Buy new:
$27.28
FREE delivery Friday, May 17 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$27.28
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Friday, May 17 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 15 hrs 9 mins
In Stock
$$27.28 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$27.28
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$25.91
Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less See less
FREE delivery May 20 - 24. Details
Or fastest delivery May 14 - 17. Details
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$27.28 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$27.28
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Ships from and sold by ThriftBooks-Phoenix.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

James Butler
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Programming for Betfair: A Guide to Creating Sports Trading Applications with API-NG Paperback – June 4, 2015

by James Butler (Author)
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 41 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$27.28","priceAmount":27.28,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"27","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"28","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Ey3v4kXArmMxZTxH7GUCENwNbdh7GuHBHxPqODhmbYkY9TZcU%2Fs6MN2TGcPIuBs5woLNhU0G8%2BpmyOG%2BrzRrwF1Sx8yLbpcYcm%2BUTD9%2FcBkA7UwaPGxLg1T9n0rMpKx%2FbzlhqKhd8Bi2NLipdFheRA%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$25.91","priceAmount":25.91,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"25","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"91","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Ey3v4kXArmMxZTxH7GUCENwNbdh7GuHBZ4LcKbiKnpPQjexfxJHepcbpR0VWNQP3k%2ForxKVjES0sW4fY1BHycE5lXsWnek6hR5CbsWsDI3fE5mlQZs6KRmRxxcobBvxqltMveA1gSPWXu29A5lys3J6B6vxsYt92d6y2M5%2FXmN396Vo3pqfmcOzl4O0ppZul","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The Betfair exchange, coupled with its API, permits a suitably skilled trader to code complex trading applications, which would not look out of place in the financial markets. This book offers a sports trader the chance to build their own trading applications, regardless of their programming ability.

Each chapter of Programming for Betfair contains snippets of code that combine to create a complete trading application. The application is geared towards horse racing but can easily be adapted to other sports on Betfair's exchange. Using Microsoft's Visual Studio (downloadable for free) the reader is shown how to code an application that will gather prices for any market on Betfair's exchange and then place bets into that market.

The reader is shown how to automate their trading so that they can remove emotion from their trades and scale up their trading for increased profits. Further development of the application permits it to save data from Betfair onto the reader's hard drive for offline analysis and visualisation in a spreadsheet for the purpose of building trading algorithms. Also covered is an enhancement of Betfair's charts so that charts can be automatically updated and compared.

The final chapter of the book discusses ideas for taking the application and the reader's skills to the next level. Topics discussed include constructing your own trading indicators, volume analysis, trend following, arbitrage, low-latency trading and many more.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    190 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    June 4, 2015
  4. Dimensions
    8.5 x 0.43 x 11 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    151143211X
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1511432115
  7. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Programming for Betfair: A Guide to Creating Sports Trading Applications with API-NG
$27.28
Get it as soon as Friday, May 17
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Betfair Trading Techniques: Trading Models, Machine Learning, Money Management, Monte Carlo Methods & Algorithmic Trading
$27.28
Get it as soon as Friday, May 17
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James became interested in sports betting at a very early age when his father would call out to him for random numbers with which to fill out his football pools coupon.

That led James to an interest in statistics, probability theory and eventually a degree in computer science. From there he went into research and his EDDIE project became the genesis of The Centre for Computational Finance and Economic Agents at the University of Essex.

After leaving academia for The City, working at Reuters on finance related research projects, James is now a freelance consultant, quant developer and writer on sports betting markets. James sometimes blogs on www.betfairprotrader.co.uk

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (June 4, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 190 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 151143211X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1511432115
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.43 x 11 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 41 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
James Butler

James Butler

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

James became interested in sports betting at a very early age when his father would call out to him for random numbers with which to fill out his pools coupon.

That led James to an interest in statistics, probability theory and eventually a degree in computer science. From there he went into research and his EDDIE project became the genesis of The Centre for Computational Finance and Economic Agents at the University of Essex.

After leaving academia for The City, working at Reuters on finance related research projects, James is now a freelance consultant, quant developer and writer on sports betting markets. James sometimes blogs on www.betfairprotrader.co.uk

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
3.7 out of 5
41 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Dr. Chrilly Donninger
5.0 out of 5 stars Solid and well done handcraft
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2015
The author has obviously built a bot for himself. I would have preferred Java, C# or C++ rather than in Visual Basic but in this case the Visual Basic programmers would have been unhappy. Butler assumes that all the readers are newcomers to programming. He explains step by step how to build a full blown bot for trading horse races. The explanation is not restricted to the API but also how to design a Visual Basic windows form. This is great for a beginner but not so interesting for a programmer in another language. The text is not riddled with the usual blah blah of many current programming books. Instead the author is always to the point. It should be straightforward to transform most of the code into another programming language.

One gets the impression that the author knows what he is talking about. He also has the necessary writing skills to explain the concepts in an easy to comprehend way.
The book is not perfect but is well put together and in times where a lot of sloppy books are published this is something to appreciate.
Helpful
 Report
Duran
2.0 out of 5 stars A reasonable starting point though accompanying website useless
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2016
Verified Purchase
The accompany website really not what it made up to be, have to find workarounds as Betfair changed somethings with API that don't agree with code, nothing too difficult though nothing on "website" to help.
Helpful
 Report
Gee Anne
5.0 out of 5 stars newbies to coding would be better off to learn the basics of Visual basic
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2016
The seminal work on Betfair programming. Although a person with no programming experience can implement the program in the book, newbies to coding would be better off to learn the basics of Visual basic .net before starting on the book. The book details how to connect to the Betfair APi, how to write the json response and request classes needed to interact with the API and how to place, cancel and update bets using your bot. The book is well written and easy to understand and I have built a functioning application that allows me to automate strategies I previously had to do manually. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough, that will remain the best purchase I have ever made on Amazon until I buy his next book.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
BM
1.0 out of 5 stars Not really useful
Reviewed in Australia on May 1, 2024
Verified Purchase
Disappointing, it just usual stuff
Report
Umberto
2.0 out of 5 stars Efficiente ma non utilissimo
Reviewed in Italy on May 23, 2016
Verified Purchase
Salve a tutti.
Ho acquistato questo libro con l'intento di scrivere un mio bot su Betfair.
Innanzitutto tutto ciò che c'è all'interno si trova in gran parte anche nella guida ufficiale delle API-NG, viene usato Visual Basic per creare il bot di esempio e il mercato di riferimento è relativo alle corse di cavalli; insomma, per l'Italia non è il massimo, avrei preferito Java o C++ con gli esempi sul calcio che sono leggermente diversi dalle corse.
Il libro per me è stato efficiente solo per gli step da seguire, l'ho usato come linea guida di base, ma ho creato il mio BOT in Java e dopo i primi capitoli l'ho abbandonato.
Lo consiglio per chi è alle prime armi, sia come programmazione che come conoscenza dell'exchange.

Il Libro è stampato in formato A4, molto scomodo! Avrei preferito un formato più piccolo.
Delle 136 pagine le ultime 40 o 50 sono solo di codice Visual Basic per il bot.
P.S: L'autore ha un blog che pubblicizza nel libro.
4 people found this helpful
 Report
AmazonCustomer
5.0 out of 5 stars I would highly recommend this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2016
Verified Purchase
If you are interested in writing custom applications for Betfair, I would highly recommend this book.

I currently use two commercial applications for trading Betfair, which are both extremely versatile, but occasionally I found the need to do things slightly differently. I always thought about building a bespoke application, but whilst I knew of the API, I didn’t really know where to start – something the book solved.

Buying the book spurred me on to get started, and I am now up and running - though with a lot more work to do. The learning process has made me realise how good some of the vendor applications actually are.

In this age a lot of folk are used to having an eBook to copy and paste from and initially I groaned at the omission. I learnt to code before the internet age, and copying examples from books and magazines really helped me understand how the examples were working – which is essential when you need to change something, or develop something new. The typing looks worse than it actually is, and with Intellisense in Visual Studio, it really isn't that much of a chore. Whilst building the application in the book, I encountered occasional issues, but after first checking the excellent addenda webpage, I usually found it to be my typing errors.

I think James would be the first one to say that the application built throughout the book is not what you should be building and using to actively trade on Betfair, but the GUI acts as a way to demonstrate what is required, and how basic functionality is achieved. Personally I completed the application, saved it as reference point, then started new projects and pulled in the routines/functions that I needed.

The code in the book is concise, well laid out, and has useful comments. There is no waffle or padding, which is refreshing. It is easy to follow if you have some basic programming experience in a language like VB/VBA, and even if you haven’t, the majority of it is fairly straightforward for someone who wants to learn to program. Some of the techniques in the book were new to me, but I stepped through it with the debugger and it all made sense.
6 people found this helpful
 Report
Dr. Chrilly Donninger
5.0 out of 5 stars Gediegene und sorgfältig gemachte Handarbeit.
Reviewed in Germany on August 14, 2015
Verified Purchase
Der Autor hat sich offensichtlich selbst einen Bot gebaut. Dieser ist - aus meiner Sicht leider - in Visual Basic. Java, C# oder C++ wäre mir lieber gewesen. Aber dann sind wieder die Visual Basic Programmierer unglücklich. Butler geht von einem Programmier-Lehrling aus. Er erklärt Schritt für Schritt wie man einen lauffähigen elementaren Bot baut. Wobei nicht nur der API-Kode selbst sondern auch das Design einer Visual-Basic Form erklärt wird. Das ist für Programmierer in anderen Sprachen nicht so spannend. Der Text enthält aber nicht das übliche Blabla sondern beschreibt präzise und knapp was gemacht wird. Der Grossteil dürfte sich auch direkt in andere Sprachen übertragen lassen.
Der Bot ist entsprechend den Interessen des Autors auf Pferderennen zugeschnitten.

Das neue API ist ein Work in progress. So hat sich seit Drucklegung des Buches das login geändert. Diese Änderungen sowie errata werden auf der homepage des Autor aktuell nachgezogen. Die Homepage enthält auch eine Reihe von Interessanten Information zum Thema (Pferde-)Wetten.

Man hat den Eindruck, dass der Autor weiss von was er spricht. Er hat auch ein gewisses Talent die Konzepte prägnant und einfach zu erklären.
Das Buch ist nicht perfekt. Aber es ist gediegene und sorgfältig gemachte Handarbeit. Das ist in Zeiten in denen sehr viele schleissige Bücher auf den Markt kommen schon etwas.
Report
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Very useful for inexperienced programmers
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2021
Verified Purchase
When I got this I'd done no more with regards to coding than watching a couple of YouTube courses on python.

The most important thing that this book taught me was to understand interacting with the API with JSON requests and responses, as Betfair's documentation was not very helpful to me .

At first I would have agreed with what some others have said about the choice of programming language, given the (lack of) popularity of Visual Basic, but after making some progress on a similar simple application with Python and PyQt, as well as researching which GUI frameworks are available for other languages, I realised that if you want to make a GUI application then considering the GUI framework before the language might be better, and Visual Basic is actually a very good choice of language for this book considering how easy it is to make a winforms app in Visual Studio.

I've since decided that c# is the language I want to develop my Betfair apps in, and I think that considering it's similarity to VB (and compatibility with winforms which the book uses), but increased popularity, perhaps this book would have been best created in this language, but it has been easy enough for me to rewrite the app in c# so I don't think that this should put anyone off.
One person found this helpful
 Report