Records

[wb]

With the new year upon us, I am tidying up all my records, banks, systems etc.

When It comes to records, It is proving quite time consuming, and Im wondering if there is a better way. I am currently working on a few of my own systems, as well as using keiths too. Can anyone make any suggestions as to how to speed things up.

At the end of the day, I have to go through each bet matched on betfair, then work out if it was one of my own, an A+ or A, or whatever, then I open the relevant spreadsheet, and enter the horse name, price and p&L etc. I go through the list until it is complete, entering each bet in the relevant spreadsheet.

As I say, It can get a bit confusing, because every bet is coming from the one betfair account.

Also, What does everyone else record?
At the moment, for each bet I record the horse name, its betfair price, its starting price, stake, and profit and loss. Is there anything I should include/leave out?

Im interested to know how everyone else sorts out their records. Does it take everyone else ages? I know there is an option on betfair to download the results straight into a spreadsheet, but all the bets are not from the same systems, so it is a bit useless.

Any thoughts/comments welcome.

Thanks, Wayne

[mathare]

I use William Hill for my A+/A/B bets and Ladbrokes for the flat and NH systems I follow so that helps a bit.

What I tend to do is note in the spreadsheet what the selection is in the appropriate place for that system before I place the bet. That way I have the selections already split up by system and it's just a case of filling in the odds/stakes as the bets are placed.

It all takes time but it is worth it. Practice and experience speeds up the process a little but I find the time spent updating records helps focus the mind on what is and isn't going well

[silax]

well wayne with keiths systems let him do the work all i do is keep very simple records on his. i.e profit/loss running total and bank totaleach day simple as that. there is a bit more info on my own systems but i like to keep things simple

[Profit Seeker]

I just write most down, way faster. Only thing I keep in a spread is my own lays which I just cut and paste from the notepad I typed the qualifiers into the night before, typing in the price matched as I go. Probably not the most efficient but suits me.

[presto]

4 betfair accounts
1 for fs/fl lays
1 for fs/fl falsies
1 for backs
1 for trading / misc.

i try and keep as much data as i can. odd's, SP, profit etc..... working out my overlay is quite interesting aswell.
i am also going to incorparate 'course' aswell - as soon as i get the hand of 'split cell data' on XL, and an auto filter aswell - so i can lookup different courses, just because i want to see how badly i do at prices on the sand. liability is also a good thing to keep track of - so you can calculate ROI.

however not all this is nessary. and only do it as i can sit at a computer all day, so it's probably not worth the effort - especially as you want to make things easier.

if you want to make things real easy then i suppose you could download the spreadsheet betfair has of your results, and just copy / paste into a spreadsheet - will only work if you have different accounts for different systems.

[wb]

4 betfair accounts
1 for fs/fl lays
1 for fs/fl falsies
1 for backs
1 for trading / misc.

.

.

Thanks presto, the only reason I have the one betfair account is because I thought it is a good idea to get the % commission down. Although, I probrally don't bet enough yet to make it worthwhile.

I only have 2 Credit cards, so does this mean I can only have 2 accounts? I suppose I could always use the wife's card if I need to :)

[presto]

idealy it is a good idea to get the commish down, but keeping everything on 1 account can get confusing.

if you do open up another account - try not to use a credit card - use a switch / solo etc.... as credit cards get charged 1.5%

[MarcusMel]

You can use the same Card on many Betfair accounts.

You can only make one account with one card with Bookies like Will Hill.

[MarcusMel]

Here is a method I use.

I would place all the bets on a single betfair account. Every system bet would be placed individually. No grouping of bets together. That way I could both place a Lay bet and a Back bet on a selection and not worry about how I was going to split it up later. The only real problem with this method is commission amounts.

I would then at the end of the day go to betfair accounts and fetch the days betfair settled bets from the betting history. These records can be saved to a spread sheet.

I would then take each record and enter into a fresh column a system tag/name of the source of the bet. e.g APLUS or PROLAY

I would then sort all the data so as to bring all the different types of bets together. I could then copy and paste the bets to their individual overall system worksheets.

[wb]

Thanks everyone. I have a full day in front of the PC tomorrow, so Ill try it then :)

[wb]

I presume when you place a bet on betfair, there is no way of 'tagging' it? (i.e. give it a code so you know what type of bet it was?)

Im pretty sure the answer is an emphatic NO, but im just checking:)

[MarcusMel]

Each matched bet is giving a bet-ID - you may be able to view that and note the last 3 or 4 numbers of the bet-id and note put your own tag ID next to it.

However as all the betting came from the Win2Win site there was never any need. I pretty much know what bets I have placed during the day and why. and in what sequence.

[wb]

One more queston:

How many records do you keep in a single spreadsheet. When does it get messy?
for example, should I use a seperate one for each month, then at the end of the year, compile it to get trends etc?

[Win2Win]

I use Bank Transfers with my Betfair accounts, it's free :)

[mathare]

How many records do you keep in a single spreadsheet. When does it get messy?
for example, should I use a seperate one for each month, then at the end of the year, compile it to get trends etc?All my betting is in one spreadsheet. All of it - going back to 2003.

I have separate sheets for win singles, lays, system bets, football, poker, casinos etc. etc. and a stats sheet at the front that shows me my balance at each bookie/exchange I have an account with so I know my overall profit levels. I also have a stats breakdown by system/method so I can track each area individually. This is also split into stats by year so I know whether I made more playing cash poker in 2005 than I did on the lays in 2004 for example. Plus I have a monthly summary for each year detailing no of bets placed, number of winners, SR and profit. I use this to see if any months of the year are bad every year or whether it will all level out over the years.

My fullest sheet is the lays with around 15000 lines. But Excel will allow 65536 lines of data per sheet and when I fill one sheet I will just continue onto another one

[Win2Win]

You can use over 16,000,000 cells so you should be OK for a while :D