The Bets API methods are used to place single, multiple and complex bets and to retrieve a customer’s bet history. When retrieving a customer’s bet history you can organize the bets from the betting history in terms of date, bet type and whether the bet is settled or not. You can also specify what fields to be included/excluded or return a list of all default fields the method returns.
The Bets API will also generate a bet delay if you’re placing a single/multiple bet in-Play by creating a time margin to negate the effects of major changes to the market (for example, goals during a football match). Note that in version 2 of our APIs, Bets API contains the functionality of both Bets API v1 and the Betslips API v1.
The William Hill Numbers API uses a single method that allows you to generate random numbers for your application. Numbers can either be unique or can be produced with the chance that some might be the same. For example, you can have a highest value of 6 and a lowest value of 1 with a count of 2 with a unique value of false - this will give you two numbers between 1 and 6 which are independent, just like two dice being rolled.
The Numbers API is a Private API and therefore not automatically available to developers. To use this API, contact your business manager who will guide you through the separate Terms and Conditions of use before you can have the API assigned to your application.
The William Hill Sessions API uses a central authentication service (CAS*) on all resources that require access to a customer’s account or betting functionality. To authenticate, you’ll need to supply a sportsbook username and password, in return you will be given an authentication ticket, which you can use on the majority of requests found within our services.
The Sessions API should be used whenever you want to login a customer and:
- continue to use the William Hill API for that customer’s transactions
- use other CAS-enabled William Hill services outside the suite of APIs
CAS is an enterprise Single Sign-On solution for web services (see https://wiki.jasig.org/display/CAS/Home). It is used by many William Hill services.
Note: all requests must be executed over HTTPS and include an API key and secret.
Authentication Ticket Expiration Times
When a customer is logged in using the Sessions API, they are given an Authentication Ticket; using this ticket on subsequent API requests gives you access to account activities (such as placing a bet, deposits, etc). However, this ticket is only valid for a given period of time depending on how it is used. If the ticket is used and then has a period of inactivity longer than 7,200 seconds (2 hours), then the ticket will expire and further requests using the ticket will be denied - in effect, a customer has been logged out and will need to authenticate again.
Normally, any ticket issued only has a maximum life expectancy of 28,000 seconds (8 hours) after which it can no longer be used, even if it has been used regularly. The customer again will be effectively logged out and will need to authenticate again. If you wish to avoid this, you need to set the query parameter extended to Y, which will enable your application to generate a ticket valid for 60 days without expiring due to inactivity.