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Why do I see an Account Restriction message?

Betfair can restrict the use of API-based products for a number of reasons. For example, having a zero balance in your account, not having placed a bet in over 3 months, or persistent use of an API-related product without placing sufficient live bets.

In a nutshell, Betfair are unhappy with people using their API unless they are using it for live betting purposes (i.e. they are placing live bets and generating commission for Betfair).

When Betfair restrict an account, they implement a delay (up to 30 seconds) on the delivery of odds data via the API. In effect, the API-based product is seeing data that is out of date and is not representative of the current market conditions.

When TheBetEngine detects that your odds are being delayed, then it will display a red banner message telling you to stop betting and to contact Betfair.

The net result of having delayed odds is that you will be basing your betting decisions on data that is out of date and attempting to place bets when the actual market conditions are very different to what is being seen via the API.  Indeed, you can continue to receive odds (and potentially place bets) even after the race has finished in real-life.

If you see the displayed message, then there is no point in continuing to bet via TheBetEngine at this point as the odds will no longer be representative of the market conditions and you should stop betting immediately so that the situation can be discussed with Betfair.

In most cases, Betfair will issue you with an email telling you that your account has been restricted.

A restricted account can only be de-restricted by contacting Betfair and pleading your case. In general, they will de-restrict an account once - but if you fail to place enough live bets and they restrict you for a second time then you are unlikely to have your account de-restricted. As a restricted account is useless for betting purposes, this effectively means that you can no longer use that API-based product!





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