READ ME File For 'Data for Essays on Dynamic Efficiency in a Betting Market'

Dataset DOI: 10.5258/SOTON/D3525

ReadMe Author: Yifu Li, University of Southampton ORCID ID

This dataset supports the thesis entitled 
AWARDED BY: Univeristy of Southampton
DATE OF AWARD: 2025

DESCRIPTION OF THE DATA
The data used in our study were extracted from the online betting website Betfair.com, based in London, United Kingdom. In this research, we have utilized the market odds for five flat horse races (treated as five separate markets) from Betfair.  
Specifically, we have used the last observed best back odds at 30-second intervals for around a 12-hour period before the start of each race as the price data for each horse in each data to generate the market proxy best back odds at 30-second intervals for around a 12-hour period before the start of each race. The markets and their respective details are as follows:


Market One (M1): Flat racing on 2/2/2019 (market id: 1\_154344450).
Market Two (M2): Flat racing on 23/2/2019 (market id: 1\_155215202). 
Market Three (M3): Flat racing on 16/11/2019 (market id: 1\_165070116). 
Market Four (M4): Flat racing on 16/11/2019 (market id: 1\_165070123). 
Market Five (M5): Flat racing on 21/12/2019 (market id: 1\_166582140). 

This dataset contains:

The odds series for 5 markets
races-20171109-20180527.csv and races-20171109-20180527.txt gives the informations of races.

License: CC-BY

Date of data collection: 2021-5

Information about geographic location of data collection: England


Date that the file was created: May, 2025