Well Done? Betfair Doesn't Think So

In what could be the most telling sign of how far the betting exchange industry has come over the last two years, a software application rolled out last week gives professional traders and developers access to data from the world's largest betting exchange, Betfair.com.

"Not only is live market data captured, but it is done in such a manner that the data can then be used to model trading strategies and analysis."

- Haydn Ellen
WellDOne Software

The program, MarketFeeder Pro, is designed to give advanced users of the Betfair exchange (trading analysts, developers and professional traders) an easy way to extract data from the site and determine how to act. It enables users to set parameters for bets and automatically place them when certain odds are posted on the system. It's designed to compete with Betfair's own "Developer's Program," which provides a similar service for a monthly fee.

Using MarketFeeder, bettors can monitor market fluctuations directly within Microsoft Excel. Data is captured from the Betfair system at user-definable periods from multiple markets simultaneously. Users can also archive market data for their own trading analysis.

WellDone Software in the United Kingdom developed MarketFeeder and says the program is the first of its kind to run independently from Betfair's system.

"Not only is live market data captured," said Haydn Ellen, the U.K. marketing director for WellDone, "but it is done in such a manner that the data can then be used to model trading strategies and analysis."

Ellen said MarketFeeder is designed to create valuable tools for exchange traders, just like financial trading systems can create resources for traders in those markets.

"The potential of this archived information is enormous; key trends and trading strategies can be established," Ellen explained. "It will be to betting exchange traders as performance graphs are to stockbrokers."

MarketFeeder is designed to be a user-friendly tool for professional traders and, at £395, a reasonable alternative to Betfair's program.

Betfair, meanwhile, has been criticized for charging subscribers to the Developer's Program £100 a month. Not only were less "technically proficient users" priced out of the market, Ellen said, but the system required the users to manually acquire the data.

"They need to be a licensed vendor in order to do what they are doing. We are contacting [WellDone] accordingly. So it does not carry Betfair support as it is."

- Mark Davies
Betfair

Officials with Betfair say WellDone should pay a fee for using Betfair's data.

Mark Davies, the director of Betfair's Australian operations, said his company is aware of MarketFeeder and has contacted WellDone to inform them that "there is a fee if they want to make use of our product."

Davies also pointed out that racing groups have demanded that Betfair and other exchanges pay a fee to use their racing data and that Betfair has always paid when asked. Sometimes, he said, the company has even actively sought to pay for data.

He added that only licensed software vendors or approved partners can use the Betfair data, and only after suitable agreements have been made. None of those steps have been taken with WellDone, he said.

"They need to be a licensed vendor in order to do what they are doing," he said. "We are contacting them accordingly. So it does not carry Betfair support as it is."

The Developer's Program was rolled out last year after Betfair nixed a policy prohibiting automated betting programs. Prior to the policy change, Betfair had maintained that data extraction created great instability with the site and an inequitable form of trading on its system. But also prior to the change, homemade versions of the same data services available today were sold on eBay at exorbitant prices.

MarketFeeder is available for purchase, via special download, on the Internet at MarketFeeder.com.