gambling api's

[alex_theBoss_ross]

Has Anyone used any of the programming API's from the countless online-bookmakers to make their own betting programs / web-sites?

Would be interested in speaking to anyone who has done this
regardos
alex

[mcgin]

Datapunter has done a fair bit as far as I know, and I've written something that makes use of the Betfair API (see the sig). Any particular questions you got?

[alex_theBoss_ross]

I haven't looked into anything yet, but was wondering if there are a bunch of APIs for a load of online betting sites or one magic-bullet api that lets you query a bunch of the sites..

I was thinking of doing some kind of online odds comparison site - so will need to gather data from a bunch of bookies/betting exchanges and so on - is there an all in one solution for this, API wise?

I am a java programmer so the coding shouldn't cause any sweats...
any ideas appreciated

Alex "the Late night hacker" Ross.

[Datapunter]

no such thing as one big API

If you want to develop something yourself you can use XML feeds or possibly some HTML parsing to get odds info.

Potentially you can become a partner with one of the existing odds-comparison companies such as www.Betbrain.com or www.betgenius.com and use their system and build your own site around that.

[Datapunter]

I am a java programmer so the coding shouldn't cause any sweats...

I beg to differ,
it's not difficult but do not under-estimate the amount of work involved.

Here is a small problem you will encounter: spelling.
Many bookmakers use different spelling for the same team, e.g. guess which team this is :

Borussia gladbach
Borussia M´gladbach
Borussia Monchengladbach
M**gladbach
Mgladbach
Mönchengladbach

and those are just the variations from a handfull of bookmakers, imagine you get to 50. And don't think once you've got a variation it stops, in the above list 3 variations are from the same bookmaker. How are you going to make sure you system links all these names to the same team ? Bring on the sweat, and tears, and blood

[alex_theBoss_ross]

Thanks for the replies gents.

I am sure not interested in writing scripts to parse particular html output files (as these may change and feck everything up) -- I am not a hacker, rather I like to think of myself as a programmer!

Any idea where I can find XML feeds with odds ? (you would think that the bookie sites would xml this info for people/aggregators - the poker sites are happy to provide a feed with info as to how many users are online, for example...) -

with XML, at least everything will be in the same format will (and hey, JDOM, Rome and other XML Parsing API's etc makes parsing XML trivial in Java)

(as an aside, I guess I could get my server to just go grab the data from some site that does all the work itself, and play with the data - but that is just pure laziness, and will surely piss people off :-P )

DataPunter/Erik - Saw your tutorials in the other forum re: java - good job! (and nice web-site you own! - where is the PR!?)

in any case, if anyone is interested in discussing this or anything else related to being a gambling-webmaster, please feel free to pm me and we can chat on msn or something appropriate.. and feel free to add to this thread if you have anything similar up and running that is not a complete hack!

regards
alex

[Datapunter]

I am sure not interested in writing scripts to parse particular html output files (as these may change and feck everything up) -- I am not a hacker, rather I like to think of myself as a programmer!

Sometimes there is no other option.

Any idea where I can find XML feeds with odds ? (you would think that the bookie sites would xml this info for people/aggregators - the poker sites are happy to provide a feed with info as to how many users are online, for example...) -

Ask the bookmakers, some have them for public use, others for affiliates/partners. There's a thread in the Techy forum with some links, and i've got a few if you want.

with XML, at least everything will be in the same format will (and hey, JDOM, Rome and other XML Parsing API's etc makes parsing XML trivial in Java)

Quite the opposite, each XML feed is different and has to be interpreted differently. Tools like JDOM or Rome are great but don't really add all that much. Then again maybe you could teach me something in this area.

(as an aside, I guess I could get my server to just go grab the data from some site that does all the work itself, and play with the data - but that is just pure laziness, and will surely piss people off :-P )

As long as its personal use, wouldn't worry about it, just get your hands on whatever you need.

DataPunter/Erik - Saw your tutorials in the other forum re: java - good job! (and nice web-site you own! - where is the PR!?)

Thanks,
not too bothered about PR, just eager to put some more work in, and then start some link exchanging.

in any case, if anyone is interested in discussing this or anything else related to being a gambling-webmaster, please feel free to pm me and we can chat on msn or something appropriate.. and feel free to add to this thread if you have anything similar up and running that is not a complete hack!

Love to, it's completely what i'm doing now.



What would be the end-result you would like to achieve ?
( I can feel a bit of cooperation in the air if our paths run in the same direction )

[mcgin]

Alex,

Always interested to talk to anyone developing programs to hit the bookies. What exactly are you looking to do? As DP says if the the paths go the same direction there's ample room for cooperation

[mcgin]

DP,

Been meaning in answer to your problem of the comparison of names, try this little piece of code (StringCompare.java). You'll need to download Simmetrics to get it to work.

Basically if you keep a table of common keys much like the "Universal Alias System" described by XTOSS you can lookup the common keys for a team using the class provided.

[stardust]

Hi, very interesting thread, but because you want do a new application comparer if exists many on the web ?

perhaps free comparers on the web are too slow on refresh odds ?

or perhaps for integrating this in an automatic betting application ?