Category Archives: Automated betting

Automated betting

From VPS to Cloud Hosting

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A few days ago, Ken asked why I chose the VPS from Tagadab instead of their Cloud Hosting service. To be honest I’m not sure about all these things and thought “hosting” was to do with websites and the like, whereas I see a VPS as just like my PC but based in a data-centre somewhere. ( You can view the conversation we had at the end of the post VPS active)

The Tagadab Cloud is just like a VPS but with the ability to change cores/memory/storage at any time whenever you need it, so it’s more flexible. Also it is 100% SSD (my VPS was Hard Disk) and it should provider better reliability and performance according to their website. More interesting to me was that it starts at a lower price point. A windows system starts at £13.30, which is 1 core, 1MB memory and 20GB storage. The cheapest VPS with SSD is £22.19 (I was paying £17.99 without.)

I’ve opted for the same size storage I had with the VPS, so all in it is now costing me £14.99/month. Here’s how my old VPS and new Cloud compare –

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The allowed bandwidth is 25% of the VPS but I was averaging less than 350MB/day (approx 10GB/month) and if I use more, it costs £0.02/GB. (I still don’t understand the bandwidth, as the Cloud is free inbound and £0.02/GB after 50GB outbound. I will ask the question.)

As I’d installed a copy of MSOffice on the VPS I wanted to keep it. The very helpful Tagadab team transferred my VPS to the Cloud, including the installed apps and kept the same OS settings.

I also asked if the Cloud was based in the UK and they told me it was in the same location as the VPS in London.

So for now I’m £3/month up with better performance –

THANKS KEN! 🙂

 

Automated betting

Weeks ending 17-04-16

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A three week period, with the first day on the home PC and the rest on the VPS. The UK dogs performed well, stake is nearly £6 now. The move to VPS has seen a good steady P&L line.

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The Aus chart isn’t too far from normal when compared with previous weeks. The bottom chart shows the trades performed on the VPS in red. None of the previous errors have occurred since being on VPS, so can only assume the massive delay on my home PC was the cause.

Aus160417weeks

Aus160417weeks VPS comparison

 

Automated betting

Api delay testing

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Before I installed MSOffice on the Tagadab VPS,I checked the delay to see what improvement there was. I took some snips to show the difference.

This is the delay on my PC on a UK market. It averages around 93ms. This is impacted by any other activity though, even on other devices. I watched it as I downloaded a new skin onto my RPi and it slowed it to around 200ms for about 10s.

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This is the same UK market, now on the VPS. Average delay is around 18ms, a vast improvement and I didn’t notice any periods of change.

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This is an Aus market on my PC. Delay around 700ms with refresh at 800ms. It’s actually set at 0.2s.

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The same Aus market on the VPS. Delay is about 320ms with refresh down to 400ms. I’m more surprised by this change than the UK markets as that was expected. I admit I don’t understand where this improvement is achieved.

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Automated betting

VPS active

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I’ve spent some time setting up the VPS. I decided to go with Tagadab after looking at many different providers. Although the others appear to be cheaper, when you add all the different charges together they aren’t that much different. I looked at reviews and concluded that low cost equals poor service. I’ve chosen the SVS1000 without SSD, it’s £17.99/month. It took about 10 minutes to be set up.

Installing Gruss was easy once I figured out how to download it. Internet Explorer wouldn’t do it at first, I had to change security settings to allow downloads from untrusted sites, then changed it back once done. I just logged in as normal and set the options as they are on my PC.

My MSOffice key wouldn’t work again. I know others have reused theirs but they are only meant for one install. I tried but it refused. It may be because I got my original one as a student (OU), I think I got the full package for about £40. So I’ve purchased a new Office 2010 key at a cost of £54. It downloaded and installed pretty quickly.

With Gruss and Office installed I just needed to get my bot installed. A simple copy and paste of the file and it was done. It’s now up and running.

Automated betting

Week ending 20-03-2016

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Starting with the UK dogs, a poor result. The two large losses early in the week were both multiple losing trades on one selection in each event. The rest of the week had a general downward trend. I wondered if Cheltenham had any effect. I know it impacts on all the horse racing as people get involved with other venues whilst trading/betting the main races. Maybe some dabble on the dogs as well.

The Aus markets returned well although errors persist. At around the 125 point Gruss was updated with a fix regarding the error related to the bets manager. I was hoping this would fix my errors but the second to last market had an error similar to what I’ve experienced previously, with a lay placed in the last seconds before off. I can’t work it out from the data I have.

Another issue I had came on Saturday afternoon when I decided to update my PC. Saturday afternoons are usually quiet, probably because most people focus on the horses or football. As I’m on Windows 7, I don’t get update notifications, only the GET WINDOWS TEN FOR FREE message every day. So I have to go into the control panel to check for updates and there was about 50 pending. After an hour of updating it failed and, if you’ve ever had this happen you’ll know, it then needed to be left overnight to revert back. This meant I missed Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon on the dogs and all Aus races on Sunday. This is an occasion when a VPS would have been brilliant. More on the VPS project later.

 

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Automated betting

Overflow

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I came home the other day and found my bot had stopped due to an overflow error.

After each market is traded the “My Bets” page data is added to a log sheet along with bet attempt data. Every week or so I save this sheet and clear it in the bot.

When running, the code finds the next empty row to paste to but that row number value is an integer data type. This has a limit of 32767. As can be seen, I’d left it too long and it reached it’s limit.

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Automated betting

CROSS-MATCHING RESIDUAL FUNDS

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Betfair’s Aus exchange has some money in it’s account and I get a cut. Here’s the message I got –

As you may realise, many Australian markets offered by Betfair employ cross-matching, a process that increases the likelihood of customers’ bets being matched through a specifically-calculated algorithm (for more detailed information on cross-matching on Australian markets, please click here.

Over time, the cross-matching process on Australian markets results in the accumulation of a small amount of residual funds within our internal matching account, which we are required to distribute to eligible customers at certain intervals.

As you have placed a bet in an Australian exchange market that employs cross-matching since the last distribution of funds, you are entitled to an allocation of a share of these funds.

As any Betfair customer throughout the world to have placed a bet in an Australian cross-matching market is entitled to a share of the distributed funds, the relevant amounts per customer are quite small. Please be advised that your share of the distributed funds has been deposited into your main wallet in your local currency.

If you have any further queries, please get in touch here.

Thank you
Betfair

A very helpful Live Chat guy volunteered to look through my transactions (there’s thousands of them) to find out how much I got.

Here’s the payment –

AusResFunds

That is £2.51 (GBP)

I wonder how much others got?

Automated betting

VPS

7 Comments

I’ve floated the idea of moving to a VPS before but haven’t progressed far as I’ve been a little unsure. Anyway, Mike commented on the site and gave some detail about His choice of VPS and I’m going to have a go.

Here’s the chat we had.

Mike

Hi. Just discovered your blog. As someone who currently runs automated trading exclusively (i.e. no live manual trading) and manages to make a “reasonable” return off it, I’m intrigued to follow your progress. Not many blogs out there dealing solely in automation. A couple of things I’ve found in the journey so far that may be of interest.
Firstly the cost of moving to a VPS has been far outweighed by the reliability/stability. I moved over a year ago and have no regrets. No server downtime or dropouts from my end since then. Secondly, I too trade the Aussie markets overnight. I’ve found however, that there is a big difference between Metro/Prov tracks and all the rest. Not just in matched volume but the way the volume enters the market. My returns on the former are 3x my returns on the latter. It might be something you should think about if you haven’t already. Good luck, will follow with interest.
trader247
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the comment.
The VPS is definitely something I want to do. Do you run third-party software, eg Gruss/Bet Angel, or do you have your own program?
I’m currently using Gruss but this would require a Windows VPS with MSOffice installed.
Also, could you tell me who you went with for VPS as I’ve looked and am unsure about what to go for, various prices/location/spec to choose from.
Thanks
Mike
I’m a Gruss user. Self programming is obviously the next goal but at the moment Gruss handles what I need so in no hurry on that front. Rather do it right than rush it. A few people on the forum over there suggested Tagadab and that’s what I went for. I’ve gone for a SSD VPS with 1GB RAM and 35 GB storage. Basically there lowest spec. Yes you will need to install a copy of MSOffice but if you have a licence on your own machine that’s usually good for 3 PC’s I think. At least that’s what I used.
I’m currently using it close to its capacity with what I run but that can be up to 6 tabs & excel sheets refreshing at the max 0.2 secs leading up to the start of any particular race market. Costs me 22.19 a month which I think is good value for the stability and it frees up the home connection for development work. It’s also a month to month cost, no lock in subscription, so you can always dip your toe in and leave if it doesn’t suit.
Good luck

trader247

Thanks Mike, this is really useful stuff. I’ve had a look at Tagadab and I’m going to give it a go, might be Easter when I get to it though. I’m not sure about my MSOffice license but I can give it a go. I’ll roll this info into a post, thanks again