API call charges please help as i failed my maths degree. lol

Ok this question may have a few answers but please help if you have time and knoledge.

I ran the bot today with a singel triger lay and auto green set with take sp back if bet fails to be placed.

The nice people charged me  £14 for my usage today, dispite reading over and over again the charge rules I could not find an answer, partly due to how complicated the rules are and partly due to not knowing waht i had done to cause this event.

I have not changed the settings from default with regards to the refresh rate and all the safe gard settings are as standard.

I did have betfair also running in browser mode.

so any help as it took my little profit from today and stomped its big bet fair boots all over it.

adrian

Adrian,

If you had BetFair running in your browser, this has added up to the total requests that you made to BetFair under your username.

The requests made from a browser are multiplied by two as compared with the requests made inside MF Pro. In other words, when it comes to charging you for data usage, sitting on their website is reckoned twice as worse as working through the API.

So if you want to have the website open, go to MF Pro's "Connection Monitor" and reduce the request limit to around 13-15.

I have spoken with bet fair they just dont care but maybe you will understand that as a new user i was monitering my bets as the bot placed them so i could learn to trust it.
Maybe you could advise about the usage problem as bet fair took my money BEFOR billing me. they took it at 17.00 and set me a email bill at 17.55 i dont mean it arrived at 17.55 they actual set the invoice 55 mins after taken it with no prior advice of the amount.
i do love the product as its the most usable bot i have evr used these are just polish on perfection please dont take it as a complanint and thanks for your help.
adrian

Hi Adrian
I too had this letter (below) yesterday from the nice people at Betfair!
I did not have the Betfair platform open but was using two MF pro platforms with both request limits set to "10" instead of "20" I am going to set both to 8 now and keep my fingers crossed!

You incurred a charge in relation to usage on 1/28/2010 of 2.83 GBP. We want you to avoid being charged in future.
If you are using an off-the-shelf API solution, you should ensure that you have downloaded the latest version of your Vendors software which should contain information about your data requests. Note that opening multiple markets and/or multiple applications may lead to you incurring a charge.
If you do open up more than one application, we would recommend that you set the combined requests well below the 20 data requests per second limit, particularly if you are not betting.
Please contact your Vendor directly for further information.
For further information on data request fees please see section 5 of the Betfair Charges page which is in the About Us section of the website. Please email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

 

Regards,

 

The Betfair Developers Program Team

Adrian, by default the settings in MF Pro are configured to limit your requests to 20 per second. This is the default setting and it assumes that you don't run any other bot and/or web site.

Of course it can be tricky if you do, because the price you'll pay actually depends on which type of service you use: for example you would pay twice as much if you were using a non API solution (i.e. had a browser with their web site open).

I personally find this data charge ridiculous, as it actually discourage people from using their service.  I'm very sorry about the money they have taken, I once had been in the same shoes as you (-£80 in one evening).

So, like BF winner advised, try to keep the request limit lower, using the "Connection Monitor". Always be aware of what other bots you are running at the same time. Remember they will add up the requests sent from all of your accounts. And they don't warn you when you are hitting the limit.