How many times have you had an open trade only for an unforeseen incident out of your control too suddenly occur resulting in you not being able to close your position and possibly leaving you staring at a hefty loss – especially if it’s an open lay position.
If this is something that your fortunate not to have experienced yet then it’s worth reading on if you want to keep it that way, for those unfortunate to have already been caught out in the past if you’re still not already better prepared in some way then the suggestions here might help.
The most common incidents likely to occur out of your control are; a computer crash or failure, loss of internet connection, power cut to your home or office and of course Betfairs API severs going down.
Being Prepared
Its possible to safe guard yourself against the first three from above simply with a spare laptop / tablet and a 3g/4g internet dongle the important thing is that both of these back-ups can also run from battery power.
I have a back-up laptop which I ensure is always fully charged and at the start of each day and before even opening a trade will make sure im logged onto Bet Angel from it and also both the Betfair and Betdaq websites. I also us a MyFi wireless hotspot which too is kept fully charged and is switched on at the start of each session. My desktop PC and laptop are connected by wire to my main fibre optic internet connection but each is also connected by wireless to my hotspot and will switch over automatically within seconds should my fibre optic internet ever lose its connection or power.
So that covers any instances with equipment my end but what about if/when Betfair goes down?
The most obvious way to be prepared for this eventuality is to also have a funded Betdaq account and as described above be logged into this either via Bet Angel or through their website directly on your backup laptop this way any open positions on Betfair can be quickly closed using Betdaq or vice versa.
Another option depending on your trading style and the markets your trading could be to try and always place an opposing bet immediately after you open each position (but away from the current odds) and use the take SP option – (this is something i always do when trading the pre-race horse racing markets) should Betfair then experience any problems whilst your in the middle of a trade any SP bets already in the market will still reconciled afterwards so you won’t face the possibility of a total loss of your opening bet.
And if yoy think theirs not much chance of Betfair’s servers going down just have a look at the ‘Betfair down’ thread on the Bet Angel forum, this happens more often than you might think, although most times it just becomes a bit sticky and slow for a few seconds or minutes but it can occasionally go offline for some time and it only takes once for this to happen at just the wrong moment to leave you with a possible problem unless prepared!
So BE PREPARED and always HAVE A BACK UP PLAN