News / Updates
Betfair forum search gone
6/5/2010
Betfair have moved to a new forum system. Links to threads from
the old pages will no longer work, but recent threads have been
copied across to the new forum.
As a result, the forum search page here will no longer work. I've
been told that the new forum will have its own search feature, so
there's no need for me to continue to run the search pages here.
Let's hope that they get the new forum working better!.
Discombobulator no longer available
7/1/2009
I'm sorry to report that due to legal threats, the Discombobulator is no
longer available.
Version 0.9r released
2/10/2007
Betfair's new "Early Bird prices" logo broke Discombobulator, oops!
Now fixed :)
Version 0.9q released
19/8/2007
Fixed login problems caused by changes in Betfair's site. Sorry for the
delay in fixing the program!
Version 0.9p released
9/12/2006
The Bet bot was broken in version 0.9o, and would never place any bets.
This is now fixed.
Version 0.9o released
7/12/2006
Another update to fix Betfair's site changes, plus a few other small
fixes and tweaks. No big new features (yet!)
Version 0.9n released
8/5/2006
Fix for Betfair's latest update (8th August). This should fix problems
with showing your account balance. Also, events will no longer be
wrongly shown as in-play when they are not.
Version 0.9m released
22/5/2006
Update to work with Betfair's latest changes.
You will need to upgrade to this version to login to Betfair properly.
Only one big feature in this update: A proper event selector!
The 'Pick Event' menu option will open a window showing Betfair's
sports menu, allowing you to pick the market that you want to bet in
easily.
Version 0.9l released
23/4/2006
Major update!
- New 'bets' window that shows all bets on the current event (including
all bets made via the Betfair website).
- Improved race timing data, should be much more accurate now.
- Profit/loss display will use your current commission discount levels.
- Profit/loss display for 'fake' bets (with 5% commission)
- Bet cancellation improved: One button to cancel all unmatched bets.
- New feature to auto-calculate lay-off bets, to lock in profit.
- BetBot betting odds can be configured.
- Plus many other fixes!
Version 0.9k released
29/3/2006
Several new requested features:
- BetBot can have different settings for each race course.
If you don't have specific settings for the current course,
then the 'default' set of values will be used.
- BetBot has its own configurable amount of cash to bet,
separate from the amounts used to manually place backs/lays.
- Lay bets can be set to a fixed liability rather than
fixed odds. The lay will be at the current best odds offered,
with the stake altered appropriately.
Version 0.9j released
23/3/2006
Added new 'Save bets' option, which will save a record of your
bets made to a file.
Version 0.9i released
22/3/2006
Mostly a bugfix release:
- Really, really fix the auto-advance to the same racecourse. Honest!
- Fix the odds screen going grey when there is a non-runner.
- Fix problem where the start of a race could be confused with a photo-finish.
- Race time bar changes colour to green when the bot is allowed to make a bet.
- Added separate odds/stake setting for laying and backing.
- Improved bet handling. If a bet is unmatched, Discombobulator will keep
checking to see if the bet gets matched and will update the bet details if so.
- The 'About' window now shows an average response time measurement to show
how fast your connectivity to Betfair is.
Version 0.9h released
17/3/2006
Fix auto-advance to same racecourse. It had problems when the
racecourse was two words, e.g. 'Lingfield Park'. Should be working
now!
Version 0.9g released
16/3/2006
Extra bot configurability! The old 'risk' setting has gone - in
its place are two new settings that can be individually controlled
to fine-tune the behaviour of the bot. Their default values will
be set to what they would have been under your previous 'risk'
setting. The new controls are:
- Maximum odds for the 'leader': If the shortest price horse
goes below this price, then the bot will start to consider
backing it.
- Odds gap: If the difference in price between the shortest
price and the next shortest price is greater than this value,
then the bot will consider there to be a clear leader.
Version 0.9f released
13/3/2006
Small update to improve performance when Betfair's site is going slow
or malfunctioning. Previously, if their website jammed, then the
Discombobulator would also lock up. Now if it takes longer than five
seconds to read the odds from Betfair's site, the program will abort
the connection and try again. The race name will be coloured grey
to show that the odds displayed are out of date.
You must have Java 5 in order for this feature to be activated.
If you are unsure, open the program's Help-About window and it
will show at the bottom whether or not this feature is working.
Java 5 can be
downloaded here. Choose the 'Download JRE 5.0 Update 6' link.
Version 0.9e released
9/3/2006
Fixes login problem in 0.9d. Sorry!
Version 0.9d released
8/3/2006
Yet more new features:
- New 'condensed' view mode, handy for viewing events with lots of
runners. Before, they might not have fitted on the screen.
- New option: 'Advance to next race, same meeting'. This is for
people wanting to use the bot with different settings for different
racecourses. You can run several copies of the program, select a
racecourse on each, and then they will step through the card at
each event. This should also help on busy days where more than
one race is running at the same time.
- Fix for Australian dollars - should show the right $ symbol now.
Version 0.9c released
4/3/2006
Tiny update to fix the display of the euro currency symbol.
Version 0.9b released
4/3/2006
Lots of new features:
- Configurable refresh rate for updating the odds. If you are using
the bot, then the odds will still be updated faster if the bot
needs better data (e.g. it is on the verge of placing a bet, or if
the race is expected to start very soon.)
- All settings are automatically saved and restored when you restart.
With all these extra features, there are now too many options to set up
each time you run the program! For security, your Betfair login and
password is never stored.
- Update check. Discombobulator will check upon startup whether there
is a later version available, in case Betfair change their site yet
again!
- Fixed problem with the horseracing listings being shown in the
wrong timezone.
- New option to choose between showing Betfair's jockey silks and
the original style jockey silks.
Version 0.9a released - PLEASE UPGRADE!
27/2/2006
This release is required following Betfair's site update!
Another rushed update, to cope with Betfair's new jockey information.
The program will also use Betfair's new jockey silks images if they are
available (and the feature is turned on).
Version 0.9 released
27/2/2006
I've had to rush out this release because Betfair's site changes meant
that previous versions will no longer be able to login or view races!
This release also has several new features:
- Lay as well as back: If you manually select a horse (by clicking
on its name), you can choose whether to back or lay it. Left-clicking
will back it (the name is highlighted in dark blue), right-clicking will
lay it (highlighted in dark pink). As before, the actual bet is made by
clicking the bet button. The text on the button will show you what
kind of bet is about to be made.
- Betting pre-race is now enabled by default, rather than being an
option. No 'leader' will be automatically highlighted, so you will have
to select a horse to bet on by clicking on the name.
- 'Always on top' option has been added. You will need Java 1.5 for
this to work, otherwise the menu option will be greyed out.
- New 'Find event', selectable from the file menu. You can use this
to search for a particular market on Betfair - non-horseracing events
will work too!
Version 0.8 released
25/2/2006
New feature: Bet history window, that shows a complete list of all the
bets made using the program.
Version 0.7 released
18/2/2006
New feature: A 'cancel bet' button. If your bet isn't immediately
matched, you can click this to cancel any remaining stake.
This is only going to be useful if you have changed the default
backing odds from 1.01!
Version 0.6 released
15/2/2006
A few improvements:
- Bot settings window shows the 'risk value', so you can
re-set it accurately.
- Full UK + Irish racecourse names now used.
- New option to automatically move on to the next race
after the current one finishes. The current, suspended race
will be shown for around 30 seconds, then the next race on
the card will be loaded.
- Fixed some slightly-broken HTTP issues - might solve
problems where the program was refusing to work at all
for some people.
- A few BetBot tweaks. Bot should perform better in a race
where there was an odds-on favourite but it is no longer
in the lead towards the end of the race.
- Also, the odds will be re-loaded slightly faster if the
Bot is active and has found a potential runner to back,
but is not yet quite sure.
Version 0.5 released
13/2/2006
This should make the jockey silks work better for more people.
n.b. You can't always view the silks for tomorrow's races because
the website from where they are downloaded may not have them yet.
Version 0.4 released
10/2/2006
Lots of little fixes. Hopefully this cures some login problems,
or at least gives a bit more information if people still can't login.
Known problems:
- Jockey silk images don't work for some people.
- Currency symbols may be wrong for euros.
- You need a very big display to view races with lots of
horses in!
- Don't clear the odds display at the end of the race,
so you can see the last bets.
- No support for laying yet.
Version 0.2 released
5/2/2006
First public version released into the wild...