Triggered Betting - A new language that bettors already speak
More and more Betfair users discover triggered betting these days. A trigger is any set of instructions that result in something done upon certain conditions. Many bots offer it, it presents loads of new profit-making opportunities, it saves you time and money. Yet many bettors, even experienced ones, shiver at the very thought of something that needs to be "programmed". Programming is for programmers, they think, my field of expertise is elsewhere, it's too difficult. Market Feeder Pro explains why they are wrong
Their primary mistake seems to be ignoring the fact that they already do triggered betting as a part of their everyday betting routine. As a bettor, you are inherently capable of mastering it, because you already possess mathematical skills -- otherwise you would have failed immediately.
Even if you do paper trading, you formulate rules in your head. You set up conditions which define the market circumstances in which your bet must be placed. It is true you do not use any formal programming language, but it does not mean you are not programming anything.
The idea of making your betting automated looks more promising when you are given a piece of software which "understands" plain English. Indeed, if you can condition a bet with phrases like "Selection's Back Price is between 1.01 and 3" or "Market's Matched Volume is greater than 1000", you begin to believe that automated betting is for you after all.
Example of instructions you can give to a bot using a trigger
To be successful in triggered betting, you should learn to organize your thoughts into a sequence of statements.
When you first think of a betting idea, sit down and write every aspect of it on paper. Single out the actions that must take place, e.g. "back", "cancel all lay bets", "start monitoring a market". Then define the types of markets where you want these actions to take place, e.g. Horse races, win markets, non-handicap, with 9 or more runners. Decide on the kind of selections you will be betting on (a selection is a runner, a team, a player - any type of outcome that you bet on), e.g. the second favourite, if its gap between back and lay prices is less than 3 ticks. Finally, add any other circumstance or condition that you think will matter in your betting strategy.
There may be not one, but tens of actions you would like to perform. In that case arrange them in the order of execution. If there are certain actions that need to be executed many times, combine them in blocks - you will be able to repeat those blocks using a trigger.
My general advice is to start with something very easy, such as placing exactly one bet on one selection, for example the favourite team in a football match. Once you have managed to create a trigger that does this, you can add more conditions and later more triggers, and at some point will be able to program really sophisticated betting plans.
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