Betfair lifetime results - how to make sense of them

2021 update: The post below from 10 years ago refers to the old 'Lifetime conversion' spreadsheet which worked with the previous report that betfair used to provide.  It appears that betfair will not be providing the 'Lifetime' report going forwards.

Betfair have recently been providing customers with the 'Betfair Customer Report' or 'Statement' for their betting history.  This has two major problems compared to the original report.  See this post for more info and the new solution - ‘Betfair Customer Report’ conversion spreadsheet.  The original 'lifetime' conversion spreadsheet is also included in the bundle - in case betfair revert to the original report format!

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Whilst Betfair offer up to 3 months of Betting Profit and Loss data download from "My Account" area on their website, if you require any more than that, then you need to contact the helpdesk at info@betfair.com or by phone.  They will provide a report of the entire "lifetime" P&L of your account.  I received mine in about 4 hours - and my account has been active for 10 years!  It's probably a good idea to contact them in the morning though to get such a quick response.

However, I was surprised to learn that Betfair will not provide this "lifetime" P&L report in the same format as the one you can download from your account area.  Confusingly, they don't seem to have a standard format either, as Mets & I initially got reports in totally different formats and level of detail. The key is to be specific what you ask them for (more on this below).

The good news is that I have developed a spreadsheet to convert the lifetime report into an identical format as the standard P&L report. The standard format means that you can then import your lifetime P&L into the Results Summary spreadsheet (as well as any other compatible system you may have, if you want).  Of course, going forwards, all your results are stored safely in the Results Summary spreadsheet and you won't need to ask for them from Betfair again - so long as you download your P&L at least once every 3 months.  

As all your data is downloaded to your computer, you keep your P&L results private - there is NO uploading to an anonymous 3rd party website.

So - what format do you need to get your lifetime report in?  Here's what the headings looked like on mine (just one row of data is showing):

Report from Betfair showing results across the account lifetime

The key points are that:
  1. The report must be at event level (i.e. total profit for a market, not each individual bet you placed on the market).
  2. It must have the following columns: "Event settled date", "Sport", "Event menu hint", "Event name - long", "Net p&l". Any additional columns do not cause a problem, they are ignored.  The column order of the report doesn't matter.
When you contact Betfair you could just copy and paste the above criteria into your email, maybe even include the screenshot.

It's really simple to use the conversions spreadsheet, here's what it looks like:


You can buy the Results Summary spreadsheet here.

If, like me, you've had results in the past that you'd rather forget about (!), it needn't be all bad. This experience has actually been useful for me to also remember all the profitable periods I've achieved over the lifetime of my account.  I tended to only remember the bad ones!  I've actually found it quite positive to know for sure which areas I've won at over time and to have continuing confidence with those whilst reminding myself why I'm avoiding others.

I hope you find this useful too.  Cheers!

New videos

Hi, just to let you know that I've posted a couple more videos for the Results Summary spreadsheet.  One is on the more advanced filtering and sorting you can do and the other shows the data export feature.

The Results Summary spreadsheet processes your P&L into meaningful summaries without any need for you to have any Excel programming knowledge.  So you can easily see where your trading & gambling is going right and, *cough*, needs improvement!

If you have any questions, please either leave a comment or email me (address on the profile page).

Check out the videos by clicking the "Videos - Startup" tab at the top of the blog or just click here. Cheers!

Click here for Advanced data analysis videos!!!

Videos - Overview of Results Summary plus Getting Started and virtual 'Unboxing'!

I've recorded the first couple of videos to show features and benefits of the Results Summary spreadsheet - hopefully more useful to see what's going on this way than ploughing through huge blog posts!

There's a quick overview of all the screens so you get a flavour for what the spreadsheet can do for you, or if you're ready to get started then click on the 'Buy Now' button below (please check the 'Software requirements' section first).





Here's how you get started with the spreadsheet and importing your Betfair 'BettingPandL' file (click on YouTube logo to view fullscreen):

Getting Started and Virtual 'Unboxing' v3 Results Summary Spreadsheet


To view a playlist of several videos exploring the spreadsheet click here.

If you'd like to read more about the Results Summary Spreadsheet features check out this post.

There are additional videos showing each screen in more detail and talking about the benefits of having all these different views on your P&L data.

I hope you find them useful!

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Click on the 'BUY NOW' button for an instant download of the spreadsheet
See below for software requirements
Only £9.97
(How quickly will you make that back?)
Buy Now

No PayPal account necessary for purchase
Your card statement will show 'BTMG' as the merchant.
PayPal do not disclose your street address for this download-only purchase.

New conversion spreadsheet (available separately) allows you to import the Betfair Customer Report with all your betting history (for those with more than 3 months of betting history).
For more information on this check out this post.

Price includes free access to future updates e.g. v3.3 to v3.4 etc
(upgrades apply to new versions e.g. v2 to v3)
 
v2 Purchasers should check out this post for a special upgrade discount!
Requires Excel 2007 or newer for Windows  
Please check the detailed software requirements below for use of this spreadsheet before buying.
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Software requirements (not included!):
Excel 2007* or newer for Windows. Tested on XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 (see note below about Windows 7 and 8) and Windows 10.  

Works on Excel 365 for Windows.

WILL NOT work on Excel 2003 and older, Open Office or Excel for Macintosh.

*Excel 2007 users - please email me AFTER your purchase for an additional file you will need.


International users may have to alter their Regional settings due to Betfair spelling out the dates in English text format within the BettingPandL file even for non English-speaking countries. In Windows 10 click on the Windows button and type 'Currency' and click on 'Change the way currency is displayed'. In Windows 7 & 8 go to Windows start button > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Formats (tab) - Current format and set to "English - United Kingdom".  See this post Using your Language and Currency format

Windows 7 & 8: There is a security scan in Windows 7 & 8 which can prevent 3rd party Excel files such as the Betfair P&L file from being opened.  When trying to open the Betfair P&L file in excel you will get the error message,"Run-time error '1004': Method 'Open' of object 'Workbooks' failed".  Please download a Betfair P&L file and make sure you can open it before purchasing the 'Results Summary' spreadsheet. If you are using Windows 7 / 8 you can open the Betfair P&L using Open Office (free software) - then by saving it without any changes it can be opened by Excel under Windows 7 /8.  Equally, if you have access to another PC with XP or Vista you can re-save the file before transferring it to your Windows 7 / 8 PC.  This is a known issue which Microsoft have no plans to rectify http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/is/exceldev/thread/69434b37-a3ed-4970-a929-89e03ee01aaf

Windows 10: The issue described above with Windows 7 & 8 does not occur with Windows 10.  You can download the BettingPandL file from Betfair and directly open it in Excel. Happy days!


Once downloaded, no refunds will be given under any circumstances, please make sure you have the right Excel software and can open the BettingPandL file downloaded from Betfair.

All rights are reserved by the author.

All the best with your trading!
Mind Games