In short, the answer to the question “what is betfair api” is it’s an application available to use on the Betfair Betting Exchange.
The Betfair API helps you automate your bets and betting systems on the Betfair Betting Exchange, or to create a customised betting interface, also on the Betfair Exchange.
There is an official Betfair Exchange API available to use. And tech geeks – for want of a better phrase – are welcome to develop their own API, Betfair allows this providing you work with them, and within their guidelines.
How to get the Betfair API?
There is a Betfair Developers page where you will find access to all the available APIs. The full list on the developers page is:-
- Exchange API
- Exchange Historical Data
- Games API
- Timeform API
- Vendor Web Apps API
All five offer something different. The main one for use is the Exchange API, but as you can see below, if you require it for Betting Use with Live Data, it costs just under £300 to activate.
The same fee also applies to activate the Betting Use and Live Data on the Vendor Web Apps API.
Different Betfair APIs
As you can see from the above screenshot, there are different APIs available from Betfair. Below we break them down in more detail.
Exchange API
Using the Exchange API you can:-
- Read market data, check and place bets
- Create a trading platform and customise it to satisfy your betting and trading preferences
- Set up a trading system or strategy
- Affiliates can publish Exchange odds on their own websites
Exchange Historical Data
The Historical Data platform gives access to Exchange data that can help with:-
- Historical odds and market data
- How markets were settled
- Testing a betting system or strategy before playing for real
- Export data on to spreadsheets for analysis
Games API
The Betfair Games API is free for personal use, while there is a range of options available for commercial use. On the read only package you can:-
- Retrieve games market information
- Retrieve information on settled bets, current bets and market prices
- Use all the available data to create spreadsheets for your own use
Timeform API
The views of Timeform have been accepted as the gold standard in racing for many years now. The Timeform API is available to customers for premium content for private or commercial use.
The Timeform API is useful for:-
- Retrieve data from Timeform database
- Having all the required data available on horses running
Vendor Web Apps API
The Vendors API is available to licensed Software vendors to create their own betting apps. Using this platform you can:-
- Enable Betfair Exchange betting on any website
- Create your own trading and betting tools
- Place bets and carry out operations on your behalf
Conclusion
Using the Betfair API or any outside developed API is not for the casual gambler. It’s more for the professional gamblers, and those prepared to invest time and money into a long term project.
Unfortunately the Betfair API isn’t the easiest thing to understand or use either. It takes a lot of getting used to, and generally an understanding of technology know-how is required, for uploading files, coding, etc.
The Betfair developers page offers more details and assistance, but overall, using any API involves a lot of work and research by yourself.
It can also be a very expensive game, but if you know what you are doing, it can be very profitable.
