How To Prevent In Running Bets With API?

[The Edge]

Suppose I want to place a "pre-event" bet 5 minutes after the scheduled start of a horse race, but before it starts.

There is a non zero chance that the race goes in-running between the moment I observe that it is still "pre-event", and submitting the order.

Therefore I could accidentally submit an in-play bet, when I'd want to submit a "pre-event" bet.

How can I prevent this using the api?

[Mr Magoo]

There's no direct way of doing this via the API. All you can do is place the bet, then refresh the market and see if it is now in-play. If it is, then try cancelling the bets immediately.

It would be great if the API had an additional 'not inplay' flag that you could send with the place bets call, which would reject the bets if the market was now in-play. A feature request for any Betfair devs reading this!