Automatic Exchange Betting by Colin Magee
The past decade has seen a technological revolution in facilities for betting on horseracing and other sports. From the proliferation of online information to the advent of betting exchanges, it is now possible to analyse form and betting odds; run selection systems; place bets and track results electronically.
Today, the leading betting exchange, Betfair, matches 15 times as many daily transactions as the London Stock Exchange.
Crucially, the availability of programmatic access to exchange markets via an application programming interface (API), enables the final piece in reliable automation of the entire betting process.
Automatic Exchange Betting examines each stage of the betting process and shows how it can be automated, with numerous examples applied to horseracing, all implemented using the Betfair API.
Betting strategies, best practice and pitfalls are presented which illustrate the concepts of betting automation, together with practical, re-useable code examples written in open source software to work with Betfair’s Free Access API.
The book shows how automating betting strategies not only saves time, but introduces an entirely new paradigm for betting.
A combination of speed of execution, consistency and scalability means hitherto impossible betting strategies become feasible, and methodical approaches to betting can be implemented without manual intervention.
Let’s face it. There are very few books about gambling that give information that isn’t already available in the public domain. Many are a complete waste of money. I guess it’s not hard to work out why. If someone makes a big effort and goes through financial sacrifice to develop methods to make money out of gambling the last thing they are going to do is share them!!
This is why Colin Magee’s book is such a revelation. It provides the mechanics of automated betting in such a way that most people can make use of it. Colin has obviously worked very hard to accumulate all his knowledge and techniques, yet seems very happy to share it. It’s true to say that to make the best out of it you need to come up with your own theories to gain an edge, but this books gives you the means to put them into practice.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in exploring the concept of gambling as an investment rather than a thrill generator.
