1. Proceedings
  2. I3M
  3. 2021
  4. EMSS
  5. 10.46354/i3m.2021.emss.032

Implementing the BBE Agent-Based Model of a Sports-Betting Exchange

  • a Dave Cliff ,
  • b James Hawkins,
  • c James Keen,
  • d Roberto Lau-Soto
  • a,b,c,d Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UB, U.K.
Cite as
Cliff D., Hawkins J., Keen J., Lau-Soto R. (2021). Implementing the BBE Agent-Based Model of a
Sports-Betting Exchange. Proceedings of the 33rd European Modeling & Simulation Symposium (EMSS 2021), pp. 230-240. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46354/i3m.2021.emss.032

Abstract

In this paper we describe three independent implementations of a new agent-based model (ABM) that simulates a contemporary sports-betting exchange, such as those o ered commercially by companies including Betfair, Smarkets, and Betdaq. The motivation for constructing this ABM, which is known as the Bristol Betting Exchange (BBE), is so that it can serve as a synthetic data generator, producing large volumes of data that can be used to develop and test new betting strategies via advanced data analytics and machine learning techniques. Betting exchanges act as online platforms on which bettors can nd willing counterparties to a bet, and they do this in a way that is directly comparable to the manner in which electronic nancial exchanges, such as major stock markets, act as platforms that allow traders to nd willing counterparties to buy from or sell to: the platform aggregates and anonymises orders from multiple participants, showing a summary of the market that is updated in real-time. In the rst instance, BBE is aimed primarily at producing synthetic data for in-play betting (also known as in-race or in-game betting) where bettors can place bets on the outcome of a track-race event, such as a horse race, after the race has started and for as long as the race is underway, with betting only ceasing when the race ends. The rationale for, and design of, BBE has been described in detail in a previous paper that we summarise here, before discussing our comparative results which contrast a single-threaded implementation in Python, a multi-threaded implementation in Python, and an implementation where Python header-code calls simulations of the track-racing events written in OpenCL that execute on a 640-core GPU – this runs ≈ 1000 times faster than the single-threaded Python. Our source-code for BBE is being made freely available on GitHub. 

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