Betting Exchange APIs
A betting exchange API enables exchange users or third party developers to create custom applications that automate betting activity and, in theory, remove emotion from the betting process. An API enables users to read live market data, place bets and check their account statement without having to use the betting exchange web site.
You might use a betting exchange API because you find betting web site too slow, causing you to miss the bets you want, or you want to use an application of your choice to analyse betting market trends. For example, exchange data can be saved and then converted into CSV format for a spreadsheet where it can be turned into charts and analysed for the creation of trading rules.
Example betting exchange API applications are Bet Angel and Geeks Toy, both of which support Betfair and BETDAQ.
The advantage of developing your own betting exchange API application is that is tailored to your exact needs. The disadvantage is the learning curve associated with the API and working with data retrieved from the API in the host application or programming language that you want to use.
Although third party applications relieve you of the need to program or learn the API, they do tend to cater for a particular kind of trading approach, with a host of features designed to get in an a market in as short as time as possible, hopefully after securing a profit. So they may not be geared for your betting strategy.
Both Betfair and BETDAQ provide publicly available APIs for their exchange. Although Matchbook owners TripleBet hint at the availability of an API, which would enable them to provide what they call the Matchbook Risk Management service, there’s nothing advertising its presence on the main Matchbook web site. However, Geeks Toy have recently announced a beta release of their software for the Matchbook exchange. So it’s possible that Matchbook have chosen to expose their API via selected third party applications rather than let customers develop their own applications to talk to the Matchbook API.
The Betfair API
In 2004, Betfair released their API, which not only allowed its customers to automate their betting, but also provided a range of services for customers to read market information and data on their bets. For example, the API allows customers to display a market, their current profit and loss on that market, and their unmatched bets on that market.
API-NG
The current version of Betfair’s Exchange API is called API-NG, which stands for next generation. Betfair retired previous versions of their API (5.0 and 6.0) in November 2014, which means that applications built around this API will no longer function.
API access is free of charge for private individuals (although there will be the costs associated with third party API applications to consider, for customers who go down this route.) Unlike previous versions of its API, API-NG customers are not charged for what Betfair deems to be "excessive" data requests.
API-NG offers some new features such as retrieving prices for up to 5 markets in one request and server-side filtering which allow you to retrieve only markets you are interested in. With the previous version of the API, you had to retrieve all markets and then filter the markets on the client side with your application. An important benefit is the horse racing information such as form, trainer and jockey information, handicap ratings, forecast prices, and so on. This information, sourced from the Betfair’s Timeform website, makes it possible to automate the analysis of form without the need to scrape third party websites such as Sporting Life and Racing Post.
The BETDAQ API
The BETDAQ API allows customers to programmatically place, update and cancel their bets as well as checking the status of current bets. The API also enables custom applications to get instantaneous status updates on bets across all markets in one call. This provides the necessary data to calculate and maintain both unsettled and settled Profit and Loss accounts across these markets.
The BETDAQ API also provides all the required data on each and every bet to allow applications to get instantaneous status updates on bets across all markets in 1 call. This provides the data to allow you to calculate and maintain both unsettled and settled Profit & Loss across these markets.
The BETDAQ API is open to customer who have funds in their BETDAQ accounts and who regularly place bets on the exchange.
BETDAQ monitors API usage and may block access if customers make extensive use of the API without placing many bets through it (e.g viewing prices via the API rather than trading).
