Thanks Shaun.

I knew you would know the drum on where to get the data.

I played around with regular web queries and it grabbed the schedule nicely but I may need to include some VBA to get both the main race schedule and the Meeting Code list as well. The web query doesn't pull it in for some reason.

If I then throw in a simple vlookup formula I should be back in business...I'll post the code snippet if and when I get it working.

Thanks again

I do confess, and laugh about it now when i spat the dummy cos of technological data feed changes, (teletext via t.v. aerial), therefore making this "you bute" live odds program useless unless it went through major surgery for internet feed.
The programmer/s simply had enough to. It takes TIME, to test after test after test and just when ya think ya got it right, another change.

One thing does stay constant, the same live data feed is still available, by subscription, but ya get continuity and quality.

It's all in the mindset for most of us with limited programming insight. Not that we are any less, we punters are actually the grass roots architects of infrastructure when it comes to our respective racing methods. Our ideas reign superior through trial and error just to process sums quick enough before the jump.
On the other side of da coin, is the suppliers of that data feed and therein lies the catch 22, all this has a cost, energy is consumed all the way from the farmer supplying grain for the winning horse to the waitress serving the lucky ones at the hoyty-toyty 5 star rump steak diner.
Soooo, the days of scraping may be numbered, but a solution is not that big deal to explore.
There is a solution to get them live odds to excel, but....it may cost.

Or, go to the track n back to basics.

Yep there's a cost for everything, but all I would add is last time I checked the Tab withholds ~14%-20% of every dollar I bet with them, one would think that might just cover their 'expenses'...

I gotta agree with Shaun's comments that it is fair enough for the totes to protect their services and data products, but please provide some samples so we can get an idea of how to use them in say, Excel, without having to become a whizz overnight in VS2010 to master C#, & SOAP web services.

Tatts Racing did a great job of this by providing a simple little Excel file that used their xml feed. It was a brilliant marketing idea to get weekend warriors up and running with their own little 'systems'.

My point is that if a company sets out (intentionally or unintentionally) to make life difficult for their customers, those same customers will vote with their feet and go elsewhere to get what they need.

Well at least it looks like Betfair is here to stay -

http://community.betfair.com/austra...te-decommission

Jose, back to basics i meant it as a suggestion to an idea, not the rule.

I'm keeping an eye on mayan fortune telling, 21, 12, 2 ,8, boxed trifecta.

Just out of interest I went to every Aussie racing forum I could find yesterday & each one has a thread on the new sites with approx 90% disapproval rate, people are not happy

" Or, go to the track n back to basics. "

I actually tried that Puntz, as I live in SEQ I made it my business to get to every Saturday Metro meeting and a great deal of Sunday fixtures at the SC for roughly 10 or 11 months. This is going back about 2 years or so.
Worked handsomely for a while but the profits slowly dried up. too many distractions being one of the problems.

So, back to the computer in front of the Telly at home and the profits started to flow again.
Then, for no reason that I can grasp, about 12 months ago the profits started to dry up again, to the point where I am going to have to give them a spell for a while and collect my thoughts, and get a proper bank together. (too many distractions????)

Having said all that the Melb Carnival was great to me, but not enough to get me into profit territory for the year.

In fact my confidence was so low leading into the MC that I had a lousy $20 EW on Purple Moon, the horse that I had earmarked for the Cup 2 months beforehand.
Understand that this is coming from someone who has their top pick as a roving Banker with the Full Field for a half every year, and a fairly big slap EW as well.
Fair dinkum, I could have given myself a punch in the head.

Sooooooo, any help with the " Or, go to the track n back to basics. " would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.

__________________
Jose'.