Bert’s Horseracing Blog

Maternity leave

Dec 13th, 2007 by Bert

It was a big day for me yesterday, with Betfair finally launching the SP mechanism. I kicked the product off over 2 years ago, but it was a year and a half before we started work on it (the Betfair roadmap is permanently backed up). It is a very big piece of work - in many respects the biggest single add-on to the exchange since it was launched over seven years ago - and it needed planning to a high level of detail. Step forward then Steve High, mastermind of the accumulators product and a man who is extremely capable when it comes to dealing with tough mathematical or logical challenges.

I told Steve that I’ll be taking all the credit if it all goes well but I’m publicly blaming him if it doesn’t, which seems like a good plan. In reality Steve is responsible for virtually all of the logical design with me doing little more than plant the first seeds. There is a long list of honourable mentions - too long to go into, but suffice to say there were several people who really went the extra mile and it was one of those projects that had real commitment and momentum behind it.

It launched quietly yesterday and I would expect it to creep along for a while, gradually picking up turnover as it goes. We need to make some performance tweaks and at some point we need to strip the page down a bit as it’s pretty cluttered right now. I believe that in time it has the scope to become an important product, and it could serve as the foundation stone for a variety of advances further down the line.

For me it may be the final significant contribution I make to Betfair’s product. In a week’s time I take a nine month sabbatical (staying on the BF board as a non-exec) and how I will serve the company after this break isn’t clear. It’s taken a long time to build, but right now I believe Betfair has a truly outstanding product team which has rapidly become one of the finest assets in the company. They don’t need me any more, and it’s great to be saying that. My main concern in my sabbatical is that I’m going to pine for the office - it’s become so much of my life and it’s a genuinely friendly and fun place to be.

Anyway enough of the soppy stuff. The 2:20 at Taunton today is an excellent little race and comfortably the day’s highlight for me. Acambo looks the obvious favourite after a great debut, closely followed by Pepperoni Pete from the all conquering Nicholls stable. Dusky Warbler is half owned by Rodger Sargent, my partner in Mon Michel and King’s Head - he had some serious flat form (rated 107) and despite not setting the world alight with his two chase runs to date I think he’s a genuine contender. Russian Around is the only horse to have bested Noland over hurdles - that was over two years ago and was his only run. He’s had his problems but there was a time that Nick thought the world of him - he’s a big athletic horse and should be a natural chaser. In what may be one to watch rather than bet on I’ll side with Russian Around at a nice fat price. In the 1:10 at Ludlow I’ll be watching (and possibly backing) Enlightenment who has always looked a chaser in the making and should be progressing.

I may have both my Nicky Vaughan horses running on the all-weather tomorrow. Shepherd’s Warning runs in the claimer at 7:00, and she should certainly go ok. Lilac Moon (8:55) is drawn 13 (of 13) for the fourth consecutive time! She’s been very consistent and again should go well - she deserves a win. Mon Michel has gone up another couple of pounds to 124, and should have a good chance of getting into the Ladbroke on the 22nd.

I’m off to Ireland tonight and I’ll be going down to Coolmore tomorrow to see a few horses and have a general look around. Should be fun.

Posted in Berts Horses, Betfair, Mon Michel, Shepherds Warning | 10 Comments

10 Responses to “Maternity leave”

on 13 Dec 2007 at 11:46 pm1The Gambler.

Good Luck and enjoy your sabbbatical.
on 15 Dec 2007 at 1:10 am2Michael F

I hope the blog keeps going through the sabbatical, Bert. You may miss the office but we’ll all miss your musings if they were to cease. As someone who went from a very busy job to a much quieter life, I can tell you it will take some getting used to and by the end of the nine months you’ll still be getting trying to acclimatise (It’s taken me over 5 years…) Anyhow, best of luck with it and let’s hope Winker Watson makes sure 2008 is a year to remember for you!
on 17 Dec 2007 at 1:01 pm3H

Great news about the Betfair SP launch. Good luck Bert, you’re an inspiration to us all.
on 18 Dec 2007 at 1:39 am4Bert

Michael,

if anything I’ll increase my blogging as I’ll have more time, but I’m a bit concerned that I won’t have enough to write about.

H - beers Wednesday eve at the Distillers if you’re about.
on 19 Dec 2007 at 8:22 pm5The Gambler.

Having nothing interesting or amusing to say has never stopped me blogging.
I am sure your blog will continue to live long and prosper.
The Gambler. :-).
on 10 Aug 2008 at 2:59 pm6dil okullari

it looks like a nice site, but it would better with multi language support, for example spanish.. but thanks..
on 23 Aug 2008 at 1:01 pm7Pete S

Bert; The SP facility is great for me as I like laying but don’t have time to watch the markets. But since a site upgrade in June, if I set maximum odds for an SP lay and there is then a reduction factor, I can’t reset the maximum odds back to where they were before the reduction factor was applied. If I press update the site rejects the change.

I’ve raised this with BF helpdesk. The answers I have received have been 1. Cancel the unmatched bet and resubmit (but you can’t cancel SP bets!). 2. Tick confirm bet before placing (but I WANT to place the bet - it isn’t my error in placing the bet!!). 3. Sorry but you can’t cancel the bet after the reduction factor (but I don’t want to cancel it - I want to reset the maximum odds to give it more chance of being matched!!).

My enquiry has now been passed on to ‘the development team for consideration of future site functionality’ but this is really a technical issue about something BF have screwed up since an upgrade.

I don’t seem to be able to get anyone at BF even to understand what the issue is. I want to use BF SP and I want to promote it to others. But I’m banging my head against a brick wall! If you can’t help directly, can you tell me who at BF I can have a conversation with who might at least understand the problem?
on 01 Sep 2008 at 5:03 am8name

Hello!,
on 01 Sep 2008 at 6:53 am9name

Good day!,
on 04 May 2009 at 3:34 pm10HorseRacingBlog

BSP may well be the future - it’s certainly developing a much bigger following from my readers…

Matt
http://www.geegeez.co.uk/horse-racing-blog/

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Maternity leave

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