Using VB2008 to acccess the Betfair API: A tutorial

[NFLMAN]

This is fun. My bot is now placing bets for me :-)

One thing I need to be able to do is stop it from placing a second bet on the same selectionID when the bot loops back round. What's the best way to do this? I am looking at calling GetBetHistory and putting some logic in there against the returned selectionID's but if there's an easier way I'm all ears....

[beans]

Thanks for the replies. I had used WithEvents and got async calls working fine in one class, I just wasn't sure if I could use the service object in more than one class or if I would run into problems.

I found my applications became restricted when placing all the calls in one class as I couldn't deal with different responses how I wanted and everything was too generic. Therefore I have gone down the route of using a 'Session' class that handles the key and provides API headers, then another class to 'allocate' the data to custom objects. Then I have some worker classes that handle all the program logic. These worker class make all the calls so I needed each one to have it's own API object. I will probably run into problems with this method further down the line and end up changing the whole structure of my application .... But that wouldn't be the first time!

[mbrylski]

Hi All


Mumbles0 I found a bug in the procedure from Step 14. Generally it working very good except when market for back or lay is empty. When I tray use .bestPricesToBack(0).price Or .bestPricesTolay(0).price I receive the message “Index out of range”.

Can you correct this??


Maybe it is not a bug it is problem with function which display result. How can I check the range of bestPricesToBack or bestPricesTolay. I know the maximum is three, can I check the current range.

[BigSprout]

mbrylski,

at times there is no prices for the Back or Lay and this is the reason you are getting this error, try something like this to test that there is a price first:

                                    dgvField("FdBk", Rw).Value = If(.bestPricesToBack.Length > 0, Format(.bestPricesToBack(0).price, "   0.00"), "")    'Update best Back price
                                    dgvField("FdLay", Rw).Value = If(.bestPricesToLay.Length > 0, Format(.bestPricesToLay(0).price, "   0.00"), "")     'Update best Lay price

or

                                    If .bestPricesToBack.Length > 0 Then
                                        Field(Fd).Fld(Rw).ftBck = .bestPricesToBack(0).price                  'Update best Back price
                                        Field(Fd).Fld(Rw).ftbAmt = .bestPricesToBack(0).amountAvailable
                                    End If


                                    If .bestPricesToLay.Length > 0 Then
                                        Field(Fd).Fld(Rw).ftLay = .bestPricesToLay(0).price                   'Update best Lay price
                                        Field(Fd).Fld(Rw).ftlAmt = .bestPricesToLay(0).amountAvailable
                                    End If

Edit:
replace "dgvField("FdBk", Rw).Value" and "Field(Fd).Fld(Rw).ftBck" for your own variables

[mbrylski]

BigSprout thank you for your answer now everything is working properly. I have one more question. How can I check current score of the game. Most interests me soccer

[rphi6876]

Slow Bet Placement

Hi,

My bot has the ability to place bets under $5 by sending in a lay (back) at 1.01 (1000) then updating the bet to the approriate size which creates a new bet then updating the newly created bet to the desired price. The orignal bet at 1.01 or 1000 is then cancelled. All of these steps are done asyncronously. This works fine and takes a bit over 1 second to complete. However I also have a timer that fires every second resulting in a call to getMUBetsAsync, getMarketTradedVolumeCompressedAsync, getCompleteMarketPricesCompressedAsync and getMarketPricesCompressedAsync. When this timer is running placing an undersized bet now takes roughly ten seconds (this is an average of over 200 bets placed and not an anomoly). I am thinking that when placeBetsCompleted and updateBetsCompleted get a result from betfair the thread they are on has a low priority? But dont really have any idea. Any suggestions if there is a way to make handling these completed calls high priority or perhaps another possible explanation for this problem.
As a side not this is not a result of a slow internet connection as using software made by others this problem does not occur.
Cheers

[antonello273]

balance betfair

Good day to all, you can say to me as I can visualize the balance of my account betfair? , I have tried but it exits to me alone

[Mumbles0]

antonello273,

GetAccountFunds returns your account balance in the .availBalance parameter of the response.

[antonello273]

thank you so much

[antonello273]

I have tried to write this code, but the result is error NO_SESSION

Dim oSaldoReq As New bfuk.GetAccountFundsReq
Dim oSaldoResp As bfuk.GetAccountFundsResp

oSaldoResp = BetFairUK.getAccountFunds(oSaldoReq)

With oSaldoResp
CheckHeader(.header)
Print("Il Saldo disponibile è = " & .availBalance)
End With


Can you help me to solve the problem?

[BigSprout]

Antonello,
I think you have omitted a line of coding to fill in the header, without this you are not sending your Session Token and thus will get a "NO_SESSION" error:

Dim oSaldoReq As New bfuk.GetAccountFundsReq
Dim oSaldoResp As bfuk.GetAccountFundsResp

[B]oSaldoReq.header = oHeaderUK()
[/B]
oSaldoResp = BetFairUK.getAccountFunds(oSaldoReq)

With oSaldoResp
CheckHeader(.header)
Print("Il Saldo disponibile è = " & .availBalance)
End With

[antonello273]

Thanks i tried and it works.



P.S. excellent forum and help me a lot

[antonello273]

European countries

I need another aid you tell me how do i download the markets for the european countries?

[BigSprout]

Antonello,

Step 5 in this tutorial covers the call to "GetAllMarkets" - in the API6 documentation it states that ISO3 country codes are used.

Here is a site that lists Countries and their ISO3 codes:

http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/iso3list.asp

cheers

[antonello273]

Thanks i solved not by putting the codes, but taking all the markets available.

However, i have noticed that i am not returns no football match, you place the code that i wrote.

 Print("*** Markets ***")
            Dim oMarketsReq As New bfuk.GetAllMarketsReq
            Dim oMarketsResp As bfuk.GetAllMarketsResp
            With oMarketsReq
                .header = oHeaderUK()
                ReDim .eventTypeIds(0) : .eventTypeIds(0) = Val(IdEvento.Text)  'For horse racing
                ' ReDim .countries(1) : .countries(0) = "GBR" : .countries(1) = "ZAF"
                .fromDate = Now
                .toDate = Now.AddDays(1)
            End With
            oMarketsResp = BetFairUK.getAllMarkets(oMarketsReq)  'Call the UK API
            With oMarketsResp
                CheckHeader(.header)
                Print("ErrorCode = " & .errorCode.ToString)
                If .errorCode = bfuk.GetAllMarketsErrorEnum.OK Then
                    Dim AllMarkets As New UnpackAllMarkets(.marketData)   'Create an object and unpack the string
                    Dim Names As String(), TodaysCard As New List(Of MarketDataType)

                    With AllMarkets
                        For i = 0 To .marketData.Length - 1
                            Names = .marketData(i).menuPath.Split("\")   'This is the filter
                            If Names.Length = 4 AndAlso Not Names(3).StartsWith("Daily") Then

                                TodaysCard.Add(.marketData(i))    'Add win markets only
                            End If

                            With .marketData(i)

                            End With
                        Next
                    End With
                    TodaysCard.Sort(New CompareMarketTimes)   'Sort according to market times 
                    For Each Race In TodaysCard    'Print the card
                        With Race
                            Names = .menuPath.Split("\")
                            'ListBox2.Items.Add(.marketId & " " & .marketStatus & "  " & .marketName & "  " & .menuPath)
                            ListBox2.Items.Add(.marketId & " " & .eventDate.ToLocalTime.TimeOfDay.ToString & " " & Names(3) & " - " & .marketName)

                            'Print(.eventDate.ToLocalTime.TimeOfDay.ToString & " " & .marketId & " " & Names(3) & " - " & .marketName)
                        End With
                    Next


                End If
            End With