Smarkets Seeking Python and Erlang Engineers
July 31, 2012
We at Smarkets are looking for Python and Erlang engineers to join our team. If you love Smarkets and want to help build our betting exchange, read on:
About Smarkets
Smarkets is a real-time online trading platform with an Erlang backend and Python frontend. Smarkets is disrupting the global betting industry by offering a modern betting exchange product with significantly lower transaction fees than the competition. We have traded over £150 million of bets since launching in February 2010.
Smarkets is at the centre of the London startup scene and has been featured in publications such as Wired UK and TechCrunch and was recently selected as part of the Startups 100. Our office near Old Street (London) is shared with other exciting startups and has a pool table, foosball table and fully stocked fridge.
We are heavily driven by user-focused design and a focus on technology and engineering as a first class discipline. We use agile product development techniques and release changes frequently.
We are also heavily invested in world-class technical talent from such pedigree as Wolverine Trading, UBS, Last.fm, and Bloomberg; and are looking to foster that reputation within the community and investors. Both founders are technical.
We are well funded by top investors including Passion Capital and growing quickly so are looking for Python and Erlang engineers to join our team.
A bit about the job and working environment
The part of our stack which runs behind the website is one of the few that uses Erlang as a primary language, and is supported by other well-known Erlang projects such as RabbitMQ and CouchDB.
The non-Erlang pieces of our stack are mostly written in Python, and relies heavily on asynchronous programming techniques and REST. We use the following technologies: VirtualBox, Vagrant, Flask, gunicorn, PostgreSQL, Ganglia, Icinga, Graphite, Cacti, Jenkins, Trac, Git and many other open source packages.
Key Responsibilities
- Build new products and services that augment our exchange offering;
- Improve existing market exchange infrastructure and services;
- Program primarily using Python and Erlang; and
- Work in a start up environment where getting things done is crucial.
Requirements
- Computer Science (or related technical field) degree or equivalent professional experience;
- The ability to learn quickly with enthusiasm;
- The ability to work independently and lead design/architecture of new features;
- Knowledge of transaction processing and relational database design; and
- Prior experience delivering solid web-related products in a GNU/Linux environment.
Bonus points
- Functional programming experience;
- Experience with web technologies and methodologies like web servers, REST, and protocol buffers;
- Experience using Git in a multi-developer environment.
Other information about the job
- This is a full time, on site job;
- Pay is £30k – £60k, depending on experience, plus options;
- The job is based near Old Street, London, United Kingdom;
- We are not able to assist with relocation.
Links
- Smarkets: https://smarkets.com/
- Team: https://smarkets.com/about/team
- API: http://smarkets.github.com/
- Blog: http://blog.smarkets.com
- Press: https://smarkets.com/about
If you are looking for a flexible, agile team to work with; want to work somewhere free of big corporate politics; would like a cool project to work on; and fit the above criteria we’d love to hear from you!
Please get in touch at yourlife@smarkets.com providing a CV and some examples of your recent or relevant work.
To all recruitment agencies: Smarkets does not accept agency resumes and is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.
Football at the Olympics
July 25, 2012
The rather understated start to football at the Olympics – with the event kicking off the day before the opening ceremony – aptly summarises most people’s attitude towards the competition. Despite the fact that football is not always associated with the Olympics, Great Britain’s first appearance since 1960 has helped to renew interest in this year’s tournament.
The huge gulf in class between teams means that there is certainly money to be made from this market. The two teams being widely touted as potential winners are Spain and Brazil. Anyone who saw the friendly between Great Britain and Brazil last week will know exactly why the latter are the favourites for the tournament. On paper they have named an extremely strong squad; talented hopefuls Lucas, Neymar and Ganso are backed up by the world-class experience of Pato, Hulk and Thiago Silva. In practice they were just as impressive; they cut through Great Britain’s defence with consummate ease and the 2-0 scoreline was, if anything, flattering towards Team GB. They have come to London seriously intent on winning the gold medal, and it is hardly surprising that they are priced at just 2.54 to do so here.
If Brazil fail to live up to expectations at the tournament, then it is likely to be Spain who win the gold medal. Although many household names are missing from Spain’s squad, they should not be underestimated. Jordi Alba had an impressive tournament at the Euros, and Juan Mata’s five-minute cameo appearance in the final provided enough time for him to score. These two are joined by Javi Martinez and a pool of promising youngsters threatening to continue Spain’s domination of world football. Priced at 3.55 they present a slightly more appealing proposition than Brazil. You can expect them to at least make the final, by which time this price will have shortened.
Potential outsiders who present a better opportunity for profit are Mexico and Uruguay. These sides will both expect to advance from their respective groups and from there, anything is possible. Uruguay have named strikers Suarez and Cavani in their team, along with a wave of young players such as Abel Hernández who the Uruguayan press have great faith in. Despite defeating Great Britain 1-0 in a private pre-tournament friendly, Mexico are priced at 19.5 to win the tournament and Team GB at 14.5. If Mexico can replicate that level of performance they will make light work of their opening fixture and their group in general. Their price to win the tournament will drop considerably if and when they advance from the group, presenting a decent lay opportunity.
Team GB can be expected to make use of home advantage to qualify from their group, but it is difficult to see them being able to cope with real quality opposition in the tournament. The experience of Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy will of course prove useful, but Aaron Ramsey seriously struggled in the playmaker role for Arsenal last season. The side will be relying on Daniel Sturridge to create a spark in their opening match against Senegal.
Accounts Page
July 6, 2012
There has been some confusion over the new accounts page on Smarkets, so we thought we’d write a short post outlining some of the features.
Filtering Bets:
Many of you have asked how you can filter your bets. If you look to the left of the screen, there is a filter section right at the top. Mousing over the line that reads ‘No Filters’ and clicking will open a drop down menu with a list of options you can filter by. Suppose you want to look at your deposits for the past 3 months. To do this, you would select the option that says ‘Deposits’ under ‘Transactions’. You would then change the time frame to reflect the past 3 months by using the drop down menu directly below (other options include: Today, Yesterday, Past 7 Days, Past Month, This Year and Last Year). Presto – you should now be able to view your deposits for the last 3 months.
If you’d like to remove filters, open up the drop down menu again and re-click on the filters you had added. They will disappear from the top section (it should read ‘No filters’ once you’ve de-selected them).
Commission:
Clicking the ‘Show commission’ box under the time frame menu will enable you to view your account history with commission or without.
Downloading Account History:
If you’d like to download an account history via CSV, you can do this by scrolling to the bottom of the accounts page. On the bottom left, there will be a link that says ‘Download as CSV’. Simply change the filters, time frame and select whether or not you would like commission shown, then hit ‘Download as CSV.’
Profit and Loss Flags:
We’ve added back the corner flags on Settled markets – if you were in profit for any given market, the line reading ‘Market settled’ will be flagged with a green triangle. If you lost on a market, it will be flagged with a red triangle.
Edit Unmatched Bets:
Although it’s not directly related to the accounts page, we also added an ‘edit your bets’ function. If you look at the list of your unmatched bets, you’ll see 3 columns: Stake, Odds and Status. Next to them you’ll see an option to ‘Edit’. If you click on that you’ll be able to change the price and/or how much you’d like to bet.
Hope this helps – if you have any questions, email us at support@smarkets.com
