This condition allows the automation rule's trigger to be filtered by the amount of time since the market last contained an unmatched bet.
Although the General page of Automation allows to control how often a rule triggers, you may need more control over the flow of new bets if you are offering bets for other market participants to match against. These will be unmatched when they first reach the market and will remain so for an unknown amount of time. This condition will allow you to prevent a new bet from being placed until you are sure the earlier bet has been matched.
In the screenshot below, if the condition was attached to a Place Bet rule, the rule would be prevented from triggering if you had an unmatched bet in the market at any time during the last five seconds.
Detailed worked example:
Assuming that you are placing bets before the market goes in-play (so no in-play betting delay applies) and have
optimised refreshing so that prices and bets are refreshing at least once a second.
You have configured the General page to trigger a Place Back Bet rule up to four times, waiting 3 seconds between triggers.
The bets will be placed at the 'Best market price plus 1 tick' so they will most likely wait in the market as an unmatched bet for someone else to match against.
The rule will be active from 120 seconds before the start of the event until 15 seconds before. With 10 seconds to go a Green All Selections rule will be executed.
With the condition applied (as per the screenshot above) the following takes place:
Time before event start : Description
120 secs : Back bet is placed
119 secs : Shown in the market as an unmatched bet
...
117 secs : Place bet rule has waited 3 seconds and is now ready to trigger, but there is still an unmatched bet in the market, so nothing happens
...
114 secs : Unmatched bet is still in the market.
113 secs : Unmatched bet has been filled. Place bet rule is still ready to trigger, but condition is preventing it as it's only been one second since the market last had an unmatched bet
...
109 secs : Place bet rule still ready to trigger, but condition is preventing it as it's only been five seconds since the market had an unmatched bet
108 secs : Now another Back bet is placed as it has been greater than five seconds since the last bet was unmatched in the market
107 secs : Shown in the market as an unmatched bet
106 secs : Unmatched bet has been filled. So now one second since the market last contained an unmatched bet.
105 secs : Place bet rule has waited 3 seconds and is now ready to trigger, but still only two seconds since the market contained an unmatched bet, so nothing happens.
...
101 secs : Now another Back bet is placed as it has been greater than five seconds since the market contained an unmatched bet. This time the market moves during bet placement and it is filled immediately so no unmatched bet will be returned from the market.
...
98 secs : Place bet rule has waited 3 seconds and is now ready to trigger, and it has been nine seconds since the market last contained and unmatched bet, so a Back bet is placed.
etc until all bets are placed and the Green All Selections rule triggers
If the 'Unmatched Bet Time' condition had not been used, bets would have been placed every three seconds regardless. At times: 120 secs, 117, 114, 111 & 108 secs respectively.
