Free Betting System Guide & Tips For Using Auto Betting Software (Part 1)

The following is an edited version of a guide I wrote a while ago, I have condensed parts down for this article. The information within the following posts for this article where right at the time of writing, but some points may of changed slightly since then. (I originally wrote this at the beginning of this year.)

I’ve personally had the most success trading and testing different autobot systems on the greyhound markets – experimenting with all manner of settings and ideas which I have never been able to quite replicate as successfully in other market areas, which includes using bot and non – bot strategies. 

Perhaps this is due to the fact it is just dog against dog with potentially extremely minimal differences in track finishing times and no jockey or any extra parameters to complicate things. UK greyhounds also always have 6 runners on nearly every race from traps 1 to 6 with the occasional exception possibly due to a runner that has been removed for whatever reason. This makes trading greyhounds a far more simplistic choice of market and in my experience the more simplistic system usually makes for more effective and profitable bets.

It’s also important to point out that greyhound markets are over very quickly so they are usually settled quickly within your account, which can be a definite plus. I.e. if you use a 100% loss recovery (or any loss recovery options) in a system it can be useful if the market that has been traded on has been settled before your next bet on your markets kicks in. This can help the system to run smoothly and consistently as this means one market is fully finished and settled before another begins. 

Otherwise markets can really start to overlap with each other and you’re left with too many unsettled profitable and loosing markets all over the place. This can clash with the loss recovery running efficiently, so this is all definitely worth noting as it could affect your trading style. These are problems that I have found with soccer and the horses, whereas greyhound markets seem to run far more efficiently. 

These factors in my view are just some of the reasons which make greyhounds a decent choice for basing an auto trading strategy on, as you can run into problems trading other markets such as horses and football. Especially in higher volumes at least partly due to the above mentioned points.

Trading Style & Auto Betting

You will obviously have winning and losing days – as with any betting or financial trading. It’s similar to trading the Ftse 100 or forex currency markets. You can find many comparisons as working out a descent trading strategy and sticking to it religiously and emotionlessly takes an obvious amount of discipline, which can be the most difficult part of any trading / betting system.

I believe a good strategy going down the autobot route (or a combination of different autobot strategies) can be an efficient way of accomplishing this, as it can provide consistency and emotionless trading and definitely provide food for thought when choosing to use an autobot. 

It’s also important to keep records of all your trades such as in spreadsheet format so you can go over them and find any profitable patterns in your trades etc. Being able to analyse your results and check on your profit / loss especially over the longer term is definitely a step in the right direction to creating a profitable and winning formula.

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Advice, Recommendations & Free Basic System For Using Auto Betting Software (Part 2)

Money Management

Managing your money is always a subject of great debate when using a betting / trading system(s) but I believe (at least for the strategy that I will present here) that keeping it simple is the best way to manage your money. Obviously as you have heard, probably many times before, just don’t put in what you can’t afford to lose.

I also use a separate bank account which I use just for betting / trading and any money being withdrawn or deposited into or from my Betfair account goes through it. If I do use a more volatile system, have a bigger loss day or I want to top up my account if the system I’m using is still profitable and viable in the long run – I will “repair” the betting account from this separate bank account. 

The system that I will present here can use a bank roll of just about any amount you wish, as you are just taking 20% of it as your lay to liability stake. So you could use an initial bank roll from say £10. 

You can of course, if you wish, use a low starting bank roll such as £10. This will just reduce profits; this is a good idea if you want a live non-simulation run of the system without much risk but with a real money experience.

The system that I will cover has a possible maximum loss on a negative day of any amount up to the bank roll you choose to use, even though losing your entire bank roll or having more negative days than profitable days in a week is unlikely. 

Note: This & other points in this section will be covered in more detail later on.

 

I also withdraw any profits at the end of each day, so it essentially resets and you start fresh again the next day with the same bank roll. After some time and testing of the system, consider increasing the daily bank roll amount. 

You may have days where you take a loss so you could either take 20% of the new bank as your lay to liability stake and at least temporarily trade at that level, or repair the account balance back to your original default bank roll.   

Choosing an Auto Trading Bot Solution

There are many Auto Trading Bots available to you, but you should really be looking mainly at the Betfair solutions due to the massive contrast and range of available bots that are available to you, even though other exchanges such as Betdaq also have some options available. We are focusing on just the Betfair software options. 

To see a directory of all the Betfair solutions there is a section on the website that you may or may not be aware of, go to - http://extras.betfair.com/ this is the central hub to Betfair’s extra -

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and professional betting services that they provide. Including applications that are in development and the section that is of the most interest to us, just go to - http://solutions.betfair.com/ and click on the start browsing tab and you will see the wealth of different software systems and bots available on Betfair.

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I personally have tried quite a few different bots over the past few years and experimented with backing & laying, dutching & ladder trading etc. The area we are focusing on here is an auto laying strategy to realize a profit. 

The bot which I use is called Bf Bot Manager, they have 2 versions of this bot now (at time of writing) and I still use the initial one with the latter having a few more advanced options built in. I use it due to its range of trading options & simplicity of use versus price while still being powerful. In short it is the best all rounder that I have personally used for what I wanted to get out of a bot. There are trial options available with Bf Bot Manager so you can try it out for free, as is the case with many of the software solutions, so you don’t have to throw your money away on different bots until you have found one that is right for you. Obviously the bot I will use in here is Bf Bot Manager. Even though many of the other bots that provide auto backing & laying options are extremely similar, i find this software by far the most comprehensive all round professional betting software that i have ever used. The bot is available for download at the BF Bot Manager Website where there is a request trial section at the top of the page for whichever bot you’re interested in, which includes both versions of their Bot Manager. (Just follow the blue BF Bot Manager Website link above)

Note: I am in no way associated with the developers of BF Bot Manager; this is simply the software which I choose to use for the purpose of running my strategies including the one shown here, it is also the one i would recommend due to its ease of use and professional range of features - you will basically have everything that you need to get started to run and experiment with betting strategies.

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Instruction manuals are found by clicking on the bots tab – so I won’t go through all the different areas & settings of the bot except any that are relevant in this eBook, as you can go through the official manual(s) in your own time and pace if you feel you need to.

 

Note: It’s also worth noting that this bot, like a few others has a simulation mode so you can basically paper trade without any risk to yourself. It’s also a useful way of getting a large volume of trading data to analyze. I’ll briefly explain this option shortly.

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Advice, Recommendations & Free Basic System For Using Auto Betting Software (Part 3)

The System (Greyhound Auto Laying System)

Note: As you can see by the title I've applied this system to the Greyhound markets, but you could use it as a template and starting point to experiment with other markets. 

This system should be run at the beginning of each greyhound trading day whenever you run it. I.e. this is usually 11.03AM (GMT) in the morning on weekdays. It’s best to stick to Mon – Sat trading days due to the higher amount of races available. Once I have shown you the method that is required for loading the races into the bot for the system, (which requires the markets to be manually loaded) it then becomes easy to get used to the weekday / weekend trading times and the volume of races that are loaded into your bot.  

Note: Running the system at the beginning of each day is good for consistency and routine and will aid you in getting results & consistent data to go through.

After you have downloaded and installed your bot and logged into it you will be presented with the opening screen shown below. Obviously you will need to register a Betfair account if you haven’t got one all ready.

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~ This system requires us to manually load the entire days greyhound forecast markets into the bot. Make sure the bot controller drop down box has back/lay favorite bot selected and click on start.

~ Make sure the settings match the ones in the screen below and then press start.

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~ This will take us through to the back / lay favorite bot screen; click OK on the message that appears. We now have to manually load all of the days greyhound forecast markets into the bot; click on the add markets tab at the bottom left, then on the screen that appears click popular markets – greyhound racing – forecast betting. To begin loading the races start by clicking on the first race track in the list. In the example below this is Crayfd (FC)

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~ Click on each race separately in the green list and do this for each race. Once you have done this click back on the forecast betting tab (shown in the above image) and repeat the process for each racetrack and race of the day.

Note: Any options you click on within the select markets screen only take one click but sometimes need a couple of seconds to load the relevant information through the Betfair API.

~ Once they are all loaded close the select markets screen and you are then presented with the screen shown below, it’s now time to change the relevant settings.

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~ Most of the required settings that you will have to replicate are shown in the above screen so change these to match this screen. I’ll go over the relevant settings in the next couple of pages.

Note: This is set up for a £100 bank roll in the Bot Settings section; take 20% of your bank to generate the required stake amount.

~ There are also two further settings forms which I’ve labeled in the above image as 1 & 2. These only require a couple of settings to be changed, set those as shown on the two screens on the next page. 

Note: Loss pot recovery and its extra settings are not required.

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~ Finally click save for these two settings boxes above and then hit resume. That’s it; the bot will then start to bet for you.

Note: The system will be further explained over the next few posts.  

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Advice, Recommendations & Free Basic System For Using Auto Betting Software (Part 4)

Rundown Of Required Settings

Bot Controller:

 

● Simulation – off (for real money betting)

You don’t need any money in your account to run a simulation

Bot Settings: 

► Time to place bets – 1m 

► Lay bets with Lay to Liability – on 

The liability stake is generated by taking 20% of your bank roll. I.e. 20% of £100 = £20 liability stake, at average lay odds of 14, average profit per trade would be - £20 / 13 = £1.54 which means a 5% (£5 on £100 bank) in the max profit setting would be taken on average in just 4 consecutive profitable trades. 10% (£10 on £100 bank) would take 7 on average.

Note: the sum shown above to work out profit per trade is divisible by 13 as you -1 on any back / lay odds to get the actual odds that are offered by the bookmaker.                                 

I.e. odds = x –1 = actual odds given

Profit / Loss:

► Max Profit – Set max profit margin as required. 

I use safer more conservative levels of 5 or 10 %. So trading 6 days in a week, Mon to Sat with no loosing / break even days, would equate to around 30 to 60 % ROI in that week.

► Max Loss – set the bank roll amount as your max loss.

Note: See System Summary for more info

 

Lay Prices:

► Max lay price – 19

► Min lay price – 1.01

Overround:

► Max back overround – 200

► Max lay overround – 20

The overround determines how good a price you are getting for the odds you trade. A tight overround isn’t necessary with this system though due to the higher odds we are trading and the volume that they are traded at. This is why the overround is kept extremely loose.

Runner Selection Rule:

► Random Runner – on

Randomizes the bots runner selection within the back / lay odds range that you specify

Back / Lay Favorites Settings Form:

 

► Place bot bet only if there is no my bet on that runner – on

Trades only the auto decisions which are generated by the bot settings.

► Number of runners – 25 – 40

► Always request lower (back) price and higher (lay) price – on

Will help to ensure all possible bets are matched.

Profit and loss settings:

► Pause bot when Max Profit / Loss reached – on

This setting is really down to personal preference and not important to the bots selection process.

Record Keeping

As I mentioned previously keeping records are important. Even though you can see your betting history in your Betfair account I will briefly show you how to export data within the bot to a spreadsheet.

To export the day’s markets that you have loaded into the bot into spreadsheet format just right click anywhere within the market data screen and select the Export to Excel option and save the data.

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To view and save your betting history click on the view tab and select Bet History, within this screen select file and choose export and save the data.

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Advice, Recommendations & Free Basic System For Using Auto Betting Software (Part 5)

System Summary

The system works on the premise that you should hit (at least with more conservative max profit levels) your profit percentage often and usually very early on.

When you come into losses let the system run to cover them. You can let it carry on to your profit target or close when you’re back on the break-even level and start again the next day. On an average trading day, Mon – Sat at average lay odds you should be able to take 4 to 5 losses, depending on how many bets are triggered for the full day and still at least roughly break-even. Obviously you can have losing days as this is the way with any realistic trading, whether financial or betting.

I have let this system run in the past many times, sometimes with 45+ winning results in a row. Also I’ve had some days that have been outright winners for the entire days’ trading with no loses at all, but there will still obviously be highs and lows.

It’s up to you to experiment further with the strategy and whether you try and go for the longer, massive positive streaks and higher profit percentages. This all in all is an excellent base for auto trading and probably more of a niche area to trade and experiment with.

~ good luck with all your bets and trading decisions ~

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