selecting the appropriate percentage rate from the dropdown box.
It is important that you do state the correct commission percentages for both boxes as incorrectly entering them could potentially leave you out of pocket.
The great thing about this Hedging Calculator is that once you have entered all the details, the calculator automatically updates, showing you all the information you need to know in the two sections below.
Middle Section: The Results
The middle section of the Hedging Calculator displays the main results of the data you have entered in the top section.
Betfair Hedging Calculator
The first box details how much money you should lay in order to ensure you make a profit on the event in question. The second box shows you how much profit you would be guaranteed to make on the market overall, if you back the selection and lay against it.
Betfair Hedging Stocks
This information is summarised in the next two boxes. The Total Staked box outlines how much you would need to wager in total on backing and laying against the selection, while the guaranteed return box, shows you how much you’d win if your lay against selection wins.
The Bottom Section: The Summary – Profit / Loss
The final section of the calculator simply summarises what your profit and liabilities are for each possible outcome of the event you have decided to back and lay against a selection in.
In the first section, Wins, this outlines how much money you would win from the bookmaker from backing your selection, together with how much you would lose from laying against that selection winning.
The second section, Losses, shows how much money you would make if your backed selection does not win (Lay Profit), together with how much you would stand to lose (Back Liability).
Betfair Hedging Meaning
In both cases, you should find that the Back Profit and Lay Profit columns offer a positive return over the liability columns. If they do, then regardless of the outcome of the event in question, between your two wagers, you will turn a profit.