Selections Import System

You can import selections via a csv, xls, xslx or xlsm file. This may be useful to you if your tips come to you in this form from a tipster, or another source, or you have your own selection process that you can output in an excel format.

‘Date Time’ and ‘Selection’ fields are both required.

Sample excel sheet with just ‘Date Time’ and ‘Selection’ columns:

Click Import file and select your excel workbook, the selections will be imported into the ‘Import Window’. Please note how the top row has been greyed out as the system has recognised that this is your header row and has selected the correct column names from the drop down lists in both columns. If you did not have a header row in your excel sheet then you would have to selected ‘Date Time’ and ‘Selection’ from the drop down menu’s so the system knows what columns they are.

All columns available:

The format of the file can have the following fields/columns

Date Time, Market, Selection, STP, Stake, Min Odds, Max Odds, Min Runners, Max Runners, Type, Price, D/F, System

Date Time – Required

Please note that the PC that this was done on had a date format with full stops, i.e. 15.01.2009 Day.Month.Year, your PC may have Day/Month/Year or Month-Day-Year. You must use the same time format that your PC is currently using. This can be checked by clicking on the clock in your system tray to bring up the ‘Date and Time Properties’

Market – Optional (Text)

If you want to rename the market from the Betfair name then you can do so

Selection – Required (Text)

The name of the running selection

STP – Optional (Integer – Number with no decimal places)

The Seconds to post you want to place the bet.

Stake – Optional

The Size of the bet you want to place

Min Odds – Optional (Integer – Number with no decimal places)

The minimum odds that the runner should be.

Max Odds – Optional (Integer – Number with no decimal places)

The maximum odds that the runner should be.

Min Runners – Optional (Integer – Number with no decimal places)

The minimum number or runners that should be running in the race for the bet to qualify

Max Runners – Optional (Integer – Number with no decimal places)

The maximum number or runners that should be running in the race for the bet to qualify

Type – Optional (B or L)

This is the Bet Type, Back or Lay. If Type is included it must be B or L

D/F – Optional (D,Dr or F)

- D stands for Dynamic, the price submitted will be the number of tics (specified in Price) away from the current price available on Betfair (at the time of placing the bets). Set a positive Price to order at a better price, a negative at a worse price (to ensure the placement)

-Dr

- F stands for fixed, the price ordered will be the exact price specified in Price. If you have entered an incorrect bet size then the price will be rounded to the nearest better price that can be submitted when the bets are placed.

Price – Optional

If D/F is D then this is the number of tics that is added or subtracted from the current price to get the order price

If D/F is Dr then the current price used is from the opposing bet type price.
I.e.: if you chose Dr and a price of -4 and the bet type B. If the Lay price is 12 and the Back price 11 at the time of placing the bets the price ordered would be 4 tics worse than 12 = 10 and therefore would most likely match at 11 or at worse case 10 if the price moved before the order was accepted by Betfair.

If D/F is F, the Price must be an number – this number will be rounded to 2 decimal places. This is the price that will be ordered.

System – Optional

You can specify a system name for reference in the Bet Minder window and for results history records that the software stores for you to view.

If you have saved a set of settings in the ‘Add Selections’ window these settings will be used. Any settings in the spreadsheet  will override saved settings

Importing the information:

If you include the headers as the first line of your csv file it will automatically select the correct values for that column and assume the first row to be your header row. Alternatively you can tell the import window what each column stands for.

An example file:

OK, so now you should be aware of how your csv file should look.

Click Tools / Import File to open the import window.

Then click ‘Find in Betfair Card and Import’ and they will be entered into Bet Minder after the import facility has checked all of your settings and found your selections in the Betfair card. If you specify an incorrect Date Time or Horse the selection will not be imported.

Any settings that are not in the import window will be taken from the general settings in the Bet Minder software at the time of import. So for example we did not specify a ‘Bet Type’ here so it was read as a Back as the main settings was set to Back when we imported the selections. If you have set a ‘System’ name column in the file and you have saved settings with that name then those settings will be used instead of what is in the ‘Add Selections’ window.

You also have the option to select either the win or place market.