The Betfair Application Programming Interface (API) is the tool on which participants in the Developers Program are able to build customised tools and interfaces. Normally users will read market information, place bets, and check current bet details and account statements via the Betfair web interface.

With the Betfair API, you can communicate directly with the Betfair database in XML format via a SOAP interface. By using the API, your application can provide a custom interface, functionality and specialized operations not otherwise afforded by the interface.

  • The API is independent of the Betfair web interface; therefore you can build stable, custom functionality and interfaces to suit your betting methodology or custom application. Changes in the web interface will not affect the operation of your program.

Using the Read-only API, you can create programs that:

  • Retrieve reference information for a market
  • Retrieve the market prices
  • Retrieve your current bets on an event
  • Retrieve information on settled bets
  • Retrieve your account statement information
  • Use this information to calculate and display your own data

For example, you can:

  • Build a spreadsheet that monitors your position on a specific market, calculating the average effective price achieved on each selection taking into account offsetting back and lay bets.
  • Build a program which alerts you when a market price has moved to a specific level.

Using the Transactional API, you can create programs that also:

  • Place bets on a market
  • Cancel existing unmatched bets
  • Modify existing unmatched bets

For example, you can:

  • Build an application that places bets when certain market conditions are met
  • Build an application that can place offsetting bets conditional on other bets getting matched

Please note: Even if you are not a developer, you could still take advantage of the Betfair API. You could hire/arrange someone to do the development for you OR you could also choose to use a off-the-shelf application already developed by a Betfair-licensed Software Vendor.

More Information on the Betfair API