Horse Racing Software, Bet Selector

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System Analyser, MyCalc and Expert Mode

Bet Selector's Analyser module is part of System Selector. System Analyser works by tabulating the performance for individual system rule criteria. For example System Analyser will show you the number of bets, wins, strike rate, return, profit etc was for every individual barrier position, field size, distance and so on.

While mainly used to analyse system rules over past meetings System Analyser can also be used to analyse staking plans and in higher level versions of the program jockeys, trainers and breeding performance.

System Analyser Settings

System Analyser is available in versions above Bet Selector Gold via the "Analyse System" button in System Selector (if you use this button in the Gold version it will simply open a spreadsheet file). System Analyser first presents you with a settings dialogue where you can select which criteria you want analysed. Buttons available for use are as follows:

Note the last two options above allow you to save criteria temporarily from one system and load them into another system.

System Analyser Output

Following are the descriptions of the data columns in the System Analyser output:

Following the above columns are two horizontal bar charts - the first for percentage strike rate and the second for percentage profit (only positive values capped at 100% are graphed). Of the above columns the only one that requires further explanation is the Impact Value which are numbers centered around 1 where less than 1 indicates the strike rate is less than the average for all horses in the test and more than 1 indicates the strike rate is greater than the average. (They are better than strike rates for comparison purposes because strike rates by themselves are influenced by field sizes and individual horse win chances).

The above columns are for the default win/place analysis. If you select the Jockey/Trainer analysis you will get the above columns less the Up and Down columns and with a Rate column in place of he I.V. column (it contains a rating following the traditional scale of 0 for the best through to 8 for the worst).

Going down the page you will see performance for individual criteria values corresponding to most of the System Selector rules. The best way to illustrate this is with a sample output from System Analyser which you can view at System Analyser Sample

The above sample is just an extract from the full report and only shows a handfull of criteria. The full list of criteria analysed is as follows:

Note that System Analyser is only available in versions above the Gold version and criteria marked like this^ are only reported on in the latest Bet Selector Ultimate Professional version. Note also that in the latest Ultimate Professional version you can System Analyse virtually anything you like from the form downloads as well as your own calculations (ie you are not limited to the above list).

System Analyser Data File

In Bet Selector Gold the "Analyse Last Test" button in System Selector opens a spreadsheet file containing full system data for all selected runs. In Bet Selector Ultimate the same button opens System Analyser as dicsussed above but there is still a button in the System Analyser module for opening the spreadsheet file directly.

Spreadsheet files in comma delimited format are created every time you run System Selector over past meetings. The comma-delimited format (with each column of data separated from the next by a comma) has been chosen as it is the most common format asked for and the format most compatible with all spreadsheet and database programs. It will load into programs like Excel with the data automatically separated into columns within the spreadsheet - so you can sort the data by any column you like and even apply calculations to individual columns. A explanation of the spreadsheet columns is as follows:

Note that some of the columns documented above may be empty if you are not using the latest Bet Selector Ultimate Professional version.

Staking Analyser Output

The Staking Analyser output is a CSV file that loads into your spreadsheet program and reports performance of your system bets based on the application of various staking plans. The option to run win or place staking analysis is made via radio button selections at the point where you would normally run System Analyser.

Each Staking Plan is illustrated by two columns of data -the bet size BET and the bank size BANK. Column headings are prefaced by letters (eg a, b, c etc) to indicate the actual Staking Plan being applied. A legend can be found at the end of the spreadsheet explaining the names of the staking plans and more details on them can be found below:

At the bottom of the spreadsheet you will find absolute $ profit, percentage profit on opening bank (POB) and percentage profit on turnover (POT) for each plan.

The Staking Analyser lets you run either win or place staking analysis and also allows you to alter the divisor and select the initial bank percentage from between 0.5% to 5%. Note that the divisor default is set to twice the average odds which the program determines from your system test run.

MyCalc

The MyCalc module (only in Bet Selector Ultimate and above) is used when you want to include your own calculations in System Selector.

To use the MyCalc module just select it via the pull down RUN menu and click the "New"button in the top left hand corner. This create a new calculation to which you can give a name using the box at the bottom right near the "Save As" button, then enter the form items you wish to use by either typing them in or simply selecting them from the drop down and clicking the "Insert" button immediately above the drop down. 

The drop down lists for Race, Horse data and Last Start form data give you descriptions of the various items available. When inserted into the formula box, they are prefixed by R for race fields, H: for horse fields and F: for last start form fields (if you are running Bet Selector Ultimate Professional then you also have access to second, third and fourth last start data items which use the prefixes F2, F3 and F4). A final drop down allows you to insert special variables from System Selector like past start margins and turn positions etc (note these work when using the calc in System Selector but not in MyCalc test mode).

Once you have entered a single form item into the large formulae text box in the middle of the screen you can add additional items with operators like +, -, * or / between them. Such operators can be typed in manually or inserted by clicking on the respective operator buttons at the top of the screen (same goes for left and right parentheses).

Calculation Examples

The following example should help you understand the formula format. This example takes a horse's prizemoney earnings and divides them by the number of placings a horse has had:

H:STAKES/(H:WINS+H:PL2+H:PL3)

The first, second and third placings must be added together and enclosed in parentheses for the division to work.

To save the formula you create you must click the "Save As" button on the middle right of the screen making sure you type a name into the adjacent text box. Once saved, the formulae name will appear in the left hand list box of saved formulae. These can be opened by simply clicking on the names in the list box and they can also be deleted by using the "Delete" button under the formulae name list box.

I have given the name "experience" to a calculation that express the number of wins at the track as a percentage of the total number of career starts. Note I do not mean as a normal percentage of starts at the track so the better horses have to have not just a high proportion of wins at the track but also a high proportion of runs at the track relative to their runs at all tracks. An "experience" percentage of 30 or more can boost profits of some systems between 10 to 30%. 

The formula for "experience" is 100*H:TCW/H:STARTS

A similar formulae that refers to distance wins is 100*H:TDW/H:STARTS

Next is a "last start prizemoney" calculation that is of great benefit to last start winner systems. It expresses the prizemoney won last start as a percentage of the prizemoney on offer in the upcoming race. This calculation immediately separates the better last start winners from the rest and by selecting only horses where the calculation is greater than 20, can boost last start winner system profits by over 20%. 

The formula for "last start prizemoney" is 100000*F:PRWIN/R:STAKES

For more examples including how to use special function called MyPts for allocating points for form items check out the MyCalc blog page.

Testing MyCalc Formulae in System Selector

When testing systems in System Selector there are special rules on the system rules window that give you full control over MyCalc results as follows:

An important example of using these new rules is where you link a system to your MyCalc calculation for Selection Poll points, set the min and max ranges for calc value to 1 and 1 to pick the top MyCalc horse, and then set a minimum of 2 points for the gap between the top and second top horse (gap position number 1). An example on exactly how to do this can be found at Selection Poll System

Note MyCalc rankings assume your MyCalc returns positive numbers with the best horse having the highest number. So if you want to test rankings or gaps between something like rated prices then you will have to engineer a MyCalc that returns higher scores for more favoured horses. For example, the following subtracts the rated price from 100 and replaces negative outcomes with zeros:

MAX(0,100-BOOK2DIV(H:PRICE))

Note BOOK2DIV is an internal MyCalc function used to convert the price from bookie format to numeric format.

MyReport

MyReport uses the same drop down list items as MyCalc but instead of combining them together in a calculation it concatenates them into a string for reporting purposes. This way you can create reports that are different to the standard ones within the program.

To access MyReport you simply change the radio button from MyCalc to MyReport and then list the items you want for each column on separate lines one after the other. For example you can list horse name, jockey and trainer side by side in a report by simply saving the following:

H:HORSE
H:TRAINER
H:JOCKEY

Finally you should note that in MyCalc you can also separate long calculations onto multiple lines by pressing the Enter key to start a new line in place of using the plus sign to add a new item (but not if the items to be added are inside other functions or grouped within parentheses).

Expert Mode

Expert Mode is a more advance system testing environment where you have access to a lot more rules - in fact virtually every form item that is available from the data files. It is only available in Bet Selector Ultimate Plus and above.

Both MyCalc and Expert Mode work by accessing detailed drop down lists of data as follows.

Race File Data

Horse File Data

Last Start File Data

More Race Data

More Horse Data

Strike Rates

Ratings and Rankings

Exclusive Bet Selector Data

Tattsbet Data

More Past Data

Note that items marked like this^ are only available in Bet Selector Ultimate Professional.

To use a data item, all you need do is select the one you want from the drop down lists in the MyCalc/Expert Mode editor and click the Insert button above the drop down list. This places the relevant variable name in the large edit box. When finished composing you system/calc you just save your code giving it a name so it can be referenced for future use.

More information on how to use Expert Mode can be found in the following blog articles:

Introduction to Expert Mode

How to Create System Folders

How to Write System Rules

How to Write Faster Systems

Testing MyCalcs and Exotics

How to Select Venues

How to Select Races

True/False and Yes/No Data

Testing Jockeys and Trainers

Reports and Spreadsheets

External Data Lookup

Selecting Second, Third and Fourth

How to Test Ratings, Prices and Rankings

Bet Selector Task Scheduling

Breeding Tests and Analysis