"Monitor" tote boards electronically?

[OCF]

Is it possible to monitor multiple tote boards electronically? That is, as opposed to trying to keep an eye on the toteboards of 12 different tracks on 12 different TV's simultaneously in a simulcast facility (as an extreme example)?

And of course, if it can be done, what are the mechanics (necessary software, app's, etc.) of doing so?

For example: is it possible to program a tablet or smartphone so that it will send me an alert when the odds on a favorite at any North American track are < 1/2 at 2 MTP?

[Cratos]

Is it possible to monitor multiple tote boards electronically? That is, as opposed to trying to keep an eye on the toteboards of 12 different tracks on 12 different TV's simultaneously in a simulcast facility (as an extreme example)?

And of course, if it can be done, what are the mechanics (necessary software, app's, etc.) of doing so?

For example: is it possible to program a tablet or smartphone so that it will send me an alert when the odds on a favorite at any North American track are < 1/2 at 2 MTP?

Sir, go to the head of the class because you have identified a needed technology for horseracing.

[GameTheory]

Is it possible to monitor multiple tote boards electronically? That is, as opposed to trying to keep an eye on the toteboards of 12 different tracks on 12 different TV's simultaneously in a simulcast facility (as an extreme example)?

And of course, if it can be done, what are the mechanics (necessary software, app's, etc.) of doing so?

For example: is it possible to program a tablet or smartphone so that it will send me an alert when the odds on a favorite at any North American track are < 1/2 at 2 MTP?
Yes, I've been doing it for years, and there has been a program or two out there in the past for sale for similar. However the powers that be generally don't approve of such things or make any feeds available (although they've been talking about it for years, most recently in Jeff Platt's interview with the tote guy just a few days ago), but hooking something up to your ADW toteboard isn't that big of a programming challenge and if you keep the usage within normal parameters (and bet on the associated account) you can stay under the radar.

It would be nice if they'd just sell us a feed -- people have been begging for it for a long time...

[LottaKash]

I would think that someone who is clever at such things, might be able to connect and monitor Brisnet's "Supertote"....

I monitor many tracks at the same time using the Supertote...Of course I can only see and use each selected track one at a time...And of course you can, as far as I know, only do this for 5-tracks at a time..

[FocusWiz]

I agree with GameTheory. My Excel spreadsheets do something a little different since they track odds and look for value in my selections rather than what you are asking (which is somewhat simpler) and each focuses on a single track at a time. When there is something worth looking at, they email me some selected information during the last four minutes of wagering for each race.

It isn't particularly hard since the stock guys are constantly watching their plays similarly, but it is far more convoluted than it needs to be. Plus, I have found that I need to account for differences among the various versions of Excel and still cannot figure out an odd glitch when running it with Office 365 and Internet Explorer 11.

I have another "toy" I built to track multiple tracks which I am trying to create as a "front-end" to my other spreadsheets, but I have that on the back burner right now since it can be really slow when it is monitoring 13 tracks at a time. I have a fairly fast i5 4300U machine running at 1.9 Ghz where I run it on right now, but probably need to run it on a more powerful machine. A "feed" would probably be the best way to handle it but would probably cost so much that you could never profit from those short prices you are looking for.

There are other "tools" to monitor/read information on the internet that are somewhat limited or very costly. One I looked at has a "free" version which limits the number of url "reads" per month. I would use up the free version in a couple of races.

There are quite a few samples of spreadsheets that do this kind of thing in this forum. I forget where I found them, but I think you may want to search on the term "screen scraping" (which is a term that generally describes something far more complicated than merely querying a table from the internet, but is vernacularly used to describe accessing data from a web page). Excel does not allow true screen scraping (setting positions, looking for messages, interacting with buttons, responding to prompts, etc.) though you might be able to do that with something like iMacro.

[Charli125]

Yes, I've been doing it for years, and there has been a program or two out there in the past for sale for similar. However the powers that be generally don't approve of such things or make any feeds available (although they've been talking about it for years, most recently in Jeff Platt's interview with the tote guy just a few days ago), but hooking something up to your ADW toteboard isn't that big of a programming challenge and if you keep the usage within normal parameters (and bet on the associated account) you can stay under the radar.

It would be nice if they'd just sell us a feed -- people have been begging for it for a long time...

I do it as well, but had to personally create a program to scrape and record the information.

No, it's not something that everyone has access to without programming something to do it.

[JustRalph]

I would think that someone who is clever at such things, might be able to connect and monitor Brisnet's "Supertote"....

I monitor many tracks at the same time using the Supertote...Of course I can only see and use each selected track one at a time...And of course you can, as far as I know, only do this for 5-tracks at a time..

when it works........... :rolleyes:

[GameTheory]

I do it as well, but had to personally create a program to scrape and record the information.

No, it's not something that everyone has access to without programming something to do it.It is not something ANYONE has access to without programming it themselves or hiring someone like me to do it. Of course if they provided a feed, you'd probably still need a programmer to do something with it, it is just the fact that they won't just give us the data already in a straightforward way (for money! take our money please!) that is stupid...

[raybo]

Quite possible, but as GT stated, the key is staying under the radar. Excessive "pinging" of servers often results in getting cut off/shut down. One of the board members here has done this in Excel, multiple track workbooks running simultaneously, the problem is monitoring them all at the same time. His method involves manually switching between individual track workbooks, in order to get the updated data from the tote for each track.

[highnote]

Raybo is right. If you are going to do this, don't be a jackass and hit their servers 100 times per minute. That will get your IP blocked.

Just hit the server every 10 or 20 seconds. Or add a button on your software to hit the server manually if you want an update between your automated hits.

[highnote]

Yes, I've been doing it for years, and there has been a program or two out there in the past for sale for similar. However the powers that be generally don't approve of such things or make any feeds available (although they've been talking about it for years, most recently in Jeff Platt's interview with the tote guy just a few days ago), but hooking something up to your ADW toteboard isn't that big of a programming challenge and if you keep the usage within normal parameters (and bet on the associated account) you can stay under the radar.

It would be nice if they'd just sell us a feed -- people have been begging for it for a long time...


I was a beta tester for Youbet back in the 1990s. I asked them for a tote feed back then! I found out years later they did give a betting group direct access to the tote stream. I assume if you are well connected or bet a lot of money you can get a feed.

There are foreign racetracks who bet U.S. races (probably U.S. ones, too). They buy the signal and rather than give a rebate they get a discount on the takeout while many other bettors pay full fare. They are able to stream the tote -- probably the trifecta pools, too. Someone must have access to the trifecta pools.

We are told the trifecta pools are too big to transmit. That may have been true at one time, but in today's world it is a drop of data in an ocean of data.

This is a tough game.

[GameTheory]

Just hit the server every 10 or 20 seconds. Even that is too much...updates for a single pool happen no more than twice a minute...

[highnote]

Even that is too much...updates for a single pool happen no more than twice a minute...

I thought they used a new protocol where the pools are updated every 12 seconds?

[GameTheory]

I thought they used a new protocol where the pools are updated every 12 seconds?
Think that is rolling out later this year...we'll see...

[raybo]

Yeah, the best I've seen so far is twice per minute. You have to keep in mind though that you are not getting data as fast as the tote is, there will be some sort of delay, the degree of which depends on several things, your own internet speed for one. I doubt an ADW even gets the updates as fast as the track tote. I have seen 20 seconds or more lag between the live video and ADW tote, and then you have to factor in the lag in the live video also. So, if you're looking to get current odds and place bets at the very last moment, like the big guys, dream on. You'll get shut out, while their bets will still go through. If you're looking for current tote data at 1-2 minutes to post, any of the methods mentioned here will do that, but, it's that last click (or more) after the gate load that gets you. :bang:

I would imagine Dave S. could jump in with lots of info on this stuff, as I'm almost positive his program gets live odds updates, at least for the track the software is displaying anyway.

[GameTheory]

I would imagine Dave S. could jump in with lots of info on this stuff, as I'm almost positive his program gets live odds updates, at least for the track the software is displaying anyway.Dave lost that feed I believe (at least for users) -- if he didn't someone tell me how to get it back in my HSH!

[raybo]

Dave lost that feed I believe (at least for users) -- if he didn't someone tell me how to get it back in my HSH!

LOL - that sucks. Didn't know it was a "feed", but that would make things a lot easier, for sure.

[GameTheory]

LOL - that sucks. Didn't know it was a "feed", but that would make things a lot easier, for sure.It does have a facility to use a third-party totegrabber (ATR and one other) -- not sure either of them work anymore. I used to have my tote program emulate the ATR format to get live odds in there. But for a while I think there was a feed for HSH users...

[iceknight]

If eventually they want to make exchange wagering a big thing, then they better provide feeds of tote values.

[thespaah]

Here's a link to the old TVG tote board....
http://basic.tvg.com/Open/RaceInformation/CurrentOddsResults.aspx