Betting at Starting Price (SP) BetFair betting bot - MarketFeeder Pro - triggered automated betting software

Betting at SP turned out to be confusing to quite a lot of MF Pro users, so it's better to clarify some things in a separate article.

First of all, starting prices are computed by BetFair, immediately after a market turns In-Play. It means that while a market is still Idle, it is in fact not possible to place a normal bet at SP, because the SP itself is unknown. The "far SP" and "near SP" are just auxiliary figures that are meant to give you the idea of what the future SP might be.

Therefore, betting at SP is actually telling BetFair that you want your bet to be offered at the starting price WHEN this price becomes available. Since at the moment of betting the price is not known, you can't predict how much money you will win. That is why when laying you are required to input the liability of your bet, not the amount, as with a normal bet. The liability is the amount of money you might lose regardless of the price of the bet, and it is not surprising that it's the only thing BetFair cares when accepting your SP bet. :)

We often get requests to make a trigger that bets at SP after the market turns In-Play. This in fact means that a normal bet should be placed, only its price will be the same as the actual SP of the selection in question. This has nothing to do with the "bet at SP" functionality, so it would be a mistake to try and set the trigger's action to "back at SP" or "lay at SP", if your aim is to bet In-Play. As soon as the market turns In-Play, the starting prices are formed and available to all bettors, so you can place a usual bet at that price.

Here are two pictures demonstrating the difference.

Laying at SP before the In-Play:

Laying at SP after the In-Play:

So, here is a correct example of a trigger that will back at the starting price on the favourite AFTER In-Play.

The variable "actual_sp" returns the actual starting price of a selection, if the market supports this function at all. Keep in mind that currently only some races are equipped with starting prices, so don't try doing that with a football match for instance.

If even after reading this article you are still unsure which option to choose, try them both, only in TEST MODE.

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