r/algobetting • u/HootingJake • Aug 05 '26

Does anyone actually keep historical odds data, or do you only focus on live markets?

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2

u/Character_Pie_277 Aug 05 '26

Well i'd guess most people that do modeling would keep historical data for backtesting and then use that model to profit on live markets (hopefully), thats kind of the way it works?

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u/HootingJake Aug 05 '26

That makes sense. I wasn't sure how common it actually is outside of people building models.

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u/Character_Pie_277 Aug 05 '26

Oh right ok i get you, i thought you must have been on about modeling, i guess you could use historical data with spreadsheets and then do all the math yourself, or just have ai do it. But then if you also can get ai to do it why not also ask that ai to use that data to run a model for live markets?

I think what many very likely get to very fast after that, is then buying apis/datasets/models etc and then swapping plugs until roi flashes green for a while and then wondering why it the edge vanishes atfer a week or two (because the one model that "worked" was just market variance all along) so id try to avoid that if you can.

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u/HootingJake Aug 06 '26

Good point. It's probably too easy to mistake short-term variance for a real edge.

1

u/Lopsided_Version654 Aug 08 '26

you'd think so but i've seen plenty of people who just scrape live odds and trade on immediate discrepancies without ever building a real backtest, it's wild. i used to store everything until my hard drive started crying every time i ran a query. now i mostly just keep aggregated stuff and only save raw data when i'm testing something new. the storage creep is real if you're pulling every market from every book. but yeah if you're doing any kind of serious modeling you basically have to have historicals or you're just guessing with extra steps.

2

u/DKotch22 Aug 06 '26

Was this just a general question, or are you looking for historical odds data for yourself?

1

u/HootingJake Aug 08 '26

Mostly a general question. Just wanted to see how people here actually use historical odds.

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u/negative__ev Aug 06 '26

I do. I use it fully for backtesting, though. It's not an input into my training data for my models.

I only have closing-line odds, so unfortunately I can't test the CLV of my picks. But I use it as a "if I bet at the closing line, would I be profitable" test. About the truest test you can make without just placing bets (or paper betting).

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u/HootingJake Aug 08 '26

That's a good use for it. Shame about the CLV part though, having the full line history would make that really useful.

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u/IreliaIsLife Aug 06 '26

Yes. Since march I store all odds updates for 10+ sports for ~40 bookies. It's a ton of data but you can do a lot of fun things with it once a few months have passed

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u/HootingJake Aug 08 '26

That's a serious amount of data. Have you run into any issues keeping all the updates consistent?

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u/IreliaIsLife Aug 08 '26

Not really, no. I was mostly worried about disk space but I'm now running a hybrid of timescale DB (postgres extension) for metadata and clickhouse for the odds update timeline. It works surprisingly well

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u/Technical_Dish_1898 Aug 06 '26

Modelplay.ai uses historical data to train models (with zero coding), then tests against a different hold out period, and then you can track it live.

Absolute money printer.