Betting Assistant Primer

Betting Assistant from Gruss software is a betting exchange API application. Betting Assistant enables traders to:

• Visualise what is happening on the betting exchange.
• React quickly and grab the best prices with its one-click betting feature.
• Customise the screen to suit their individual approach to trading.
• Adjust the refresh rate for the betting exchange market to ensure access to the very latest odds

There are two versions of Betting Assistant, one for Betfair (named Betfair Betting Assistant, as you would expect) and one for BETDAQ (BETDAQ Betting Assistant). Both applications are available for Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8. There are no Mac OS X or Linux versions, although you could try running Betting Assistant under a Windows emulator on these platforms. There is currently no version of Betting Assistant for mobile devices.

Betfair Betting Assistant is available for a lengthy trial period (30 days) after which you need to subscribe to continue using the software. The monthly subscription price for Betfair Betting Assistant is currently £6. There is a discount if you purchase an annual subscription.

BETDAQ Betting Assistant is currently free of charge.

Betting Assistant interfaces with a betting exchange by using the exchange’s API. It replaces the standard web-based exchange interface. Betting Assistant provides one-click betting through a grid or ladder based interface.

Betting Assistant integrates with Microsoft Excel (version 2003 and later) enabling you to analyse betting exchange data in your spreadsheet and trigger bets if the data meets certain conditions. In practice, this means that you open up Excel and then use Betting Assistant to import exchange data into the spreadsheet. Betting Assistant adds three columns named Trigger, Odds and Stake. These columns allow you to define your trigger e.g. place a back bet with a stake of £10 if the odds are less than 1.5. If the idea of automating your betting by using Excel appeals to you, but you don’t know where to start, sports trader Steve Howe has created a series of YouTube videos to walk you through the process: look for the videos entitled Gruss & The MG Excel Project on Steve’s YouTube channel.

If you need assistance with Betting Assistant, there is online documentation and a large and active Betting Assistant user forum (which Betting Assistant creator, Gary Russell, contributes to). One of the reasons that the software creator participates in the forum is to get ideas from fellow traders of where to take the product next: "…you can never stand still in this game and we’ll continue to improve the software if any more great ideas emerge from you, our Gruss family of in-running betters". This is not just marketing, there’s enough evidence on the web to suggest that fellow traders have had their ideas and suggestions adopted by Gruss. So, the forum may help you if you get stuck or you may help the product to help you by providing the basis for a new feature.

Betting Assistant was initially called Gruss, after its creator Gary Russell, and was provided for free between 2005 and 2007. The subscription fee was introduced to allow for full time support and development. The software is one of the tools used by sports trader Wayne Bailey.