Let’s try another:

In this scenario I want to place a LAY bet on Prettilini for £5 at the currently displayed price, but if the price is no longer available by the time the order reaches the market, I would like to cancel the bet after 2 seconds.

I need to enter the following command into cell J12 – which is the command cell for Prettilini:

LAY FILL_KILL:TRUE KILL_DELAY:2

This time, the price has drifted by the time I have sent the order in. Bet Angel tells me this with the message ‘PLACED_KILL_PENDING’ in the status area. After two seconds the price was still too high and the bet was cancelled. You can see this in the message area at the end where it says ‘£5 unmatched bet (Ref) was killed.

It is important to realise something here. If the price had shortened rather than drifted, then my LAY bet would still have been filled – but at the lower price. Betfair assumes that if you ask for a LAY bet at a particular price and that price shortens then you will still want the bet as your liability will be lower than at the higher price – which is preferable. The same is true but in reverse for BACK bets. However, with BACK bets your exposure remains the same but your expected return will be different.

Choose a horse race that has about ten minutes to go before the off.

Using minimum stakes, try placing a few back or lay bets using the commands outlined above. Include some offsetting, fill_kill commands and get used to the messages that are returned. Trade out to a profit or zero/minimal loss when you have finished. If you have seen a small loss then count it as part of the cost of learning! But don’t blame me…….