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Nice Option

TAB - Disgrace

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As an IT professional and a long-time punter, the restrains around punting online are not the fault of the hardware or software the TAB use, but the business rules and margins they dictate. 
An hour out before the big race the TAB where 100K ahead from last year, so to lock online punting and force punters to go on premise more than likely covered any agreement they have with those parties. It’s the same shit I work with.
 

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10 minutes ago, JOT said:

As an IT professional and a long-time punter, the restrains around punting online are not the fault of the hardware or software the TAB use, but the business rules and margins they dictate. 
An hour out before the big race the TAB where 100K ahead from last year, so to lock online punting and force punters to go on premise more than likely covered any agreement they have with those parties. It’s the same shit I work with.
 

???????

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1 hour ago, JOT said:

As an IT professional and a long-time punter, the restrains around punting online are not the fault of the hardware or software the TAB use, but the business rules and margins they dictate. 
An hour out before the big race the TAB where 100K ahead from last year, so to lock online punting and force punters to go on premise more than likely covered any agreement they have with those parties. It’s the same shit I work with.
 

I'm sorry JOT but I'm with Nice Option ,  I don't understand your comment 'restraints around punting online are not the fault et cetera but business rules and margins  they dictate.

I understand even less your comment re 'an hour out before the big race the TAB where (except I think you mean 'were') 100k ahead from last year so to lock et cetera, et etera, et cetera (as Yul Brynner said in the King and I many years ago.) 

Hopefully you can enlighten both JOT and myself.  :)

 

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Guest 2Admin2
1 hour ago, JOT said:

As an IT professional and a long-time punter, the restrains around punting online are not the fault of the hardware or software the TAB use, but the business rules and margins they dictate. 
An hour out before the big race the TAB where 100K ahead from last year, so to lock online punting and force punters to go on premise more than likely covered any agreement they have with those parties. It’s the same shit I work with.
 

That's bollocks and as an IT professional you should be embarrassed.  The problem is simply a lack of horse power and in a virtualised environment they should be able to dial up extra capacity.  Cloudflare doesn't help and is not necessary.

Spark and Revera are hopeless at this.

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By deleting the login then clearly the TAB were wanting to stop constant login clicking which could generate a complete crash.  Those already logged in could bet. Seems a form of strategy  to allow a certain operating level rather than have none at all. 

What gets me is over recent years theres been a whole lot of media releases how great the new contract suppliers are using this distributed cloud system.  

I suspect the constant change in what is supposed to be fixed odds also wouldn't help . Why call them fixed odds if they jump around more than tote odds???

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15 hours ago, JOT said:

As an IT professional and a long-time punter, the restrains around punting online are not the fault of the hardware or software the TAB use, but the business rules and margins they dictate. 
An hour out before the big race the TAB where 100K ahead from last year, so to lock online punting and force punters to go on premise more than likely covered any agreement they have with those parties. It’s the same shit I work with.
 

Now that is utter crap. Do you work for the TAB JOT?

For heavens sake, it is now 2017. Do you think that the Woolworth's online customers would forgive Woolworths if our programs locked them out of their online ordering from 1.2m skews? The mere fact that the most precious time in punting is the last 30min, and the TAB ONCE AGAIN collapses, is inexcusable. The real issue with the tote has been the line speed. It's always been the achilles heal. 

Everyone in punting service provision knows that the ultimate solution is the coordinated arbitrage capability of systems between totes, fixed odds, spreads, exchanges and long odds systems. That we haven't got the first one right after all this time is quite remarkable.

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Slam dunk Not true I was logged in, had been punting during the day but half an hour out from the race we couldn't put abet on anymore, it kept saying to log in but there was no login option 

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If the TAB is shifting along the dollar each way punters who have been faffing about all day, and letting through the heavier hitters when they're ready to unload, I'm all for it.   Much better, of course, that they suck in every single dollar, within sensible cost:benefit judgement.

 

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21 hours ago, poundforpound said:

My impeccable sources claim the fault is with Spark, didn’t they transfer to a Spark server based in Takanini about two years ago ?

I’m not a tech so don’t blast me, I’m just reporting what the very well placed sources say.

One would think that if it was a connectivity issue, then I shouldn't have got through to the site. The issue was actually placing the bet once you got there.

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Guest 2Admin2
2 hours ago, Berri said:

One would think that if it was a connectivity issue, then I shouldn't have got through to the site. The issue was actually placing the bet once you got there.

You are on the wrong tack Berri. It isn't internet connectivity problems.  Leo is closer to the truth.  The issue is server and processing capacity.  My understanding is that the TAB outsourced their server infrastructure to Revera (owned by Spark).  They should be operating in a virtualised environment where adding extra capacity is as simple as turning the dial.  The major data centre players in this country aren't that good in this space.

It would also appear that architecturally their are some issues.  I cannot understand why they use Cloudflare.  This is a service that caches static content distributed around the globe.  So if the processing of transactions has reached a bottle neck then you will see the race fields but won't be able to make a bet.  Smoke and mirrors.

 

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I was going to reply in line with Berri yesterday then remembered Spark are in the server game too.

Fundamentally, despite this likely being a complex issue - at least in terms of some serious expertise required to properly test a solution - there are no excuses when there has been the opportunity (12 months? 2  years? 3!?) to resolve this and I would imagine no unreasonable requests for resources denied.

Any self respecting CEO would fire the whole ICT management team.

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It is appalling.

It has problems every year on the biggest turnover day of the year. Would any other business in the world jeopardise turnover on their known biggest day?

It has also had problems on feature days this spring. And crashed at Hakes Bay meeting last spring. 

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So TAB turnover on the Melbourne Cup was down this year on last year. With all the NZRB's initiatives and it's the one day they know they can maximise with Joe Public....wonder how much of this can be attributed to not being able to place bets on their preferred digital channel where they are continually driving established and new customers... c'mon boys, lift your game, that's why you are paid the big bucks.

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On 11/9/2017 at 7:08 AM, 2Admin2 said:

You are on the wrong tack Berri. It isn't internet connectivity problems.  Leo is closer to the truth.  The issue is server and processing capacity.  My understanding is that the TAB outsourced their server infrastructure to Revera (owned by Spark).  They should be operating in a virtualised environment where adding extra capacity is as simple as turning the dial.  The major data centre players in this country aren't that good in this space.

It would also appear that architecturally their are some issues.  I cannot understand why they use Cloudflare.  This is a service that caches static content distributed around the globe.  So if the processing of transactions has reached a bottle neck then you will see the race fields but won't be able to make a bet.  Smoke and mirrors.

 

That's like trying to hide behind a cellophane door. Were transacting 1.2m skews volumes every 5 seconds with a payment gateway settling 20m transactions every 60 seconds. You can't tell me that $8m turnover crashes the system. Happened last year from memory.

on the one day when the general NZ public are convinced to take a bet, we're let down. Just more of the same form of mediocrity 

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