Selection IDs: Consistent & Unique across exchanges?

[puntingking]

Hi,

I believe a runner's selection ID is consistent between events, ie federer will have the same selectionID no matter which match he is playing. Pretty sure on this (from the API docs), although please advise if incorrect.

The question is, are they consistent & unique across the two current exchanges, and any future exchanges that may come up? So will feds have the same selection ID at wimbledon as he does at the AUS open?

thanks,

PK

[MichaelRNye]

I don't know about sports, but in horse racing, they change nearly every race. Because the names are sometimes prefixed with the runner number (e.g. "1. Horse" for raceA, then "7. Horse" for raceB) each of these will be a different selection ID even though they are the same selection. So I imagine whilst they appear consistent across events they probably aren't a reliable way to identify a selection (in horse racing anyway, as the runner number changes all the time) and probably better off doing some regular expressions to match the names.

[puntingking]

Thanks for your reply Michael,

Can someone from the Betfair API team please confirm or correct what Michael had to say please? I'm after the facts, and a Betfair API Team member is ground zero. In the API docs it says the selection ID will be the same across events for the same selection... So question stands, are they consistent and unique, even across the multiple exchanges?

Thanks,

[vossie]

Q: Can someone from the Betfair API team please confirm or correct what Michael had to say please?
A: Confirmed

[arteny]

Uniqueness

OK, they are not consistent. But what about uniqueness? Can different selections (from different markets of course) have same Id?

[betdynamics]

I'm afraid I don't know the answer but I am interested to know why it matters?

If you need something unique then surely the combination of market and selection would be sufficient.