What Data Is Publicly Available versus Must I Purchase - Confused?

[vegasone]

Seems to me if you are so knowledgeable with all that stuff......you would be able to pick up programming. Takes a little effort and money to get to where you want to be. Not much comes easy or free unfortunately. Pay someone to do it for you if you are not inclined to do it yoursell.



It's not all that hard to get all that stuff into a data base.

[xtb]

If you hope to analyze raw data or someone else's ratings for profit, those bones have been picked clean. You will need to process the data to make it your own in order to have something worthwhile.

[jay68802]

Where to start...

Times are considered free data, name of horse, jockey and trainer are considered free, after that it is up to you. It is a lot of work to data base data. Any "figures" are not free.

[Wizard of Odds]

Originally Posted by vegasone

Seems to me if you are so knowledgeable with all that stuff......you would be able to pick up programming. Takes a little effort and money to get to where you want to be. Not much comes easy or free unfortunately. Pay someone to do it for you if you are not inclined to do it yoursell.



It's not all that hard to get all that stuff into a data base.

I could learn database programming, but creating a data base would be very tedious for me. Thanks for your encouragement!

[Wizard of Odds]

Originally Posted by xtb

If you hope to analyze raw data or someone else's ratings for profit, those bones have been picked clean. You will need to process the data to make it your own in order to have something worthwhile.

That's a very steep wall. In other words, I couldn't manipulate readily available data to create value (i.e., a positive ROI) for some subset of races/bets?

[Wizard of Odds]

Originally Posted by jay68802

Where to start...

Times are considered free data, name of horse, jockey and trainer are considered free, after that it is up to you. It is a lot of work to data base data. Any "figures" are not free.

I agree - a lot of work to create a data base from scratch

[elhelmete]

What exactly are you asking again??

[ubercapper]

Many licensed resellers of data have packages which include machine readable charts as well as data on a forward going basis. For example, an email Bris recently sent out had links to their annual plans including their comprehensive charts file for $699.95. That's an entire year's worth of charts you can do what you want with as long as it's for personal use. They have samples with the file structure which will tell you whether the ratings you want are included. You can also check HDW, Equibase, Trackmaster and other licensed reseller's sites for data packages.

It's probably going to be a lot cheaper and efficient to go this route compared to getting the data any other way in the long run, as well as insures accuracy as opposed to hand entering or getting the data second hand.

As stated in other posts in this thread, the terms of use for the data on all licensed sites state its for personal use only.

To create a product from the data for anything other than personal use, you need a license, unless the product uses the commercially available files which the end user purchases from the licensed resellers.

[xtb]

Originally Posted by Wizard of Odds

That's a very steep wall. In other words, I couldn't manipulate readily available data to create value (i.e., a positive ROI) for some subset of races/bets?

You can certainly try and I wish you luck. Give it a go and prove us wrong.