TampaJim
08-04-2008, 11:08 PM
Hey there. Back in 1997/1998 I wrote a DB app using BRIS downloaded data files (I parsed either Plus5 files or All-ways files, and could have written parsers for anything).
I could prove statistically that what I'd developed was positive ROI, but my money management skills at the window were severely lacking (i.e. betting the favorite 'just in case' when the profitable long-term play was clearly to leave the favorite out of all wagers for that race). Long story short, I went cold-turkey on pari-mutual wagering in late 1998.
Perhaps being more mature now and better able to control impulse betting (we'll see...), I've decided to dust off my app (written in Access 97 at the time). I've done the DAO to ADO conversion and brought it up to Access 2002 (Access XP) levels already. I'll finish the conversion to Access 2007 over the next few days (I decided to take it in two steps since there was plenty of Convert to 2002 help on the web where all the problems had been worked out years ago. And 2002 -> 2007 isn't such a big leap from what I gather).
Longer story short, I'm re-testing with my hundreds of data files from 1997/1998 (about a dozen tracks) to prove to myself it really can be positive ROI, but I really need to get some more current data. What's the best source of affordable or free good data these days? Is BRIS still the way to go? Is there a source of back-data that doesn't cost as much as this week's data? If it were reasonable, I'd like to get January to June of this year for most tracks. Or all of last year in a lump sum transaction.
Or do I have to start fresh, rebuilding a current data set from this week and going forward? I've done a few searches but haven't (yet) found a thread that directly addresses the best way/place to get bulk data that isn't necessarily ultra-current.
Any advice appreciated.
Thanks,
Jim
I could prove statistically that what I'd developed was positive ROI, but my money management skills at the window were severely lacking (i.e. betting the favorite 'just in case' when the profitable long-term play was clearly to leave the favorite out of all wagers for that race). Long story short, I went cold-turkey on pari-mutual wagering in late 1998.
Perhaps being more mature now and better able to control impulse betting (we'll see...), I've decided to dust off my app (written in Access 97 at the time). I've done the DAO to ADO conversion and brought it up to Access 2002 (Access XP) levels already. I'll finish the conversion to Access 2007 over the next few days (I decided to take it in two steps since there was plenty of Convert to 2002 help on the web where all the problems had been worked out years ago. And 2002 -> 2007 isn't such a big leap from what I gather).
Longer story short, I'm re-testing with my hundreds of data files from 1997/1998 (about a dozen tracks) to prove to myself it really can be positive ROI, but I really need to get some more current data. What's the best source of affordable or free good data these days? Is BRIS still the way to go? Is there a source of back-data that doesn't cost as much as this week's data? If it were reasonable, I'd like to get January to June of this year for most tracks. Or all of last year in a lump sum transaction.
Or do I have to start fresh, rebuilding a current data set from this week and going forward? I've done a few searches but haven't (yet) found a thread that directly addresses the best way/place to get bulk data that isn't necessarily ultra-current.
Any advice appreciated.
Thanks,
Jim