Hi SeeDee,
I'm interested in the automated betting option for WA TAB. Can you share some more information as to how to go about it? Thanks, Gary

Swooper (Gary),

First off you will need to be a competent programmer. I use VB.NET, but I am sure you could get by on other languages. The sales and, where necessary, the technical staff at WA TAB were extremely helpful in providing some basic programming routines for fetching data and posting bets.

Basically to fetch detail, look at the screens in their web site and where there is a download prompt, press it and note the http address of the output screen. This gives the address which you have to embed in your program. You can pretty easily identify the bits you must substitute (Date, Meet, Race) indeed you can try it out manually first.

You then have to deconstruct the text output which is very straightforward do your calculations and post your bet.

The bet has to be wrapped in their expected proforma transmission. Again not hard.

I make one call at the start of day to fetch all races which I hold in an Access table. I read the table in time order and as the race becomes due I check previous bets, do my calcs and place the current bet.

I would be happy to provide the 'bits' needed to write your program but be aware it may take some effort on your part. My email address appears earlier in this thread; if you want more detail contact me there.

SeeDee why do you need to bet into the STAB pools automatically, when you are already doing that via the WATAB?

Simply because the WA pool is so small. The Quinella pool is not combined with other TABs and increasing my bet actually affects it.

For instance, the winning combo for today's NZ race 7 was $116.80 from a pool of $730. That represents $5 on the right pair (ie $730 less 20% commission = $584 divided by Quin odds of $116.80 means $5 was bet on winners). Had I bet $1 then Pool = $731 less 20% = $584.80 over $6 leaves $97.45. Had I bet $2 my winning would be ($732 x 80% / $7) x $2 = $167.30. This is better than $97.40 but I risked double, ie I am 14% down. Spread across a day, if my average daily gain was 10% (I wish!) I would actually turn a winning day into a loser merely by increasing my bet amount.

Now, not only does doing the same thing in Qld give me a whole other pool, the pools are generally much greater. The same NZ race on QTAB had a pool of $3,127, over four times greater. The winning combo actually returned $177.70, but for the sake of argument, if the win was $116.80, ie approx $21 of winners. Using the same maths, adding my $1 would reduce this to $113.70. Doubling my bet would leave $108.80 ie I am 7% down, meaning I could maybe increase my average bet without screwing the pooch.

Incidentally, the Vic TAB Quinella pool for the same race was $3,886, paying $89.50 and the NSW pool was $4,408, paying $192.70, therefore I would like to have a go at these and any other TABs also.

Got it - didn't realise that not all the WA pools went into STAB. That's very odd.

Hi SeeDee,
Thanks for the offer. Struggling to see you email in the earlier posts. I must be going blind!

Seedee,

Love your work. It's very generous of you to share your methods.

Are you concerned that others will try similar methods now, making it increasingly harder to gain an edge? Especially considering the small pools that you have outlined.

Hi Chinbok,

No, not really...
1) It isn't easy to set up.
2) As you point out there is a law of diminishing returns at work.
3) This method ebbs and flows; long rows of outs with the odd decent win. Typically, if you try a method which starts badly, or hits a bad patch, your average punter will give up on it.
4) The actual selections may vary depending on when, exactly, you run your calculation. One person may fire at SP, another 30 sec prior, I vary depending on pool size.

I am always looking for ways to improve (decrease losses) so any suggestions would be well received.

SeeDee,

do you happen to have a list of the codes handy for the available data queries? (or a link to the documentation?)

Nibbler

SeeDee,


I tried to look for your email adress in this post but its been deleted probably. I have a method of collecting the information from WA however I have not been able to find the dirrect posting of bets could you help me out?
mmichal & aapt.net.au . I have Vb.net

Thank you