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General Betting
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These 117 comments are related to the topic:
Open letter/question to Betfair about the outage.
Open letter/question to Betfair about the outage.
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Replies: 117
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lori - if you use chrome, be aware that the "what if" figures it shows are totally bogus half the time.
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I've seen comments from various people on blogs etc. saying they got a message saying it was down for planned maintenance. Is this just bull**** from these people? Obviously it wasn't the case anyway, but if there was a message saying so then surely all bets have to be cancelled.
I can confirm that. The "scheduled maintenance" msg was there first, for at least 15 mins. It was later replaced by "apology for any inconvenience caused".  |
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they have standard page to put up when shut. just took them a while to change the wording from last time it was used. Its abit ropey but thats the way they do it
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Still to early to say if the bet matching during wednesdays outage will work out financially for me as it's two days left of the tournament.
Still a handful of my lays that were taken are in contention and the worst of those for me are Overton(tied5th) and Woodland(shares lead). If any of those two go on to win, Betfair's error to not suspend the market during the outage will probably cost me close to 65 k. That said, if none of my lays during the outage go on to win I will have made roughly 5 k from the same Betfair error. |
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yeah i saw the 'planned maintenance' message as well
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concerning, flash, etc.
In the early '90's, a friend of mine started a "consulting" business for people developing for the net. It was old skool, but in his loft he had 12 computers, macs and pcs, with different platforms (explorer and does anyone remember netscape?). He would look at the demographic of the clients then run the web sites. he would then report problems and offer improvements based on this. Over the years, what I learnt is that those who design always have the best computers and largest screens. What he taught me is that as fantastic as sites can "look", it is how well they run for what they are to be used for. I recently was working with a record label to improve their site. It looked fantastic on 17 and 22 inch screens. On a laptop, you could find nothing quickly. I respect that betfair needs to advertise and promote what is going on within their site but (a) as mentioned, the "live betting" I have never clicked because it never loads (b) I don't play casinos and would love it if you had a version that was half way between lite and the platform on offer. Also, a lite version of the forum would be great. It eats my load, etc. |
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How long was the outage today? I've been logged in via Gruss and have noticed no problems at all.
ps. just checked the transaction log and have had bets going in every minute with no problems. |
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Oh yeah, thanks Mgt, I was looking at new posts and got the day wrong lol.
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Over the years, what I learnt is that those who design always have the best computers and largest screens.
As obvious as this is, it had never occured to me. Explains so much. |
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Ok. So what is usual procedure for planned maintenance? Suspend everything and cancel unmatched bets?
Apologies if that is a stupid question but I honestly have no idea as it has never impacted on me. Any users seeing that message can reasonably expect standard procedure to have been followed which, depending on what that procedure is, may mean they thought they had nothing to worry about. |
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IE is woeful
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Eddie couldnt you have taken a small loss after the outage? We all know the risk of downtime (a million sob stories from people who were "going to trade") but this is worse, so I hope we get some kind of explanation.
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Not possible to trade out of such a position after the outage, the inrunning liquidity on golf isn't good enough unless maybe on the last day. I probably wouldn't have traded out either as my lays were part of making some kind of book.
It turned out well for me in the end, but Betfair's failure to suspend markets and cancel unmatched bets almost cost me 65 k as one of the lays(Woodland) that were taken during the outage lost in a playoff after going as low as 1.08 during that playoff. |
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I posted in service as well.
It is not helping the usability by not being able to simply launch the forum pop-up with the basics. (i.e. when you open the forum the first time in the day, you are opening a "new window". You then have to scroll to the bottom and then launch the pop-up). As for risk: betfair needs to recognize that a good percentage of their players, whether their banks are £100 or 100,000 will put a large percentage into play when trading. Thus why their business has solid "liquidity" and are able to make a rake on all gains. They need to then look at historically what a person has risked once an event takes place (in otherwords, I might bet £20 on a football match when simply a punter but will trade a large portion PRE-MATCH closing at the kick-off). From there, when these outages take place, something has to be in place to compensate those left hanging. That said, one of my biggest wins came from an outage. I had traded a lay way down then left up a huge chunk for a trade after the off (horse was notorious for being slow out of the stalls). This was "pre-keep" as well. I waited for in-play, the suspend came up, and sure enough the screen froze. I basically sat holding my breath as the donkey had its best start in ages and for the first time lead from the front over 6F. Being a strong finisher, I stopped listening to the radio and walked out to the garden. I returned to find the commentators saying how it surprisingly faded in the last half furlong going from 3 lengths up to losing in a photo. While others battered their screens from the outage, I quietly celebrated that evening at a 30% bank increase on one lay. So as we all know, for every loss their are winners that cut into the pie. |
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I trust you will all be sending Betfair e mails to congratulate them on a well timed outage
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"I walked out into the garden...." Quietly seething?!
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Done the garden walk a few times. Very calming....
My early days, I had £500 and change in my account. The market had been going up and down between 5/1 and 6/1 on a horse in a 5f race. I laid my full bank expecting to trade on the triangle then suddenly the odds plummeted before the off. I tried to close then it went in-play with the horse running like lightning. I havee learnt how to close since but at the time kept putting up 4/1, 3/1 2/1 complete with a spinning clock. I remember screaming like a little girl "Somebody save me!!!" and before the race finished, I headed out into a beautiful serene garden setting. I stood for ten minutes listening to the birds. When I returned, the pundits on the radio were still chatting about how they had never seen that horse bolt out as it did and run such a clean race.....my account read pences instead of pounds. With the account at nil I had several weeks away from the pixels. Plenty of time to clean up the flower beds and put in new grass preparing for future "garden moments" |
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I do find it fascinating in exchange shops watching how different people cope with reverses but in my experience the most common reaction is quiet seething with the headphones firmly on. Seen a few people bang the table or kick something but quiet seething is much more common.
I suppose learning from our mistakes/misfortune is the most important thing. |
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When I was a full-time daytrader in 1999, I worked with 50K including margin.
My biggest win: I came in one day pre-market to find out that a 'young' EBAY had been off-line all night. The market was waiting for the bell for a massive panic sell since America saw this as the same as arriving at a shop and seeing it closed on a Saturday with no explanation. I called my tech buddy for his view (I had no position on the stock) and he laughed. "Do you know how many times a week my servers are off-line while I tackle problems?? The only reason people are noticing is its ebay." The stock was at around 165 U.S. I shorted my full bank and watched it plummet at the bell. I honestly can't remember what I made but it was a fantastic feeling and the position was closed soon enough to play 18 holes that day. I doubt it will affect betfair since the public are more aware of the common place of crashes but it does seem to lock them up for longer periods than the crashes did before. |
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"We have planned this work around the end of key sporting events on Sunday 30th January and with the aim of having the Exchange back up and running in time for the start of UK Horseracing on the afternoon of Monday 31st January (GMT). Please be aware, that while we will be doing our best to have the sports exchange operational again on Monday afternoon, it is anticipated that all other products such as poker, casino and arcade will continue to be unavailable until later on that day."
That's a long outage, must be oiling all the cogs. |
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So no Sri Lanka/WI cricket, Welsh Bowls or ATP tennis in the morning then...
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Today found myself holding my breath around a half dozen times between 1:20 and 2 on horses thinking it was all coming down.
Also, my neighbor upstairs just got a new microwave that is a problem when he's home at lunch |
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"just got a new microwave that is a problem when he's home at lunch"
Shapeshifter, if you're using wifi, and you've control of the router, perhaps try changing the channel the router wants to use. If I remember right, ovens + wifi tend to want to use the same 'free' frequency band and changing the channel shifts it a little which might be enough to move you off the worst of the neighbours ovens frequency, assuming it doesn't wander as it works. |
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Happened again today. Official line is they don't know when the site goes down, but how can that be?
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Official line about which bit Lori?
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About not suspending when the site goes down.
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They do know as they are attempting to put up meaningful "site down messages"
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One of my bets was taken a full 3 minutes after the site went down today. It was nothing like the biggest one I had in the market over the day and it's not cost me a large sum, but it's infuriating that someone somewhere is still able to bet because they can't suspend the market.
It must be possible to detect the sudden huge drop in bets and suspend automatically. |
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They would monitor all platforms for uptime time and usuability, they really must do. That is basic internet 101
It seems they have no way (either automatically or proceedure with a human in the loop) of globally suspending markets only on an adhoc platform by platform basis. |
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API was working for few minutes after betfair.com went down so its quite alot of people betting normally via geeks toy or whatever as well as lite
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Site went down, API was up, then it went down (as I was trying to get out) few minutes later.
I think the lesson is, as soon as website goes down, if API is up, try to clear any liabilities ASAP. |
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It seems they have no way (either automatically or proceedure with a human in the loop) of globally suspending markets only on an adhoc platform by platform basis.
There was a bomb scare 2-3 years ago and everything was suspended instantly. Site went down, API was up, then it went down (as I was trying to get out) few minutes later. I think the lesson is, as soon as website goes down, if API is up, try to clear any liabilities ASAP. Isn't that a bit harsh on those of us who don't use API? |
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IS it down AGAIN?
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I suggest all you seethers just go for a little walk in the fresh air
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its the sign of the times............cut backs everywhere
but what I don't understand is why they introduce austerity measures on a Saturday afternoon when the premier league is live, surely they should introduce efficiency savings at a less inconvenient time. |
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There was a bomb scare 2-3 years ago and everything was suspended instantly.
If thats the case there really is no excuse. The poor way they are closing the API and lite makes me think they dont have one at moment |
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-442428/Charles-Sale--Sports-Agenda.html The company now have contingency plans involving their Australian outlets to keep markets operating throughout any further security upset. |
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Thats to keep markets open?
We know they can pull the webservers/platforms individually given 30mins. Still think they have no global way of pulling the different platforms and rely on humans shutting down processes individually etc. |