Betfair Free API

[Trilobite]

Has anyone here developed a program to work with the free API from betfair ?

Is it able to refresh the Horse Racing In-Running price movement quick enough to allow for a "Greening-Up" function to work ?

Only i have Googled this today and have read conflicting answers

[Datapunter]

Usualy yes,
speed depends on your infrastructure of course PC speed, internet speed, etc...
all being well ( recent ) you should have enough speed.

Things break down when the servers at Betfairs side get overworked, then response times can get too high to be practical for speed-betting.

Remember with the Free API you cannot place multiple bets at the same time, you have to do one by one and there are limits to the number of bets per second/minuut (?) ( sorry haven't got the details at hand )

If it is part of your strategy that to green up you place bets on multiple horses at the same time then i would go with the assumption you may not have enough speed with the Free API.

Bottom line is there's only one way to really find out and that is to do a test program.


p.s.
What other answers have you found ?

[Trilobite]

Remember with the Free API you cannot place multiple bets at the same time, you have to do one by one and there are limits to the number of bets per second/minuut (?) ( sorry haven't got the details at hand )

Right cheers DP

I basically cant calculate and input the best guaranteed return in running myself quick enough (whilst watching the race), so i want to set the BACK to win bet 1st and then continually poll the lay odds and calculate the LAY stake automatically.

So i can sit with my eyes on the race and a finger on a LAY button and just have to click once to best green up.

Bottom line is there's only one way to really find out and that is to do a test program.

Yep, its just thinking out aloud at the moment, and it might not even work how i think it might

p.s.
What other answers have you found ?

Not a lot, if anyone is feeling generous and has any VB5/6 code they would like to share

[Datapunter]

Can't help with any code, got all my stuff in Java.

I can get you some testdata if you want, got a bunch of races in a database with the prices/volume snapped every 2 seconds in-running. If you smooth it out by averaging you can get a continuous line of odds movement. Should allow you to simulate your "betting algorithm".

[Trilobite]

Well ive managed to get a OK reply from a login routine i found and modified (on the BDP forum).

But this SOAP/XML stuff might as well be Chinese to me right now


Ive got the API4.0_xml_samples.zip from which i am trying to make my Envelope from, and ive got the API reference guide.




But i cant get a reply to the first function iam trying to make :

getBetHistory

return =

<?xml version='1.0' ?> <env:Envelope xmlns:env='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'> <env:Body> <env:Fault> <faultcode>General</faultcode> <faultstring>Internal Error</faultstring> </env:Fault> </env:Body> </env:Envelope>

from my first attempt of:

Private Sub get_bet_history_Click()
Dim sEnvelope As String, sReply As String


' create the SOAP Envelope   STRsessionToken = original_key from login
'QUOTE_MARK= """"


sEnvelope = sBody _
& "<m:getBetHistory xmlns:m=" & QUOTE_MARK & "http://www.betfair.com/publicapi/BFService/" & QUOTE_MARK & ">" _
& "<m:request>" & "<clientStamp>0</clientStamp>" _
& "<sessionToken>" & STRsessionToken & "</sessionToken>" _
& "<betTypesIncluded>M</betTypesIncluded>" _
& "<detailed>1</detailed>" _
& "<eventTypeIds><m0:int>0</m0:int></eventTypeIds>" _
& "<m0:int></m0:int>" _
& "<marketTypesIncluded><m0:MarketTypeEnum>O</m0:MarketTypeEnum></marketTypesIncluded>" _
& "<placedDateFrom>2008-01-01T09:30:47-05:00</placedDateFrom>" _
& "<placedDateTo>2008-05-01T09:30:47-05:00</placedDateTo>" _
& "recordCount>100</recordCount>" _
& "<sortBetsBy>NONE</sortBetsBy>" _
& "<startRecord>0</startRecord>" _
& "</m:request></m:getBetHistory></SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>"

sReply = MakeSOAPRequest(sEnvelope, "getBetHistory")


txt_return.Text = sReply

Private Function MakeSOAPRequest(ByVal sReq As String, ByVal sMethod As String) As String
' returns the response xml

' send message to server
oHTTP.open "POST", "https://api.betfair.com/betex-api-public-ws/BFService", False

' set standard SOAP/XML header for the content-type
oHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Length", CStr(Len(sReq))
oHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "text/xml"
oHTTP.setRequestHeader "SOAPAction", sMethod

' make the SOAP call
oHTTP.send sReq

' get the response xml
MakeSOAPRequest = oHTTP.responseText

End Function

This is day 1 that my eyes have ever seen any Betfair API + SOAP + XML so be gentle with me

[Trilobite]

Ok, if anyone is interested in this stuff

Iam getting somewhere now

As far as i can tell the SOAP-ENV:Envelope part stays the same :

Private Const QUOTE_MARK As String = """"

Private Const sEnvelope = "<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV=" _
& QUOTE_MARK & "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" & QUOTE_MARK _
& " xmlns:SOAP-ENC=" & QUOTE_MARK & "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" & QUOTE_MARK _
& " xmlns:xsi=" & QUOTE_MARK & "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" & QUOTE_MARK _
& " xmlns:xsd=" & QUOTE_MARK & "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" & QUOTE_MARK & ">" _
& "<SOAP-ENV:Body>"

and the SOAP-ENV:Body part is the xml string you send to the server, which is different for each API function, like the keepAlive.xml


My first working function for the KeepAlive request is:

Private Function Keep_session_alive(original_key As String) As String

Dim xml_to_send As String, sReply As String


'create the SOAP Envelope    original_key is the latest STRsessionToken

xml_to_send = sEnvelope _
& "<m:keepAlive xmlns:m=" & QUOTE_MARK & "http://www.betfair.com/publicapi/BFService/" & QUOTE_MARK & ">" _
& "<m:request>" _
& "<header>" _
& "<clientStamp>" & GetClientStamp & "</clientStamp>" _
& "<sessionToken>" & original_key & "</sessionToken>" _
& "</header>" _
& "</m:request>" _
& "</m:keepAlive>" _
& "</SOAP-ENV:Body>" _
& "</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>"

' post the request & check the return in sReply variable for errors etc
sReply = MakeSOAPRequest(xml_to_send, "KeepAlive")

Debug.Print sReply

'===============
If InStr(sReply, QUOTE_MARK & "n2:APIErrorEnum" & QUOTE_MARK & ">OK<") > 0 Then ' this indicates was sent OK

   MsgBox "REQUESTING KEEPALIVE WAS OK :-) ", vbInformation


' parse the new session key here and store it in STRsessionToken
STRsessionToken = get_sessionToken(sReply)

'===============
Else

MsgBox "ERROR REQUESTING KEEPALIVE !", vbCritical
End If
'===============

End Function

[mcgin]

Trilobite, Dealing with the raw XML soap strings is going to be buggy at the best of times, and it'll be a right pain in the ass to debug. Would you not look at using a framework of some kind that hides the SOAP implementation from you? I use an application called Axis in Java, not sure what you could use with VB, but presumably VB.net offers better support for web services then VB6 anyway.

[Trilobite]

Iam not ever going over to DotNet mcgin. But your right, its not something most would do in VB6.

Its just something for myself, and like other stuff i use daily will probably never get further than IDE.

Theres no timescale so ill just plod on with it, doing a bit here and there mate

[arcadia00]

Good luck. I ended up writing a whole perl module to access the free API using raw xml requests because there was no perl SOAP modules that supported document/literal encoding at the time.

I'd expect this will be more difficult for you in VB in one aspect - grabbing the data out of the more complicated xml replies. Perl has poweful regular expression capabilities to grep out the data, you'll need a similar vb library to do that also I'd imagine.

[Trilobite]

Cheers arcadia00

I like a new challenge like this, its not too bad when there is no real pressure to produce something specific.


So far so good


Ive got the market prices (getMarketPricesCompressed, horse racing) refreshing OK, just the same as if i had Betfair in a browser .

Not knowing any SOAP or XML i thought i would struggle, but Its a lot easier than i thought it would be TBH.


The next step is actually placing a bet through my app


Iam not sure refreshing the getMarketPricesCompressed prices just 10 times a minute will be enough to pay though


Doh !


Ive just checked and i can send 60 p/m for the getMarketPricesCompressed request using the Free API

I have my timer set to 10 p/m, thinking it was the GetMarketPrices request !


Thats enough for tonight, a couple of for me now i think

[arcadia00]

It doesn't affect me, but I think they start deducting cash from your balance if you hit them at 60 p/m.

[arcadia00]

opps strike that I think its 0.1p for each request over 20 per second which doesn't affect us.

[Trilobite]

Here is the latest list of API and how many requests per minute can be sent :

Compare API Products

[Trilobite]

arcadia00 ( or anyone else willing to help )


Have you got a working Logout xml ?

I cant get an OK reply to what i thought would be the correct xml to send.



Ive got the greening up function working ( in theory ) now.
Still got to placeBet for the first time yet though.



Its interesting to see my Suspended message box pop up before the race is complete when watching the race on the ATR channel.

Racing Uk tonight pops up just about the same time the winner crosses the line though.

[arcadia00]

Dont think this is displaying right between CODE tags from the preview look I got, so having to strip out all the < and \>

 ?xml version=" target="_blank">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
soap:Body
logout xmlns="https://api.betfair.com/global/v3/BFGlobalService"
request
header
clientStamp0clientStamp
sessionTokensession_keysessionToken
header
request
logout
soap:Body
soap:Envelope 

[Trilobite]

You have to put it between the HTML tags.

[arcadia00]

Oh right thanks.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <soap:Body> <logout xmlns="https://api.betfair.com/global/v3/BFGlobalService"> <request> <header> <clientStamp>0</clientStamp> <sessionToken>$BetfairAPI::session_key</sessionToken> </header> </request> </logout> </soap:Body> </soap:Envelope>

[Trilobite]

Nah, still cant get it to work

Keeps returning a

<faultstring>Rejected illegal operation logout (from client)</faultstring>

fault.


Not to worry, each login expires after 20 minute of in-activity anyway.

[arcadia00]

Post up the full raw xml response you're getting to your logout request.

[Trilobite]

Thanks for your help mate


This is what i am sending at the moment :

xml_to_send = _
"<?xml version=" & QUOTE_MARK & "1.0" & QUOTE_MARK & " encoding=" & QUOTE_MARK & "utf-8" & QUOTE_MARK & "?>" _
& "<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=" & QUOTE_MARK & "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" & QUOTE_MARK _
& " xmlns:xsi=" & QUOTE_MARK & "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" & QUOTE_MARK _
& " xmlns:xsd=" & QUOTE_MARK & "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" & QUOTE_MARK & ">" _
& "<soap:Body>" _
& "<logout xmlns=" & QUOTE_MARK & "https://api.betfair.com/global/v3/BFGlobalService" & QUOTE_MARK & ">" _
& "<request>" _
& "<header>" _
& "<clientStamp>0</clientStamp>" _
& "<sessionToken>" & STRsessionToken & "</sessionToken>" _
& "</header>" _
& "</request>" _
& "</logout>" _
& "</soap:Body>" _
& "</soap:Envelope>"

'call the function that posts the xml string to the betfair server
sReply = MakeSOAPRequest(xml_to_send, "logout")

'###########################################################################################################
Public Function MakeSOAPRequest(ByVal sReq As String, ByVal sMethod As String) As String


' send message to server
oHTTP.open "POST", "https://api.betfair.com/betex-api-public-ws/BFService", False

' set standard SOAP/XML header for the content-type
oHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Length", CStr(Len(sReq))
oHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "text/xml"
oHTTP.setRequestHeader "SOAPAction", sMethod

' make the SOAP call
oHTTP.send sReq

' get the response xml
MakeSOAPRequest = oHTTP.responseText

Set oHTTP = Nothing 

End Function

and this is the returned xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><env:Body><env:Fault><faultcode>env:Client</faultcode><faultstring>Rejected illegal operation logout (from client)</faultstring></env:Fault></env:Body></env:Envelope>