Hi everyone
There will be an update to the horse racing software deployed tomorrow morning (19th February 2025).
One fairly big update and a bunch of smaller bugfixes. Here's the list and explanations of what's changing:
🏇 Rule 4 non-runner
This one has been on the roadmap for a long time. Up to now in the backtesting algorithm, we've obviously removed non-runners from your strategy queries so that your strategies don't show bets on them. But we haven't applied Rule 4 odds reductions on bets for other runners that still stand after runner removals.
The majority of people are creating strategies that place bets in the last few minutes before the race when, generally, all non-runners have been accounted for, so this doesn't affect them. But to facilitate longer time-window bets and trades, we've finally incorporated non-runner odds adjustments.
Betfair's rules around non-runners can be found in their rules and regulations. It's not particularly straightforward (which is why it's taken so long to implement), so I'll run through a few different scenarios where odds reductions could affect your bets:
If you're straight betting and a runner in the same race as your selection is removed after your bet, we'll adjust your bets by the Betfair-specified reduction factor, assuming the conditions in their rules are met
If you're trading (i.e. you have an entry and exit bet) and a runner is removed after both bets, the backtesting engine places both your bets as you would, with no knowledge of the upcoming runner removals, then retrospectively applies the required reduction to both bets
It's possible that one or more runners could be removed between your entry and exit. This is where it gets complicated, because obviously if a runner's odds change while you're planning your exit, you might reconsider your exit price or time. To avoid an endless process of iteration and recalculating of exits, we just calculate the "candidate" exit time and price based on the original entry bet before removals. It behaves as if you placed your exit in advance and didn't bother adjusting it when you saw there had been a non-runner.
If you have any strategies where you could be betting a while before the race, it will be worth re-running them after the change to see the impact of any non-runner adjustments.
If any of the above sounds completely alien to you, let me know and I'll try and explain better / differently.
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🏇 Racecard results caching issue fixed
We've had a recurring issue where results for past races haven't shown in the racecards. This was because the races were being cached pre-race and then the cache was never updating once the results were in. We've resolved this so you'll be able to see historical BSPs, results etc in the racecards by choosing a past date in the calendar.
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🏇 Made end date in "Specific Date" rule inclusive
Previously, if you selected an end date in the range, it would not include that date in the results. Results would basically include up to midnight at the start of that date, which was a bit unintuitive. We've corrected this.
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🏇 Fixed sorting of horse heatmap
The categories in the heatmap in the racecards were all over the place when the filter was changed. We've corrected this so that they're properly ordered.
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🏇 Validation for entry time window in betting rules
Previously it was possible to choose an entry time window where the start of the window was after the end, which resulted in an error. We've added a prompt to get you to correct this before running a strategy.
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🏇 Large amounts of data causing memory issues in the results charts
Depending on the performance of your computer, sometimes results groupings with large amounts of categories (e.g. splitting results by jockey name, etc) caused "out of memory" errors when trying to render the results charts. We've reduced the maximum data that can be displayed on the charts at one time. Large amounts of data may still cause performance issues elsewhere; we'll need to monitor this.
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The update will be done in the early hours of tomorrow. If anything changes or doesn't go to plan, we'll let you know.
You'll be able to verify that your browser has picked up the update by viewing the Changelog in the software and checking that it has 19/02/2025 at the top and "v4.1.0".
If not, or if the page is completely blank, your browser has failed to pick up the new version. Try clearing your cache for our site AND clearing your cookies for our site, restart your browser, log back in and then access the software through the button on your user dashboard.
Thanks for reading!
