BetHawk Bot Review

BetHawk has been trialled twice at Lay Back.

Lucy ran the first trial from 11th July 2013 to 27th February 2014, placing 2,703 bets and banking 159 points of profit.

The second was carried out by Stephen from 5th February 2016 to 7th February 2017, this time placing 5,776 bets and returning 696 points of profit.

Needless to say, both reviews saw BetHawk placed in the “passed systems” folder.

But… that’s not quite the end of the story.

User feedback since has been… let’s say… “mixed” with some praising the betting bot and others having a hard time.

Based on the trial results over a total of 19 months, I don’t think that anyone could argue that BetHawk shouldn’t remain as a “passed” system, but…

I urge anyone getting involved to take things steady with a very long-term view.

If you can’t look past bad runs and drawdowns, BetHawk is certainly not for you.

They are going to happen.

On the other hand, if you want to find out more about this automated betting system then read on. After all, both trials did end well in profit.

In this post you will find the full transcripts of both trials, along with results and conclusions from Lucy and Stephen. It’s a looooooooong read but you will get the full 19 months worth of results, thoughts, conclusions, ups and downs.

I can’t imagine a more comprehensive or thorough live, public test. Hats off to both!

If you’d like to find out more about BetHawk itself, you can do so here.

Lucy’s Intro: 11th July 2013

I can think of few things weirder than a betting bot.

It almost seems a contradiction in terms.

After all, horse racing in particular is notoriously random, and robots, presumably by definition, are utterly predictable, slavishly following their designer’s rules.

Can such a random sport really be reduced to a series of programming instructions?

That said, when you think of the enduring appeal of tipsters – which, I believe, comes from how busy most people are, creating the demand for high quality, effortless selections – then I suppose a bot makes some sort of sense.

With a bot you don’t even have to put the bets on yourself!

You just switch on your computer and let it do its thing.

But still. It goes against the grain….

And yes I know I have said things like this before, specifically on the only previous occasion when I tried testing one of these things.

In the end of course, I didn’t have to deal with the philosophical and socio-economic implications of an army of tipsters suddenly being made redundant, as my trial of the Magic Backing Bot ended in disaster. It showed itself to be little more than an automated way of losing money, plus was a total pain to live with, as it seemed to need constant TLC.

I was glad when the whole sorry affair was over and I could go back to normal punting.

With all the above preamble in mind, you will probably be surprised to hear about my new trial of BetHawk.

For in spite of all my reservations, I cannot ignore the fact that this thing appears to deliver real results via a portfolio approach.

And yes, it is that word portfolio that’s hooked me.

Regular readers will know I go on and on about portfolios (Read “Rollingstone”, to find out why).

It is an idea we punters can steal from the financial trading world, to minimise risk, and, importantly, give us a degree of insurance against the pain of losing runs.

Also, unlike my previous failed foray into the world of betting automation, this one does allow some user engagement in order to help you build your portfolio contents.

A cynic might consider this the illusion of control, but I still think it better than no control at all!

So What’s Inside The Box?

BetHawk essentially provides a range of systems from which you select the ones that appeal most to you.

This might seem a bit silly, because surely everyone will simply want the most profitable systems. But it really isn’t as simple as that.

You may for instance be prepared to trade off some profit for an improved strike rate.

Or perhaps you prefer to focus on long-term return on investment, and may be prepared to live with the fact that a given system has struggled recently.

In any event, you simply select from a long list those systems that have features that appeal to you, and bundle them together into a portfolio.

Then, as far as I can tell, all you do is press the magic go button, and sit back and wait. 🙂

There is apparently also the option to monitor individual systems for a period of time, before you decide to buy in.

The monitoring aspect is free, and can, it appears, be run indefinitely, or, more realistically, until such time as you’re convinced this is something you’d like to invest real money in.

Which, if nothing else, is a damned impressive sales technique!

So Here Goes…

I’m going to set up the tool on my PC over the next couple of days…

….build my portfolio…

… then kinda look at it for a bit…

… then kick off the trial!

It all seems very straightforward.

And of course utterly mystifying.

Update: 8th August 2013

It’s just under a month since I wrote my introductory post about the BetHawk bot.

And here I am, 246 bets down the line, already wondering if I should wind up the trial….

This is not an easy report to write. Because my emerging view is that this product may be beyond testing.

As I said in my opening post, I don’t really understand betting bots.

And now, 246 bets later, I have to say… I still don’t.

For me (and maybe it’s a personal thing), the whole point of a successful betting system should be the exploitation of an “edge”.

An edge being the reason why the system is believed to work in the first place.

For instance…

Maybe you believe you can profitably lay horses on the all-weather track at Southwell, if, say, they have no previous experience of its sapping fibresand.

Thus the market may be under-pricing runners with experience of other all-weather tracks, and not taking adequate notice of Southwell’s unique surface.

Thus, this belief would become your “edge”.

And if you could find enough winners over the long term by laying in this way, your belief in the edge would sustain you during the occasional losing run.

Which brings me back to BetHawk.

Because losing runs with bots are a bit of a nightmare.

I don’t know why I should believe in them, because I have no idea what the edge is supposed to be.

The opaque nature of betting bots tries my faith to the point where I find them almost impossible to live with.

After all, this thing is spending my money, but not telling me how it’s making its decisions!

OK – so how are we doing overall?

You might think I’m going tell you BetHawk‘s been a disaster… but it hasn’t.

After 246 bets, I have lost just 5.5 points, by using 2 point stakes.

In effect, it’s a draw.

But I’m afraid my point still stands.

I can see no clear pattern in the bets, and therefore no real “reasons to believe”.

The prices taken offer no clue, with winners to date ranging from 1.64 to 12.14.

And race-types include both handicaps and non-handicaps; chases, hurdles and flats; quick dashes and long canters.

Now I haven’t run BetHawk all day every day — I do have to go out sometimes ! — and of course, I have only selected a subset of systems from the many options available in the product’s portfolio.

But the ones I have chosen were personally recommended to me by the system provider, so I have to say overall performance so far has been slightly disappointing.

However, it is quite likely that another user, selecting other systems, and running at different times of the day, might have obtained far better – or worse – results.

It also doesn’t help matters that the strike rate has been a shade under 20%. So long, losing runs have very quickly become a fact of life.

However, that said, there are a lot of bets each day, so a “long losing run” might last more than ten bets but only take three hours!

I normally test systems for 200 bets, as this number, in my mind, represents a sort of trade-off between statistical robustness on the one hand, and the sheer hassle of trialling on the other.

So clearly, at 246 bets placed, I’m there already.

Plus, as I have no idea what this thing is doing anyway, I am even more tempted to call it a day.

However!..

Now that the system is set up, there is almost no effort involved in actual trialling (other than remembering to switch it on!), so I have decided, in spite of my reticence, to let BetHawk run for another 250 bets or so.

If we can get to 500 bets, I think I’ll have given it a fair old go.

What I can say unequivocally is that I have found Keith @ Acebots to be tremendously helpful and courteous, and determined to provide a good quality service.

And I so want to see it work!

And even more, I would love to know what the hell it’s doing with my money!

I’ll be back in a month or so with a conclusion.

In the meantime, the complete results log for the BetHawk trial looks like this…

Update: 12th October 2013

It’s been a couple of months since I wrote my last report on our BetHawk trial.

I have my reasons: hospital, holiday, life, stuff.

But the weird thing is, BetHawk doesn’t care. It just ploughs on regardless….

In fact, recent events may be the very best argument there is for getting this product.  It does its thing and you forget about it.

So much so that I do often forget to run it!   Which naturally doesn’t help.

However, every now and again, I remember to fire it up, and off it toddles, speculating with my money whilst I try my level best not to look.

So… how has BetHawk been doing?

Well, thanks for asking, pretty well in fact.

We are not really on speaking terms – BetHawk does its thing and I do mine – and of course it knows I don’t really trust betting bots.

But somehow, somewhere along the way, it decided to forgive me and start amassing profit.

And it has done this, courtesy of some new (ahem!) “dynamic portfolio config files”.

So now you know.

OK – so what do the numbers look like then?

In my first report, I managed to lose 5.5 points in 246 bets.

Not a disaster by any means, but hardly a pulse-quickening start either.

However, this time, thanks to my new impressively dynamic portfolio thingummy, we have recovered dramatically.

Look at this!

At this point in a review, I usually like to add lots of reflections about the way a service is designed, what it’s like to live with, what the risk profile is like, and any tips or tricks I’ve picked up along the way.

You know the score by now. 🙂

But frankly, with BetHawk there’s nothing to add.

Who the hell knows what it’s doing?!

OK OK there are a couple of things I suppose…

Firstly, the strike rate alarms me a bit (another reason not to look!).

And secondly, the way it often places multiple bets on the same race (and indeed, even on the same horse) adds to my general sense of bafflement.

But other than that, like I say, BetHawk goes its way, and I go mine.

Bottom line: BetHawk has made me 27.75 points after 537 bets.  So really, who cares?

So should I just wind up the trial there, and award a Pass?

After all, I said last time that I might finish at 500 bets… which we long since passed.

But there’s just one thing though: that 13% strike rate really does make me nervous.

So: I’m going to let it run to at least 1000 bets.

Which probably means I’ll be back with my next update in December.

Provided that is, I remember to switch it on.

The complete results log for BetHawk this time was as follows…

Update: 29th November 2013

It’s been six weeks since my last pretty upbeat report on the BetHawk trial.

I do keep forgetting to run the thing(!), but I don’t suppose it matters that much. After all, I’ve still racked up 986 bets so far, which is starting to look like a pretty robust trial.

So, most importantly, are we still in the money?

In a word, No, but we’re only slightly overdrawn.

A total loss of 8.25 points after 986 bets isn’t a disaster by any means, nor indeed is it conclusive.

And so it’s very hard to know what to make of our progress. Because the thing is so opaque, I can barely comment on the way it works.

The bottom line is: almost 1000 bets have passed, and I still don’t know what to do with BetHawk.

So OK.. deep breath — this is what I’m going to do!

I do hereby solemnly swear to run BetHawk at least four days a week until Christmas.

With the express purpose of completing at least TWO THOUSAND BETS IN MY TRIAL.

Then I’m going to stop.

If it’s still 8 points or so down, it’s going in the Neutral folder.

But I do hope it goes one way or another, as level outcomes are such an anti-climax!

And of course, in spite of all my well-documented doubts about betting bots, I still have to admit that the basic idea is rather intoxicating.

The portfolio that runs itself!!

Who wouldn’t want it to work!?

Here are the top-level statistics.

In report #1, I managed to lose £5.50, or 2.75 points, in 246 bets.

In report #2, I added 33.25 points from 291 selections, to get me quite excited!

But unfortunately, this time, I’ve managed to lose 38.75 points in 449 bets, to leave me with a net balance of -8.25. 🙁

The stand-out stat is, of course, that strike rate, which can translate into quite a few dispiriting runs. However, the thing about using a bot is – I barely look!

After all, what’s the point?

It’s not as if I can influence BetHawk, is it!?

The complete log of results for the last six weeks is as follows.

I aim to be back around Christmas with my trial conclusion. 🙂

Update: 3rd January 2014

At last, a long overdue update from me on our intriguing BetHawk trial… And I have to say, it’s hard to dislike this product.

As I said last time, I do keep forgetting to run the bot in the morning (Note to self — must try harder!! — This is actually now on my New Year’s Resolutions List!) , but when I do, I find it remarkably drama-free.

BetHawk grows on you.

I think, for me, the issue with using a bot has been trust. But I am starting to believe my money is really safe with this thing.

So how are we doing?

Well, it’s a story of little ups and little downs, but the bottom line is an overall loss of 4.2 points after 1236 bets.

The good news is that we’ve made 4.05 points in 250 bets this time, to bring us almost back to the break-even point.

I have to confess to worrying about that strike rate…

It’s the reason why I still feel a little nervous about switching the thing on!

But after over 1000 bets, I think it’s fair to say that confidence does start to build.

Maybe the secret with a tool like BetHawk is, ultimately, “faith”.

In precisely the way you must believe in a tipster before you place serious stakes on his selections, I’ve slowly had to learn to believe that my money is safe with this bizarre arrangement, of one software product (BetHawk) gambling my money with another software product (Betfair.com).

My log of results for the month of December is as follows.

I was going to wind the trial up this time, but, in its current state, I feel things are inconclusive. And it’s obvious to me that the whole point of this product – almost more than anything else on my site – is long term investment.

So I’m pushing on.

I’ll be back with my next report around the start of February.

Update: 28th January 2014

I thought I’d take a slightly different tack with BetHawk in January.  Like, you know, switch it on.

Regular readers will know that I’m a bit of a coward where bots are concerned.

As someone once said to me in a wholly other context: I have trust issues.

Now this may be neither the time nor the place to start unloading childhood angst (er, I’m only messing here, I’m fine, really!), but frankly, things came to a head when, after my last report, the BetHawk system salesman ran out of patience with me being too timid to run his bot, to the point where he started publishing his own results on my site!

OK OK! I can take a hint!

And anyway, as I explained last time, BetHawk grows on you.

I’m starting to believe, OK!?

So this time, I’ve been switching the thing on. Most days, even!  And I’ve added almost 600 more bets! And guess what..!

I made a heap of money!

The Story In Numbers

We came into January on the back of a mildly profitable December, still slightly overdrawn – to the tune of 4.2 points, to be precise.

However, we approach the end of January, 581 bets further down the line, in far better shape.

Look at this!

And you know, I’m even starting to worry less about that strike rate….

After all, it’s rock solid.

14% is what it is, and 14% is what you are going to get.

And that isn’t a problem provided you let the thing run for long enough.

Now I know this is going to sound weirdly superstitious, but…. I find BetHawk works even better if you ignore it!

Seriously!

The days I sit and mither over the thing, it just won’t leave the station, but sits there sulking, losing my money.

Whereas when I forget all about it… it steams silently from one race track to another, like a bullet train of profit.

OK OK, back to the serious stuff… Results log time!

If there is one thing that builds trust, it’s data. And after 1,817 bets, we’ve now got plenty!

So here follows (deep breath) a summary of the 581 bets I (well, it) placed in January:

I’d like to say a huge sorry to the good folk at BetHawk.

I’ve been mean to you.

I didn’t trust you.

I was wrong.

And, like the typing pools of the past, like HMV, and WH Smith, and Jessops, and Woolworths, and I don’t know what else… computers are going to kill tipsters stone dead.

Yep, tipsters are dead. Long live BetHawk.

And yet I can’t bring myself to wind the damned thing up.

I’ll admit it, I may even be in love!

And…. breathe! 🙂

I’ll be back with my next update around the end of February.

Lucy’s Conclusion: 27th February 2014

I almost don’t know where to begin with this report.  I am in awe of what I have just witnessed.

My report on BetHawk in January was the most upbeat so far. After trading sideways for a long time, we had finally moved comfortably into the lead.

But this time, it’s quite different.

Unlike last month, when I was still learning to leave behind my old reservations about bots, I now have something much more profound to share.

This may just be the most important trial on my site in 2014.

The only sensible place to begin is with hard numbers.

And if I thought the performance in January was good, look at these figures for the period from 29 January to 26 February.

Really quite extraordinary.

My sole regret is that I am only using £2 stakes!  £10 bets would have left me ahead to the tune of £1593.

And all you have to do is switch it on!

The odd thing though is that I am struggling for much else to say!

Normally, I would comment on a tipster’s strategy or approach.

But none of that applies here. Who knows what it’s doing!?

BetHawk is simply a mystery. A silent but glorious money-making machine in the corner of my house.

When I showed it my mother, she joked that it has, “all of the upsides of marrying a rich man, without having to bother with all that sex”.

I couldn’t put it better myself. 🙂

There are a couple of points of note.

1. By the end of Jan, we were stuck with a strike rate around 14%.

Then, somehow, in Feb, the thing delivered over 20%, thereby lifting the long-run rate to 16.2%.

Unsurprisingly, this has greatly improved the bottom line… but I am of course not in a position to account for it!

2. There is no way I can sensibly list the 886 bets that this thing has placed over the last four weeks, but a daily summary shows wide variations:

So, if you are going to give BetHawk a go, you have to give it some room for manoeuvre.

That said, I don’t feel you need to worry unduly about it all going horribly wrong. 2703 bets represent a lot of test data!

You can download the complete results log for the last four weeks here.

I apologised to the nice people at BetHawk in my last report.

This time, I would like to give them a round of applause!

Seriously. This thing is extraordinary.

Obviously, having achieved such a result after so many bets, I have to award it a Pass.

But somehow that doesn’t seem quite enough!

I’ve not been so excited about a product since … well, probably the launch of Profit Maximiser.

Trust me, this is an important product.

So much so… I am even starting to wonder why are they bothering to share it!??

Stephen’s Intro: 5th February 2016

Hi everyone, Stephen here, with a very exciting new trial: or rather a re-trial.

Lucy has given me a whole trial of my own to run. And I’m genuinely excited.

As I say, this is a re-trial of BetHawk, a software robot that uses a portfolio of systems to back and lay horses on Betfair.

Now the original trial was highly successful – Lucy said it converted her from sceptic to big fan, and the robot received a Passed rating as a result – but there followed an animated debate in the comments section with some readers reporting serious problems with the software.

This all blurred the final picture, to the point where Lucy tells me she’s often planned to re-test the whole thing from scratch.

Additionally, about half of the portfolio of BetHawk systems have since been either modified or replaced, so we can’t have much confidence that the performance of the original trial would be repeated today.

So: I intend to test BetHawk with a brand new portfolio and an awful lot more bets than we did last time.

In fact, it’s going to be a monster trial… 🙂

So how are we going to test BetHawk?

I’m a Software Tester in my day job and have quite a long history with running robots on Betfair, having used both the GreyHorseBot and, more recently, The Bet Engine robot running 30 systems of my own. So hopefully my experience will help.

This kind of robot software is best run on a VPS (Virtual Private Server), which means it is running on a machine somewhere in the UK even though I’m based in Sydney, Australia.

You can run BetHawk perfectly well without a VPS, especially if you are happy to have your PC left running all the time and happy to kick it off each day. The VPS just makes it more automated and less time-consuming.

There are other advantages to using a VPS. The virtual machine is on all the time and has more reliable and faster internet than I do. It also means that the trial can be run hands-free. We literally set the parameters at the start for the systems and stakes we wish to use then just set it going…

And from then it just keeps going and going and all I will be doing is tracking progress. 🙂

BetHawk offers a very informative piece of software called BetHawkConfig which helps you track and graph the overall progress of the systems. I’ll be able to choose whether to look at stuff graphically in BetHawkConfig or at the detail of all the actual bets and their results within BetHawk itself.

I can of course also check results in my Betfair account. 🙂

One disadvantage of this kind of software is that we will have no idea what methods the software is using to make its selections and no way to find out.

We only see the selections a very short time before they are placed and just have to hope that whoever designed the thing knew what they were doing!

BetHawk currently has a superset of 11 systems to pick from: 4 x lay place, 3 x lay win, and 4 x back win.

The price of the subscription varies, depending on how many systems and what stake you’d like to use.

The maximum stake can be between GBP 2 and GBP 50 per bet, although it is possible to use an even lower stake if you prefer.

GBP 25 per month gives you the minimum package of 5 systems at GBP 2 per bet.

At the other extreme, GBP 120 per month provides unlimited access at a maximum of GBP 50 per bet.

For my trial, I have chosen 7 of the 11 systems so that they:

• Cover all 3 of the system types.
• Give a smooth-ish climbing graph of accumulated profit in the claimed history.
• Give the best ratio of growth to maximum drawdown based on the last year’s results.

BetHawkConfig makes it very easy for you to analyse the systems both individually and together in a trial portfolio across any historical date range to see exactly how they would have performed.

This is what it looks like:

The first graph shows the performance for system Keith08, a lay place system that is one of the seven I am going to use.

The second graph at the bottom shows the performance of the combined set of systems in the current portfolio, ‘Stephen New7’.

I have set the System Date Range to 01 Jan 2015 to 31 Dec 2015, so the graphs show me the claimed performance of this individual system and of the entire 7 system portfolio for the whole of 2015.

You can see the highlighted figures in the statistics section of 142 points profit for the Keith08 system, and 1309 points profit for the combined portfolio.

Both those outcomes would be very nice!

To explain a few more of the statistics, in the next screenshot I have simply dragged up the border above the lower graph to cover most of the middle section.

We can now see all the statistics for the combined portfolio:

AceBots, the BetHawk vendor, advises you to use 4 times the maximum drawdown as the total number of points in the bank.

I worked through the combinations of systems to find the best ratio of profit to drawdown and came up with the portfolio above.

You can probably (just about) see that the drawdown figure is -192.62 points.

So I am going to use a bank of just over 4 times this for my trial, which works out at 800 points.

At 50 pence a point, I’ll have a total bank £400 and a basic stake of £0.50 per bet.

There are some system combinations which would have produced more profit in the past but they come with much higher drawdown figures.

I am very conscious of the risk to reward ratio and am therefore sticking to my plan.

The trial needs to run for a decent length of time, certainly at least six months, so we have picked a target of 10,000 bets.

I expect this to work out at a duration of around 8 or 9 months, which should surely be enough to give us a definitive verdict on BetHawk.

I will provide regular monthly updates on how it is going but please feel free to post questions and comments below as normal.

In the meantime, you can find out more about BetHawk here.

Update: 1st March 2016

Hi everyone, Stephen here, with a report on the first month of my live trial of the BetHawk Betfair robot.

I kicked off the trial in early February to try to come to a final, definitive conclusion about this intriguing piece of software.

I suspect I can guess what you really want to know….

Has BetHawk automagically been winning me money, just like it says it will on the tin?

Well, I’m glad to say the answer so far is, “YES!”

Look at this screenshot of summary stats and admire the nice ascending graph!

If you recall, I started on 5^th February with an 800 point bank at 0.50 (fifty pence) per point, ie GBP £400.

I’m pleased to report that, after 904 bets, the bank has grown to a healthy GBP £499 – a net profit of 198 points – an increase equal to almost 25% of the  starting bank!

I’d be extremely happy with that level of performance if it is maintained for the rest of the trial.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot a small discrepancy between the 198 points profit I actually made, and the 195 points profit in the screenshot.  The system author, Keith, has explained to me in great detail why there is a small discrepancy between what BetHawk Config shows and the true profit, and I am satisfied that the difference will only ever be small, and so is nothing to be concerned about.

Remarkably, the last 16 days have all produced positive outcomes, and there have been only 6 negative days out of 25 in the trial so far.

So it’s all been impressive stuff; though, of course, it is very early days yet in what is expected to be at least a ten month trial.

So.. has it truly been hands-free?

Yes it has!

Apart from one day when Betfair was down for an extensive maintenance period.  This caused BetHawk to crash, and because I had got so used to not having to touch it, I stupidly forgot to check whether it needed restarting.

This reminded me of what I already knew – that if you are running any kind of robot on Betfair then always to check it is up and running correctly after an outage.

Keith also said that he would look to send a reminder email to all subscribers whenever he becomes aware of the exchange being down – which would of course be very helpful.

In normal mode however, BetHawk remains hands-free. I’ve even configured it to send me a little summary email at the end of the racing day.

Today’s email summary is below: so you can see that I don’t even have to log in to find out the exact score for the day. 🙂

BetHawkNG Results
Profit : 3.41
Points : 6.82
Bank : 1756.99

So.. how did the individual systems in the portfolio fare?

The statistics and graphs for each of the 7 systems I am running are shown in the screenshots below.

I am pleased to be able to report that they all profited except for “Venice 18” (see the last screenshot), which is down about 5 points, and “Keith 09” (second image), which has roughly broken even.

One of the other systems only came into profit in the last few days – but hey, a profit’s a profit. 😀

We’re only a month into the trial, so a note of caution should be sounded.

However, BetHawk has certainly made a very promising start.  And, if it continues in the same fashion, I, for one, will be very happy with it!

Now that it’s up and running, there’s really little to do except, hopefully, keep tabs on how much money it’s making. 🙂

I’ll be back with my next report around the end of March.

In the meantime, you can read more about BetHawk here.

Update: 1st April 2016

Hello everyone, Stephen here…  with an update on the second month of my live (re-)trial of the BetHawk Betfair robot.

I started the trial on 5th February, and, by the end of the month, had made a healthy profit of 198 points at level stakes.

So, in just a few short weeks, BetHawk had grown its bank from 800 to 998 points, which represents nearly a 25% gain.

So inevitably I wondered, could BetHawk really maintain its astonishing early progress in March?

Yes it could!

For the second month running I can show you a very pleasing performance graph (Click to enlarge in separate window).

The key performance statistics are very satisfactory. 🙂

Total number of bets placed – 2214

Initial betting bank – 800 points

New bank balance – 1,257 points

Capital Growth – 57%

As I am betting at a very cautious 50 pence per point, then, in pure money terms, my opening bank balance of £400 has grown to £629.

I think we can all agree that this represents a very pleasing level of performance!

I’ll certainly be extremely happy if BetHawk maintains the same rate of growth for the rest of the trial, though we should probably expect some levelling off. The success seen to date is apparently somewhat ahead of the long-term average.

Indeed, given the fairly volatile nature of the laying parts of the portfolio (which is most of it), we should probably expect there to be one or two negative months.

It is important to bear this in mind and be psychologically prepared for when it happens. Because, in the long run, we are really only interested in finding out two things:

• The end result after at least 10,000 bets have been struck
• That our starting bank balance was large enough to withstand the deepest drawdown we encounter.

Incidentally, you may spot a small discrepancy in the screenshot from BetHawk Config between the 457 points’ profit I made, and the 443 points it shows.

Software supplier Keith has explained to me in great detail why this occurs. I am satisfied that the difference will only ever be small and so is nothing to be too concerned about.

Has all this profit really been hands-free?

Yes it has. 🙂

I have not had to touch BetHawk in the whole of March as it has run flawlessly on my VPS – at least, as far as I can tell.

The only glitch occurred when I incorrectly thought that it might have crashed one day towards the end of the month because it struck no bets and I did not receive my end of racing email summary.

Keith has since confirmed that there were no bets from my chosen systems that day and has added an item to the change request log to make sure that the email summary is still sent when this happens.

We’re only two months into what is expected to be a ten month trial so we do still need to sound a note of caution.

That said, I can’t help feeling a small degree of satisfaction that I put my hand up for this trial. I love the fact that, once you’ve set it up, BetHawk runs hands-free. Profit and effortlessness make for a heady cocktail.

Anyway, I’ll be back with my next update at the start of May.

Meanwhile, you can find out more about BetHawk here.

Update: 1st May 2016

Hello again, Stephen your triallist back with the third monthly report on my re-trial of BetHawk’s automated betting programme.

To recap: I kicked the thing off in February and racked up 457 points’ profit by the end of March.

So, an absolutely awesome start, but the author Keith from AceBots wisely warned us to expect fluctuations in performance.

In particular, 5 of the 7 systems in my chosen portfolio concentrate on laying, often at high odds, so we can expect a few ups and downs.

I wondered…  was April going to be the month that reality — and losses – set in?

NO! April delivered a further 90 points’ profit.

The bank balance moved from 1257 points at the start of the month to 1347 at the end. We began on 5th February with 800.

So we’ve now had 3 positive months, averaging about 180 points profit from each one.

Here is the overall performance graph for the trial to date.

As you can see, 547 points’ profit makes for a pretty picture.

The headline performance statistics remain as pleasing as ever.

• Bets placed – 3869
• Starting bank – 800 points
• Current bank balance – 1,347 points
• Capital Growth – 68%

I am betting at 50 pence per point, so my actual profit is £274: i.e. my opening bank balance of £400 has improved to £674.

Unsurprisingly, I am thoroughly satisfied with progress to date.

I keep waiting for a setback but there hasn’t been one yet.

So… has it been necessary for me to intervene in the running of the bot at any stage?
Nope.

There was a Betfair outage for 3 hours on 29^th April, owing to a power failure at their data centre apparently.

Obviously this meant BetHawk could not bet for a while, but the software recovered and continued without me having to do a thing.

One other slight problem occurred when my VPS became overloaded with too many processes running (a bad habit of mine!).

BetHawk was not getting enough of the time slice (nothing was), and so it missed a few bets.

Keith was able to work out from the logs that this was what was causing the problem. Once I rebooted my VPS and stopped leaving unnecessary processes open, the issue went away.

I’ve now resolved to reboot my VPS at least once per month… a good house-keeping habit I’m sure you agree!

We’re now three months into my ten month trial and, with almost 4000 bets racked up, I have to admit to being very excited about my progress.

I have a really good feeling about BetHawk and will be very surprised if it does not end with more nice profit when we get to the 10,000 bets target!

Anyway, I’ll be back with my next update at the start of June.

Meanwhile, you can read more about BetHawk here.

Update: 1st June 2016

Hello everyone, Stephen here with an update on the fourth month of my live (re-)trial of the BetHawk Betfair robot.

Recap: I started the trial on 5th February with an initial bank of 800 points. In the first three months we then proceeded to make 547 points’ profit at level stakes.

So, an astonishing beginning, but the author Keith from AceBots wisely warned us that “there will be negative months”. 5 of the 7 systems in my chosen portfolio are laying, often at high odds, so we can expect a few ups and downs.

So did May turn out to be yet another positive month?

Sadly, no it didn’t.

May was the long-expected negative month, pegging us back 136 points to end at a balance of 1211 points: i.e. 411 points in profit overall as the original starting bank on 5^th February was 800 points.

There was a spectacularly bad day on 13^th May with a return of minus 180 points, followed immediately by another 43 points’ loss the very next day.

More recently, the 28^th-30^th May have produced a good recovery with plus 100 points over the period.

Here is how it looks month by month:

Here is the overall performance picture for the 4 months so far, shown in the lower of the two graphs (Click it to enlarge!)

The overall performance statistics are still very satisfactory.

Total number of bets placed = 3786 [but see note below!]

Initial betting bank = 800 points

New bank balance = 1,211 points

Capital Growth = 52%

It should be noted that I removed one of the 7 systems, “Luxor14”, from the portfolio on 3^rd May.

This was because it became apparent that not only was this system stuck in a prolonged bad patch, it had reached the point where it had no longer been profitable across its entire lifetime (You can see this in the upper graph in the screenshot above).

The bottom performance graph and summary stats to the left of it are thus a simplification of the real history, because they only cover the six systems now in the portfolio: as if Luxor14 had never been a part of it.

Luxor14 had lost us 140 points at the time that it was stopped. Which explains why the number of points’ profit reported both on the graph and in the summary stats to the left total +551, whereas the actual overall profit is +411.

Translating the points into pounds: as I am betting at a very cautious 50 pence a point, my opening bank balance of £400 has grown to £605.

I continue to be pretty happy with this overall level of performance, though will be a bit worried if June doesn’t take us back into positive territory.

Once again, I have not had to touch BetHawk throughout the month: with the exception of my decision to remove the Luxor14 system from the portfolio. This was easy to implement. I just went into BetHawk Config and set the Luxor14 stake level to zero.

We’re now a third of the way through what is expected to be a twelve month trial and have experienced three profitable months followed by a losing one.

This has given us a performance average of approximately 102 points’ profit per month across the trial as a whole.

According to the system supplier Keith, this is pretty much in line with the overall history of the component systems. Keith has advised that the 5 month period from the creation date of most of the systems in my portfolio up to the start of the trial averaged 111.8 points per month. This statistic did however include Luxor14.

It will now of course be very interesting to see what June brings us!

I’ll be back with my next update a week early on 24^th June as I am going away on holiday on 25^th.

Meanwhile, you can find out more about BetHawk here.

Update: 11th July 2016

Hello everyone, Stephen back again with a brief update from my sunbed on life with the BetHawk Betfair robot.

(I’m sure you will appreciate why I am keen to keep this one short!).

If you remember, we kicked off the trial in February, beginning with a bank balance of 800 points.

The first three months added over 500 points at level stakes (!), only to be followed, perhaps unsurprisingly, by a first loss of 136 points in month #4.

So did month #5 see me return to winning ways?

No, quite the opposite.

A second losing month produced a loss of 109 points and further dented all the good progress we made in the first quarter.

We’ve said previously that we had to expect both good and bad months but it still doesn’t make them any easier when they come along.

The performance graph doesn’t look quite as spectacular as it did two months ago either.

We seem to be giving money back almost as quickly as we once made it. 🙁

I have a holiday to concentrate on so I’m going to keep this short and sweet today.

The bottom line remains: I am halfway through my trial — five of ten months completed — and my bank balance is 38% healthier than it was at the outset.

So it’s a bit premature to panic.

I’ll be back in August with a fuller report. Hopefully, we’ll be rewarded for showing patience during this tricky spell.

In the meantime, you can read more about BetHawk here.

Update: 2nd August 2016

Hello everyone, Stephen here with an update on the sixth month of my live (re-)trial of BetHawk’s ‘autobet’ software for Betfair.

The story so far: I kicked off the trial in February and amassed an almost ridiculous 547 points in the first quarter. Then May and June went in the other direction with minus 133 points followed by minus 109.

So: did July stop the rot and turn us back around into positive territory?

No, sadly.

July returned a relatively small loss of 48 points to leave us with a current bank balance of 1057 points.

The original starting bank was 800 points on 5^th February, so I remain 257 points in front.

The month-by-month performance summary now looks like this:

So we’re still up overall, but have now had 3 negative periods in a row, and are averaging only about 43 points’ profit per month over the whole trial, which is well below the claimed historical average.

Here is the overall performance graph for the 6 months so far:

The reason the graph says we are up 370.82 points, when my chart above says we are up by 257 points, is that we removed Luxor14 and Luxor08 systems along the way.  The graph is showing performance as if those two systems were never in the portfolio.

In other words those two systems lost us the difference of 113 points before they were removed.

BetHawk – Key Performance Statistics

• Total number of bets placed – 2993 (excludes the Luxor14 and Luxor08 bets)
• Initial betting bank – 800 points
• New bank balance – 1057 points
• Capital Growth – 32%

As I am betting at a very cautious 50 pence per point, then, in pure money terms, my opening bank balance of £400 has grown to £528.

As you can probably imagine, after the first three very pleasing months, I’m now not nearly so happy with the way things are going.

Still, we have to remember that we’re in profit overall, so things could be a lot worse, but if we continue to have negative months then we won’t be in profit for much longer!

Overall, we’re now six months into what is expected to be a ten month trial, and at this point the performance has been disappointing compared to the claimed historical average performance of the systems in our portfolio.

On the plus side, the bot continues to run in hands-free mode. I have simply not touched BetHawk in July: which is a big plus.

Let’s hope we finally return to winning ways in August – so that I will be able to tell you a more positive story in early September.

Manwhile, you can find out more about BetHawk here.

Update: 2nd September 2016

Hello, it’s Stephen back again with the seventh monthly report on my live (re-)test of BetHawk’s Betfair bot.

The first six months of the trial were a ‘game of two halves’: we made money in months #1, #2 and #3, then lost a big chunk of our profits in #4, #5 and #6.

The net result was that we came into month #7 still comfortably ahead – we’d banked 257 points overall, which isn’t to be sniffed at – but clearly we needed an end to our long losing streak.

So: did we start making money again in August?

Read on to find out…

Yes, we did thankfully. Just a little bit!

August returned a net profit of 23 points to leave us with a bank balance of 1080 points.

We began with 800 points on 5^th February 2016.

The month-by-month summary is as follows:

A net profit of 280 points equates to a return of 40 points a month: which is lower than BetHawk’s claimed historical average.

The product contains performance graphs so you can visualise how you’re getting on. Here’s the one for my trial:

(Note: If you look closely, you’ll see that this chart incorrectly states says we are up by 395 points. This is because along the way we removed two subsystems, Luxor14 and Luxor08, and the chart is telling the story as if those two systems had never been in the portfolio. 

In other words those two systems lost us the difference of 115 points: 395 minus the real profit figure of 280).

BetHawk – Performance Statistics

• Total number of bets placed – 3370 (excludes Luxor14 and Luxor08)
• Initial betting bank – 800 points
• New bank balance – 1080 points
• Capital Growth – 35%

As I am betting at 50 pence a point, I have grown my starting balance of £400 to £540.

We’re now seven months into what is expected to be a one year trial, and so far returns have been disappointing compared to the claimed historical average for the systems in the portfolio.

Still, 280 points’ profit sounds pretty good to me. 🙂

Life with BetHawk remains largely a hands-free business. Unusually, it did crash once this month: I’m not sure why. It’s probably something that happened locally on my VPS but I restarted it and had no further issues.

Let’s hope we’re now heading back in the right direction and can start adding more profit. 🙂

I’ll be back with my next report in October.

In the meantime, you can find out more about BetHawk here.

Update: 2nd October 2016

Hello, this is Stephen again with the 8th monthly report on my live (re-)trial of BetHawk’s Betfair bot.

To recap: I kicked off my epic test on 5th February 2016, and three months later had racked up an awesome total profit of 547 points.

Then May, June and July went in the other direction with minus 290 points in total. Finally, August stopped the rot with a small gain of 23 points, to leave me 280 points up overall.

So did September continue the move back into positive territory?

Yes, it did!

September delivered a gain of 58 points to take us to a total bank balance of +1138 points. The original starting bank contained +800 points on 5^th February 2016.

There have been quite a few monthly ups and downs along the way:

So we’re still up overall, but we are averaging only about 42 points’ profit per month over the whole trial, which is well below the claimed historical average.

Here is the system-generated performance graph for the 8 months so far:

You can see that we had almost climbed back to our all-time high profit level a week or so ago, but then a sequence of poor days took us back down again. Really it’s been quite volatile stuff ever since the first high point was reached in the spring.

Incidentally, the reason why the chart says we are up by 435 points, when my figures show we are only ahead by 338, is that we removed Luxor14 and Luxor08 subsystems along the way.

In effect, it is showing what would have happened if we’d never had these two failed subsystems in the portfolio. In other words, Luxor14 and Luxor08 lost us the difference of 107 points before they were removed.

BetHawk – Key Performance Statistics

• Total number of bets placed – 3856 (excluding the Luxor14 and Luxor08 bets)
• Initial betting bank – 800 points
• New bank balance – 1138 points
• Capital Growth – 42%

As I am betting at a very cautious 50 pence per point, then, in pure money terms, my opening bank balance of £400 has grown to £569.

I’m still making money and doing so in hands-off mode.

The profit I’ve made is below the claimed historical average level, but then I’m not complaining. I didn’t touch BetHawk once in September. Quite remarkable.

Some of the subsystems have disappointed Keith as well as me and he has therefore recommended not to use them currently. The trial portfolio no longer contains any non-recommended systems.

Here’s hoping that our steady recent progress continues. I’ll be back with my next report in November to let you know if it has done so.

Meanwhile, you can read more about BetHawk here.

Update: 1st November 2016

Hello, Stephen here with my 9th monthly update on our (re-)trial of BetHawk’s specialist Betfair software.

This increasingly epic trial began on 5th February and in the first quarter racked up an awesome total profit of 547 points.

Then May, June and July spoilt things by losing us an eye-watering 290 points.

Finally things turned round in August with a net gain of 23 points. September added a further 58.

So did October continue the move back into positive territory?

Yes, I’m thrilled to report that it did.

October added a truly excellent 247 points to take us to a total bank of 1,385 points.

We started out with 800 points on 5^th February 2016.

I always like to include my month-by-month profit summary so this is how it’s looking currently:

So we’re now at a new highest level of the points bank and are averaging about 65 points’ profit per month over the course of the trial.

The BetHawk system allows you to run off useful graphs showing how you’re getting on overall. Here’s what performance looks like after 9 months:

You can see that we have basically recovered back to our previous highest level.

Now, the chart isn’t quite accurate as it excludes the losses incurred by two systems, Luxor14 and Luxor08, that we removed along the way. So it says we are up 651 points, whereas my table above says we are up 585 points. My table is telling the true story.

BetHawk – High-Level Performance Statistics

• Total bets placed – 4461 (excludes Luxor14 and Luxor08)
• Initial bank – 800 points
• New balance – 1385 points
• Capital Growth – 73%

As I am betting at 50p a point, my opening balance of £400 sterling has now grown to £692.

We’re now nine months into what will be a one year trial, and after a big dip in the middle, the performance has completed an excellent recovery.

I didn’t have to go near BetHawk in the month of October. It did all this in autopilot mode.

Let’s just hope the good news continues for the rest of the trial!

I’ll be back with my next update at the start of December.

In the meantime, you can read more about BetHawk here.

Update: 1st December 2016

Hello, Stephen here yet again with monthly report number TEN on our ultra-long-running (re-)trial of BetHawk’s Betfair bot.

The story so far!…..

We began this bid for the Biggest Ever Betting Trial On Planet Earth back on 5th February.

Frankly, we should have been sponsored for charity.

The trial immediately hit warp speed, racking up a truly amazing 547 points’ profit in just three months.

And then, as is so often the way in the betting world, the very moment I started to believe, it all fell apart. The next three months duly cost me 290 points.

We kept reminding ourselves we were still in credit and were rewarded for our patience when August finally delivered a small profit (23 points).

And, as if to suggest that momentum is everything with a bot, September stepped on the gas to add 58 points before October tore off into the distance by adding an amazing 247 points.

So did November maintain the smooth acceleration into profit?

Well, we made money again, though not quite as much as last time.

November returned a mere 65 points to take us to a total bank balance of 1,450 points.

We began with an initial bank of 800 points back in February. So we are up by 650 points in all.

My month-by-month view now looks like this:

So we’re now at a new month-end high point and are averaging 65 points’ profit per month over the whole trial.

Here is the overall performance graph for the 10 months so far.

As I keep saying, there is a slight discrepancy between the results table, which says we are up by 650 points, and this graph, which reports a profit of 686 points.

This is because the graph has ‘forgotten’ about two systems that were removed from the portfolio midway through the trial (Luxor14 and Luxor08).

The table is therefore giving a more accurate account of how we’ve getting on.

BetHawk – Performance Summary

• Total bets placed – 4892 (excludes Luxor14 and Luxor08)
• Initial bank – 800 points
• New balance – 1450 points
• Capital Growth – 81%

I have set a single point to fifty pence. So, for me, 650 points works out at a healthy profit of £325.

I didn’t have to intervene in the running of BetHawk at any stage in November.

There was one day when the supplier, Keith, emailed before the racing started to say that there was a data problem and that BetHawk would not run that day.

But the bot resumed without any intervention the following day – and we were back to regular, hands-off operation.

There are just two more months to go till the end of the trial and I, for one, am in no mood to wind things up.

It’s been a very positive experience, even allowing for the big dip in the middle.

I’ll be back at the start of the New Year with my penultimate progress report.

Meantime, you can find out more about BetHawk here.

Update: 4th January 2017

Hello one and all, Stephen here once more with my eleventh monthly update on our (re-)trial of BetHawk’s Betfair bot.

So… as we start to approach our one-year finishing line, could BetHawk maintain its impressive form?

I’m pleased to be able to tell you that December was our fourth positive month in a row.

It returned 22 points overall to take us to a total bank of 1,472 points.

As the original starting bank, way back in Feb 2016, held 800 points, it follows that our net profit total stands at 672 points.

Monthly performance can vary quite a bit, as you can see from the summary:

We are now at a new all-time high point for the betting bank and are averaging around 61 points’ profit per month.

BetHawk – Performance Summary

• Total bets placed – 5,397 (excludes Luxor14 and Luxor08 which were withdrawn mid-trial)
• Initial bank – 800 points
• New bank balance – 1472 points
• Capital Growth – 84%

For me, 1 point equates to fifty pence. So the 672 points I have made translate into £336 profit.

You can, of course, set the value of a single point at whatever level you feel comfortable with.

With just one month to go in my year-long trial, it seems inconceivable that I will fail to make a healthy profit.

The last few months have really rebuilt my confidence in BetHawk following the second quarter wobble.

It’s amazing to think it’s possible to make money in a hands-off style such as this. I didn’t touch the bot once in December.

I’m naturally hoping that we finish on a high but, in any event, I’ll be back in February with my trial conclusion.

In the meanwhile, you can read more about BetHawk here.

Stephen’s Conclusion: 7th February 2017

Hello everyone, it’s Stephen here with the conclusion of our year-long (re-)trial of BetHawk’s Betfair betting bot.

Inevitably, over the course of a whole year, there are bound to be some ups and downs. And trust me, we’ve had a few!

We began on 5th February, 2016 so the trial has run for exactly one calendar year.

It got off to an incredible start, adding 547 points in just three months.

Unsurprisingly, this performance level couldn’t be maintained but the loss of 290 points over the next quarter was deeply sobering.

The turning point came in August with a modest but heartening profit of 23 points. Since when, we never really looked back.

September, October, November and December all finished in the black, meaning I entered the final month 672 points ahead.

So did the trial end with a bang or a whimper?

I’m pleased to say we finished with another positive, if unspectacular, month.

In fact, it lasted a month and a bit as I decided to extend the trial to 5th February in order to complete the full year.

The final period returned a net profit of 24 points to leave me with a bank balance of 1,496 points.

I started out last February with 800 so, in all, I’ve added 696 points to finish at the highest point of the trial.