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Short answer: Fairbot is a sound choice if you want a clean Betfair ladder, simple bot rules and Betdaq support for less than Bet Angel costs. Standard is £7.95 a month, Professional (which adds automation) £14.95, and a £399 lifetime licence is available. The 14-day free trial needs no card. It is the wrong choice if you trade tennis, need Excel-driven strategies, scalp at sub-second speed or want Smarkets. Our overall score is 7.8 out of 10.
What is Fairbot
Fairbot is Windows-based Betfair Exchange trading software from Binteko Software, first released in 2008 and updated since. It offers a ladder for manual back and lay trading, automation through user-defined bot rules, and a deliberately smaller feature set than larger competitors.
The approach is to do the essentials well. Where Bet Angel bundles Guardian automation, Excel integration, sport-specific modes and dozens of advanced rule types, Fairbot offers a clean ladder, a competent bot module and little else. That suits many traders; for others it leaves obvious gaps.
Pricing and plans
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Free trial | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | £7.95 | £79 (saves £16) | 14 days | Manual ladder trading, multi-runner grid, basic stop-loss |
| Professional | £14.95 | £149 (saves £30) | 14 days | Everything in Standard + bot automation, custom rules, conditional orders |
| Lifetime licence | — | £399 (one-off) | n/a | Lifetime Professional access — pays back at ~27 months |
- Free trial: 14 days of real-money trading without entering payment details, unlike competitors that require a card on file.
- Annual plans: the saving is modest (£16 to £30), so take one only once you are sure the software suits you.
- Lifetime licence: permanent Professional access including future updates. It pays back against the monthly Pro plan at about 27 months. Binteko has been operating for 18+ years, so the risk of the company disappearing is reasonably low.
Fairbot Pro monthly: £14.95 × 36 = £538
Fairbot Pro annual: £149 × 3 = £447
Fairbot lifetime: £399 one-off
Bet Angel Pro annual: £180 × 3 = £540
Geeks Toy annual: £150 × 3 = £450
BetTrader Pro: ~£17/mo × 36 = ~£612
Of the options above, Fairbot's lifetime licence has the lowest 3-year cost.
Ladder design and trading UI
The ladder is functional and clear: three columns (back, price, lay) with weight-of-money colour coding, total matched in a header bar, and a runner switch panel on the left. It sits between the spartan Geeks Toy and the busier Bet Angel, and is comfortable for new ladder traders to read.
We have not timed Fairbot’s order speed. Like Geeks Toy and Bet Angel, it sends orders straight to the Betfair API, and for most retail trading styles the differences between them are invisible. For sub-second pre-race scalping, Geeks Toy has the leaner ladder.
The multi-runner grid shows prices for the whole field with one-click bet placement. That matters in horse racing, where you often switch between several runners. Horse racing trading on Betfair covers the workflow.
Missing from the UI: integrated charting (basic only), in-play stats overlays and sport-specific dashboards.
Automation and bot features
Bot rules are the reason to upgrade from Standard to Professional. The rule editor is a graphical IF/THEN system: set a trigger (price reaches X, time to off is Y, weight of money exceeds Z), then an action (place back, place lay, close position, set stop-loss). Rules can chain, and several can run in parallel across markets.
It is less powerful than Bet Angel's Guardian but covers the common cases: laying the favourite at a set price, automated dobbing on horse racing and simple in-play hedging, all for less than Bet Angel costs.
Not included: Excel integration (Bet Angel's main draw for spreadsheet-driven strategies), nested rule conditions of arbitrary complexity, and pre-built sport-specific strategy templates. Simple to moderate automation needs are covered; Guardian-style multi-market portfolios will outgrow it.
Strategy: Lay every UK horse racing favourite priced 2.50–3.80 at 5 minutes before the off, with £20 stake.
Trigger: Time to off < 300 seconds AND market favourite price between 2.50 and 3.80
Action: Place lay at favourite price for £20 stake
Stop-loss: Auto-close at adverse 3 ticks
Take-profit: Auto-close at favourable 5 ticks
Exchange support
Fairbot supports Betfair Exchange and Betdaq in the same subscription with no add-on fee, whereas Bet Angel charges a separate licence for Betdaq. That helps traders who use both, typically to avoid Betfair's premium charge (see our Betfair vs Betdaq comparison).
Smarkets is not supported. If it matters to you, BetTrader covers Betfair and Smarkets in one subscription; our Betfair vs Smarkets guide explains whether the limitation matters.
Speed and stability
We have not run stability or resource tests on Fairbot, so we make no claim about crash rates or CPU and memory use. Fairbot is a lighter program than Bet Angel by design; run the free trial on your own machine before paying.
Sport-specific use
Fairbot is sport-agnostic: no tennis mode, no football correct-score grid, no horse racing pace tracker. The same ladder serves every market. Traders who want sport-specific tools will find it underequipped; those who prefer to apply their own thinking to a clean ladder will not.
- Pre-race horse racing: the multi-runner grid suits it. See trading the favourite and laying horses for compatible strategies.
- In-play horse racing: no dedicated in-play tools of the kind Bet Angel adds; you trade from the standard ladder.
- Football pre-match: lay the draw can be done manually or through bot rules.
- Football in-play: no correct-score grid, so positions are tracked manually. The lay the draw guide assumes either Bet Angel or manual ladder work.
- Tennis: Bet Angel's tennis mode is the stronger option. If tennis is your main sport, Fairbot is the wrong choice.
Learning resources
Documentation is a weak point: a PDF user guide, some basic video tutorials and a small forum, against Bet Angel's hundreds of free YouTube videos from its developer. The feature set is small, so there is less to learn.
For platform-agnostic technique, our scalping, swing trading and in-play trading guides apply in Fairbot as in any other software.
Example trade walkthrough: pre-race horse racing
Race: 5-runner handicap, favourite priced 2.10, £180k matched pre-race.
Setup: Open the favourite's ladder, set the click-stake to £20 and enable the "1-click trading" toggle.
Entry: Back at 2.10 for £20. Potential return is £42 if the favourite wins.
Exit: The price shortens to 2.04. Lay at 2.04 for £20.59, the stake Fairbot's calculator suggests to green up fully.
Result: £0.59 profit whatever the outcome, £0.56 net after 5% Betfair commission. Small amounts like this are typical of pre-race scalping.
Pros and cons
- Good value at £7.95/£14.95 per month
- 14-day free trial with no card required
- Lifetime licence (£399) cuts long-term cost
- Betfair and Betdaq in one subscription
- Clean, beginner-friendly ladder UI
- Lighter program than Bet Angel
- Bot rule editor covers the common automation needs
- No Excel integration
- No sport-specific modes (tennis traders should look elsewhere)
- Bot automation less powerful than Bet Angel Guardian
- Thinner training resources than competitors
- No Smarkets support
- Basic charting
- Smaller user community than Bet Angel
Best for
- Budget-conscious traders who want more than free options such as the Cymatic Trader free tier but not Bet Angel or BetTrader prices.
- Multi-exchange traders using Betfair and Betdaq: the bundled support costs less than Bet Angel's separate licences.
- Beginners learning ladder trading, for whom the smaller feature set is less overwhelming than Bet Angel's.
- Long-term traders planning 3+ years: the £399 lifetime licence is the cheapest Fairbot option at that horizon.
Fairbot is the wrong choice if you trade tennis (Bet Angel's tennis mode), need Excel-driven strategies (only Bet Angel offers this), scalp pre-race racing at sub-second timescales (Geeks Toy has the leaner ladder) or need Smarkets (use BetTrader).
Alternatives
- Bet Angel Pro: £18/month. More features (Guardian, Excel, sport modes), more learning resources, better for serious automation. Worth roughly £3 a month more than Fairbot Pro if you will use the extra capability.
- Geeks Toy: £15/month. Leaner ladder for scalping, single tier, no bot rules, so manual trading only.
- BetTrader Pro: ~£17/month. Betfair and Smarkets in one subscription; the strongest mid-tier alternative if Smarkets matters.
- Cymatic Trader: free tier, Pro at £6/month. The cheapest credible paid option; less polished than Fairbot but viable on a tight budget.
- Free Betfair software options: several limited free choices if you are not ready to pay.
For the wider field, see our best Betfair trading software 2026 ranking.
Verdict
Fairbot does the essentials well at a fair price. If your needs are a manual ladder, basic automation and Betfair plus Betdaq, it covers what you need from Bet Angel for less money.
The £399 lifetime licence is its strongest offer for anyone who expects to trade for several years and whose needs fit the feature set.
The limit is the ceiling: Excel integration, sport-specific tools and more powerful bot logic. When those matter, the upgrade path is Bet Angel Pro.
Try Fairbot free for 14 days — no card required. You'll need an active Betfair Exchange account to connect, which takes about 8 minutes to open.
Try Fairbot → Open Betfair Account →FAQ
What is Fairbot?
Fairbot is Windows-based Betfair Exchange trading software developed by Binteko Software. It provides ladder trading, basic automation through bot rules, and a simpler interface than larger competitors. It sits between free options and premium platforms such as Bet Angel.
How much does Fairbot cost?
Standard is £7.95 per month or £79 per year. Professional, which adds bot automation, is £14.95 per month or £149 per year. A £399 lifetime licence gives permanent Professional access, and there is a 14-day free trial with no card required.
Is Fairbot better than Bet Angel?
Bet Angel is more comprehensive, with deeper automation, sport-specific modes and Excel integration. Fairbot is simpler and cheaper. If you want straightforward ladder trading without paying for features you will not use, Fairbot is the better fit.
Does Fairbot work on Mac?
No, Fairbot is Windows-only. Mac users can run it via Boot Camp, Parallels or VMware Fusion, but there is no native Mac version. Bet Angel and Geeks Toy have the same limitation.
Does Fairbot have a free trial?
Yes: 14 days, no credit card required, with full access to Standard or Professional features.
Does Fairbot support Betdaq and Smarkets?
Betdaq is included in the same subscription at no extra cost. Smarkets is not supported; for Smarkets, use BetTrader.