Horse Racing Software, Bet Selector

System Analyser, MyCalc and Expert Mode

On this page: Analyser Settings | Analyser Output | Analyser Criteria | Analyser Data File | Staking Analyser | MyCalc | MyReport | Expert Mode

Bet Selector's System Analyser module is part of System Selector. It 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 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 plus jockeys, trainers and breeding performance.

System Analyser Settings

System Analyser is available via the "Analyse System" button in System Selector. System Analyser first presents you with a settings dialogue where you can select what type of analysis and which criteria you want analysed.

First up you will see radio buttons as follows:

Next (for the System Rules Analyser) are the following buttons to help you pick which form items are to be analyses:

Note the last two options refer to variables and calculations from a Report you have attached to the system. Note also there is a "Analyse BSP Only" checkbox that allows you to quickly create an analysis report with profits and losses based on BSP prices (after commissions). To save time the normal win, place and exotic reports are not produced but this option only works if you have a report attached to your system that includes the BSP variable and you have BSP prices loaded via the pull down FILE menu.

System Analyser Output

Three output files are automatically produces, one for the win, one for place and one for exotics (but only with meeting and race based criteria). A fourth based on net BSP prices rather than fixed win prices is also included. Following are the descriptions of the data columns in the System Analyser reports:

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

System Analyser Criteria

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 in the latest Pro 3 version of Bet Selector you can (by using Reports) 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

The "Analyse Last Test" button in System Selector opens System Analyser as discussed 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 if you have a report attached to your system and have added/selected those items for analysis then they will also be included.

Staking Analyser

If you select the Win or Place Staking Analyser radio buttons then you get special Staking Analyser output in 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 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 bottom 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).

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.

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

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.

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 MyReport also allows you to enter calculations as long as they can be written one a single line.

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.

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.

Detailed help on using Expert Mode can be found on our Expert Mode Blog.