Betfair make me very API

There has been a thread on the Betfair forum that's been rumbling along now since April, where Betfair customers are complaining that the old site consistently fails to load some pages. I'm sure you've seen it yourself. You click on a market, the market section goes blank and you find yourself looking at the "LOADING" page.

... and it just sits there doing nothing. The only thing to do is click off that market onto another, and then click back again onto the intended market, hoping it will load the second time around. Very often it does not.

So what the hell is going on? Well, of course there are a lot of theories put forward by the betting community on the forum, and reading people's experiences of the site itself - along with the utterly lame new site - is very interesting and also a little sad. Betfair appear to have gone badly wrong somewhere along the way.

You can read about everyone's problems here in the thread called Betfair markets taking an age (if at all) to load. Any advice please?

Personally, I find it incredible that Betfair continually allow software to be released into their live system that plainly doesn't work. I myself am in the software industry and so I know how hard it is to create an entirely bug-free system, especially a complex one - but this goes beyond the odd bug here or there. On the Betfair site there are massive problems that make it largely unusable for extended periods of time. That comes down to good old-fashioned testing, I'm afraid. Unit testing, integration testing, soak testing, any kind of testing for crying out loud. Just do some.

Oh christ, stop your moaning. Why don't you just go over and use the new site that they have created?

Well I would, but that suffers from the same (or in some cases worse) problems as the new site. It's not been tested properly. We've lost decent functionality that existed in the old site, and there seem to be more adverts for the Casino or slots than ever. Have Betfair ever asked (and listened) to any input from its own customers? Presently they seem to have cotton-wool in their ears.

I do realise that generally people are change-averse, and that if they have grown comfortable with something then any alterations made will be met with some resentment and complaining. Okay, nothing new there and a small level of angst would be understandable. This, however, goes way beyond all that. The level of anger and ire directed towards Betfair since they opened the new site has not only been sustained, it appears to be increasing.

And then we have examples like this, where someone on the new site submitted a £222 bet and it was automatically turned into a £22 bet. This is just about as fundamental a flaw as it's possible to get. Perhaps Betfair's software developers are coding directly into the live system, I don't know.

With Befair seemingly intent on foisting the new non-functional site onto us all in the not too distant future, it seems like there is only one viable alternative left to those of us who want to continue using their services. If you haven't yet availed yourself of an API, then can I suggest that you do so soon before you are left marooned on an island of Betfair shite, with nothing but a swamp of unmatched and unclosable bets around you.

What's an API? It stands for Application Programming Interface, and in this instance it allows you and me another route into Betfair's services without using their absolutely appalling website. Doubtless you've heard of many of these, but some of the best are:

• Betangel. The annual cost of this is expensive compared to some (£150 pa) but it is rich in features, has excellent analytical tools such as Soccer Mystic and Tennis Trader, and also allows you to automate your trading through spreadsheets. Free API into Betdaq also. This is my personal choice.
• Gruss. The cost is just £6 every 30 days or £60 for the year. Also has automated betting facilities and Betdaq access.
• The Geeks Toy. Also now known as AGT Pro. This was an excellent free API for a long time, but has recently started charging (and why shouldn't they?). Not as feature-rich as the two above, but £20 will give you three month's access and £120 will give you the license. Great value.

There are of course many other APIs available but these are the well-known ones. Whether you are a professional, semi-professional, a serious hobbiest or even just a Saturday punter, I'd still recommend getting an API because someday soon you may just need it. One day, it may be the only viable alternative left to you.