What is a sports data API?

A sports data API is an HTTP service that returns structured data about live games, scores, odds, lineups, and statistics in a machine-readable format. Developers use it to power scoreboards, fantasy apps, betting platforms, and analytics dashboards without scraping vendor sites or maintaining feed integrations directly.

How do I get real-time sports data?

Big Balls Sports Data exposes both REST and WebSocket surfaces. REST is best for polled reads of scores, odds, standings, and stats (~200ms typical round trip). The WebSocket feed at wss://api.bigballsdata.com/live pushes score updates, odds movement, and lineup confirmations as they happen (sub-50ms latency on the Pro plan), with rooms scoped by sport, league, and match.

What sports does Big Balls Sports Data cover?

Football (Soccer), EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A, plus NBA, MLB, NFL + NCAAF, and NHL, with end-to-end coverage on the free plan across scores, odds, lineups, stats, standings, and events. Additional leagues land as we validate each one against production traffic.

How much does a sports data API cost?

Big Balls Sports Data has a free tier at 1,000 req/day with no credit card required (2,000 if you sign up with GitHub). Paid plans add higher daily caps, real-time odds without delay, and webhook delivery. See the pricing page for current rates.

8 SPORTS · ONE API

The sports data API built for developers ballers.

Real-time scores, odds, stats, and intelligence across 8 sports. One unified schema, ~200ms REST round trips on cached and stored reads, a live WebSocket feed, and confidence scoring on every response.

No credit card. 1,000 req/day on the free plan (2,000 with GitHub).

curl, live EPL scoresbash

curl https://api.bigballsdata.com/v1/matches \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer bbs_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "league=epl" \
  --data-urlencode "status=live"

# Response (abbreviated):
{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "m_abc123",
      "home": "Arsenal",
      "away": "Chelsea",
      "scores": { "value": { "home": 2, "away": 1 }, "confidence": 0.95 }
    }
  ],
  "meta": { "source": "official-league", "confidence": 0.95, "cached": false }
}

8 Sports837 Leagues132,000+ Matches16+ Sportsbooks60s Live OddsSee full coverage →

Football (Soccer)BasketballAmerican FootballBaseballIce HockeyCricketMMAF1

Discoverable by AI agents out of the box

Every endpoint is machine-readable. No custom integration work required.

llms.txt

Tells any LLM what this API does and how to use it

View →

MCP Manifest

8 structured tools ready for Claude, GPT, and any MCP-compatible agent

View →

OpenAPI 3.1

Machine-readable spec for automated client generation and agent reasoning

View →

import { BigBallSportsClient } from '@bigballsdata/sdk';
const client = new BigBallSportsClient('bbs_live_...');
const matches = await client.matches.list({
  sport: 'football'
});

Read the agent integration guide →

Built for the way ballers actually work

Every API call returns the same envelope. Every field carries provenance. Every source has a rate-limit and a circuit breaker. No surprises.

One unified schema

Scores, odds, lineups, stats, events, every sport returns the same envelope. Integrate once; cover everything.

Real-time WebSocket feed

socket.io rooms by sport, league, and match. Sub-50ms delivery on Pro+ for live scores and odds movement.

Confidence on every response

Every field ships with a provenance score so your app can decide when to show caveats, no silently stale or partial data.

Free tier, no credit card

1,000 requests/day on the free plan. Sign up with GitHub to double it to 2,000. First request in under 30 seconds.

What data do you get?

One unified envelope across every sport. Pick a sport to see the fields, stats, and a real response.

Match fields

id
sport
league
home
away
kickoff_utc
status
score
linescore
attendance
broadcast
has_odds

Stat fields (mostly team-level)

shots
shots_on_target
possession_percent
passes
corners
offsides
fouls
saves
cards_yellow
cards_red
xg
progressive_passes
pressures

Example responsejson

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "bb_match_8h2k5p9q3xyz",
      "sport": "football",
      "league": "EPL",
      "home": {
        "name": "Arsenal",
        "short_name": "ARS",
        "logo_url": "https://cdn.bigballsdata.com/teams/ars.png"
      },
      "away": {
        "name": "Chelsea",
        "short_name": "CHE",
        "logo_url": "https://cdn.bigballsdata.com/teams/che.png"
      },
      "kickoff_utc": "2026-05-20T19:00:00Z",
      "status": "in_progress",
      "score": { "home": 2, "away": 1 },
      "linescore": null,
      "attendance": 60260,
      "broadcast": "Sky Sports Main Event",
      "has_odds": true
    }
  ],
  "pagination": { "total": 47, "limit": 1, "offset": 0 }
}

Try itbash

curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_KEY" \
  "https://api.bigballsdata.com/v1/stored/matches?sport=football&limit=1"

World Cup 2026 archive · 48 teams · 72 Elo predictions · full tournament progression history

Intelligence layer

Formation history analysiscoming soon
Tournament progression probabilitieslive
Revenge factor / H2H history (/h2h)live
Schedule congestionbuilding now

More than data. Intelligence.

Raw scores and odds are table stakes. We also ship the derived signals you'd otherwise have to model yourself (edges, sims, form, splits, history) on the same unified envelope.

Value bet detection
Elo-implied probability vs the market line. Edges surfaced on every prediction.
Player-prop value finder
Player props where the empirical hit rate beats the de-vigged market line, across points, rebounds, assists, threes, and combos.
Tournament progression
Monte Carlo Elo simulations: knockout-stage and championship probabilities for every team.
Form index
Weighted recent results. Newer matches and higher-quality opponents count more.
ATS record with splits
Against-the-spread records broken down by home / away, favorite / underdog, and line range.
Head-to-head history
Full meeting history between two teams: record, last meetings, venue splits, revenge spots.
BTTS + O/U rates
Both-teams-to-score and over/under hit rates by team, league, and recent window.

Built for the people actually shipping

Five audiences, one unified API, same response envelope. Pick your angle.

DFS Grinder
Projections, ownership, ceiling, floor.
Build optimizers without scraping ten sites every Sunday morning. One envelope, every slate.
/v1/dfs, /v1/fantasy
Prediction Market Trader
Event contract edge in one call.
Probabilities, settlement signals, and market depth for Kalshi-style contracts. Stop reconciling four feeds.
/v1/prediction-markets
Content Machine
Recaps and previews on autopilot.
Templated stat blurbs, narrative blocks, and headline-ready phrasing. Plug into a CMS, ship copy at scale.
/v1/content
Card Shark
Real odds, sharp moves, ATS splits.
The data your bookie hopes you don't have. Value edges, line history, and contrarian signals on every market.
/v1/matches, /v1/teams/:id/ats, intelligence layer
Second Screen
Companion apps that move with the game.
Real-time scores, plays, and lineups via a low-latency WebSocket (sub-50ms on Pro+). Built to survive Sunday afternoon kickoff load.
/v1/matches/live, WebSocket /live

Next on the namespace map

Reserved paths, building now. Same canonical envelope when they land.

/v1/fantasyComing soon
Season-long fantasy projections, rankings, waivers.
/v1/dfsComing soon
Daily slates, salaries, projections, ownership.
/v1/prediction-marketsComing soon
Event contract probabilities, settlement, depth.
/v1/contentComing soon
Templated previews, recaps, editorial blocks.

How fresh is the data, exactly?

Every data type ships on its own cadence. We publish the exact intervals so you can size your cache and your confidence checks against the worst-case staleness, not a marketing approximation.

Real-time
Live scores
Every 15 seconds
during live games
Real-time
Odds
Every 60 seconds
Delta polling, only changed lines fetched
Real-time
Standings
After final whistle
Frequent
Player stats
Minutes after game ends
Live player stats every 15s during games
Daily
Rosters
Checked daily
updated when changes detected
Real-time
Predictions
After each result
Static
Historical data
Static

Cadences are upper bounds, most reads hit a warm cache and return faster. WebSocket subscribers receive score and odds changes the moment the upstream poll picks them up, with no additional poll-window delay. During live games, delta polling ensures only changed data is fetched, minimizing latency and API usage.

What we cover, sport by sport

One row per sport, one column per data type. We publish the honest status, no soft "partial" cells hiding a gap, no promise of data we don't ship.

Sport	Scores	Odds	Props	Standings	Player Stats	Injuries	Lineups	Historical	Predictions	Play-by-Play
Football (Soccer)	⚡	⚡	🔜	⚡	✅	🔜	✅	✅	⚡	🔜
Basketball (NBA + NCAAB)	⚡	⚡	⚡	⚡	⚡	⚡	✅	✅	🔜	⚡
American Football (NFL + NCAAF)	⚡	⚡	🔜	⚡	✅	🔜	🔜	✅	⚡	⚡
Baseball	⚡	⚡	🔜	⚡	⚡	🔜	✅	✅	🔜	🔜
Ice Hockey	⚡	⚡	⚡	⚡	⚡	⚡	✅	✅	⚡	🔜
Cricket	⚡	🔜	❌	🔜	🔜	🔜	🔜	🔜	🔜	❌
MMA	✅	🔜	❌	❌	✅	🔜	❌	✅	🔜	❌
Formula 1	✅	❌	❌	🔜	🔜	❌	❌	🔜	🔜	❌

Status: Real-time / live updates
Status: Fully covered
Status: Coming soon
Status: Not applicable

Cells marked "not applicable" are genuinely N/A, MMA fighters don't have lineups, Formula 1 doesn't have bookmaker lines on the public sportsbooks we normalize. "Coming soon" means the upstream exists and the data type will land once the sport clears our production bar.

Integrate in 3 lines

Use the official SDK or hit the REST API directly. Every response is the same envelope.

Node.js, @bigballsdata/sdktypescript

import { BigBallSportsClient } from '@bigballsdata/sdk';

const client = new BigBallSportsClient('bbs_live_...');

// Today's live Premier League matches with real-time scores + odds
const matches = await client.matches.list({ sport: 'football' });
for (const m of matches.data) {
  console.log(m.scores?.value, m.confidence);
}

Leagues we serve today

Five flagship leagues with end-to-end coverage on the free plan. More on the way as we validate each one against production traffic.

Football (Soccer)

EPL · La Liga · Bundesliga · Ligue 1 · Serie A

Scores · Odds · Lineups · Stats · Standings · Events

Basketball (NBA + NCAAB)

NBA

Scores · Odds · Lineups · Stats · Injuries · Historical

Baseball

MLB

Scores · Odds · Stats · Standings · Events · Historical

American Football (NFL + NCAAF)

NFL · NCAAF

Scores · Odds · Stats · Standings · Historical

Ice Hockey

NHL

Scores · Stats · Standings · Events · Historical

Coming soon

Cricket

IPL · BBL · The Hundred · internationals

On the roadmap. Tell us if you need it.

Coming soon

MMA

UFC · Bellator · ONE Championship

On the roadmap. Tell us if you need it.

Coming soon

Formula 1

Race weekends · qualifying · session results

On the roadmap. Tell us if you need it.

16+ sportsbooks, one normalized schema

Moneyline, spread, and totals across the major US and global books, returned in the same envelope as every other field. No per-bookmaker quirks to map.

Pinnacle
DraftKings
FanDuel
BetMGM
Bovada
Kalshi
Polymarket
Unibet
Matchbook
Bodog
BetOnline
LowVig
William Hill
Caesars
BetUS
MyBookie
+ more

Bookmaker names are trademarks of their respective owners and are shown only to indicate which books we normalize. Big Balls Sports Data is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of them.

Frequently asked

What is a sports data API?: A sports data API is an HTTP service that returns structured data about live games, scores, odds, lineups, and statistics in a machine-readable format. Developers use it to power scoreboards, fantasy apps, betting platforms, and analytics dashboards without scraping vendor sites or maintaining feed integrations directly.
How do I get real-time sports data?: Big Balls Sports Data exposes both REST and WebSocket surfaces. REST is best for polled reads of scores, odds, standings, and stats (~200ms typical round trip). The WebSocket feed at wss://api.bigballsdata.com/live pushes score updates, odds movement, and lineup confirmations as they happen (sub-50ms latency on the Pro plan), with rooms scoped by sport, league, and match.
What sports does Big Balls Sports Data cover?: Football (Soccer), EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A, plus NBA, MLB, NFL + NCAAF, and NHL, with end-to-end coverage on the free plan across scores, odds, lineups, stats, standings, and events. Additional leagues land as we validate each one against production traffic.
How much does a sports data API cost?: Big Balls Sports Data has a free tier at 1,000 req/day with no credit card required (2,000 if you sign up with GitHub). Paid plans add higher daily caps, real-time odds without delay, and webhook delivery. See the pricing page for current rates.

How we compare

Honest head-to-heads against the major sports data APIs. Where we win, where they win, and how to pick the right tool.

Big Balls Sports vs API-Sports

Unified schema, WebSocket feed, confidence scoring. Where we differ from the long-running multi-sport REST API.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs The Odds API

We do more than odds. They do odds in extreme depth. When each tool wins.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs SportsDataIO

Schema-first self-serve vs enterprise data feeds. Adoption flow, pricing, and feature deltas.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs The Rundown

Full sports data vs betting-focused odds. When line-movement depth matters and when it does not.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs Sportradar

Developer-first self-serve vs the industry incumbent. Pricing, licensing, and adoption flow compared.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs Sportmonks

Multi-sport unified schema vs football-first developer API. Where coverage and schema design differ.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs BallDontLie

Multi-sport platform vs NBA-only free hobby API. When each is the right pick.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs football-data.org

Real-time scores, player data, and odds without stacking add-ons, plus every other sport under one schema.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs API-Football

One key across every sport and spike-tolerant limits vs a deep, cheap, football-only daily cap.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs ESPN API

Documented, versioned, supported endpoints vs undocumented ones that can break without notice.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs OpticOdds

Odds plus the whole game on a self-serve free tier vs enterprise odds infrastructure priced by sales.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs MySportsFeeds

A commercial-usable free tier with real-time scores vs per-league, non-commercial add-on math.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs TheSportsDB

Real-time scores, odds, and Elo predictions under one structured schema, where we differ from the free crowdsourced database.

Read comparison

Big Balls Sports vs OddsJam

Odds plus the whole game on a self-serve free tier vs an enterprise odds API gated behind a sales call.

Read comparison

Price it at your scale

Drag the sliders to your real numbers. See the plan you'd need and what the same usage costs on a raw-data sports API.

Monthly active users10,000

API requests per user / day1

Sports covered3 sports

10,000 requests/day on Big Balls Sports Data. A full matchup page is 1 call here vs 8 raw calls per sport on BallDontLie.

Big Balls Sports Data

$99/mo

Growth plan · All sports, one subscription

BallDontLie

$119.97/mo

3 × GOAT

Save $20.97/mo($251.64/yr)

AND skip building the assembly layer.

Pre-assembled matchup responses (you call and join ~8 endpoints yourself)
Elo predictions and win probabilities
xG shot maps
Player headshots
Confirmed lineups with formations
Cross-sport unified schema (each sport is a separate integration AND subscription)

Request volume

1 Big Balls call = 8 raw BallDontLie calls to assemble the same matchup page — per sport. At your scale that's 10,000 vs 240,000 requests/day.

Raw BallDontLie pricing covers the data subscription only. The assembly layer, intelligence features, and cross-sport unification are engineering time you build and maintain.

BallDontLie price = raw data subscription only. Assembly layer, intelligence features, and cross-sport unification are not included at any tier. Pricing verified 2026-05-28. Priced per sport, rate-limited per minute. Each sport is a separate subscription.

Simple pricing. Pay only for what you use.

Upgrade when you need more. Downgrade any time.

Free

$0/ forever

Any sport

✓Any sport, current + most-recent season
✓1,000 requests / day (2,000 with GitHub)
✓Scores, standings, stats

Solo

$19/ month

1 sport, your pick

✓1 sport, your pick — see live depth below
✓All historical seasons joined to results
✓10,000 requests / day
✓Change your sport once every 30 days

Trio

$49/ month

3 sports, your pick

✓Any 3 sports, your pick — see live depth below
✓All historical seasons joined to results
✓25,000 requests / day
✓Change your 3 sports (as one set) once every 30 days

Edge

$149/ month

All sports

✓Full stats depth for cricket, hockey, baseball, NFL, and NBA — soccer expanding
✓Match predictions and fair-price edges — expanding sport by sport
✓Play-by-play for hockey, NFL, and soccer — NBA shot-tracking coming online
✓Derived odds intelligence — consensus, fair price, divergence, and line movement
✓100,000 requests / day

Pro

$299/ month

All sports

✓Everything in Edge
✓WebSocket / real-time push
✓Priority support + SLA
✓200,000 requests / day
✓Licensed raw odds board (coming, once the redistribution license lands)

* Sustained high-volume usage may require an Enterprise plan. Contact us to discuss.

Enterprise

Custom/ contact sales

All sports

✓Every sport, full history
✓Bulk export, deep archive, odds intelligence, play-by-play
✓Custom volume, SLA, dedicated support

The sports data API built for developers ballers.

Discoverable by AI agents out of the box

llms.txt

MCP Manifest

OpenAPI 3.1

Built for the way ballers actually work

One unified schema

Real-time WebSocket feed

Confidence on every response

Free tier, no credit card

What data do you get?

Match fields

Stat fields (mostly team-level)

Intelligence layer

More than data. Intelligence.

Value bet detection

Player-prop value finder

Tournament progression

Form index

ATS record with splits

Head-to-head history

BTTS + O/U rates

Built for the people actually shipping

Projections, ownership, ceiling, floor.

Event contract edge in one call.

Recaps and previews on autopilot.

Real odds, sharp moves, ATS splits.

Companion apps that move with the game.

Next on the namespace map

How fresh is the data, exactly?

Live scores

Odds

Standings

Player stats

Rosters

Predictions

Historical data

What we cover, sport by sport

Integrate in 3 lines

Leagues we serve today

Football (Soccer)

Basketball (NBA + NCAAB)

Baseball

American Football (NFL + NCAAF)

Ice Hockey

Cricket

MMA

Formula 1

16+ sportsbooks, one normalized schema

Frequently asked

How we compare

Big Balls Sports vs API-Sports

Big Balls Sports vs The Odds API

Big Balls Sports vs SportsDataIO

Big Balls Sports vs The Rundown

Big Balls Sports vs Sportradar

Big Balls Sports vs Sportmonks

Big Balls Sports vs BallDontLie

Big Balls Sports vs football-data.org

Big Balls Sports vs API-Football

Big Balls Sports vs ESPN API

Big Balls Sports vs OpticOdds

Big Balls Sports vs MySportsFeeds

Big Balls Sports vs TheSportsDB

Big Balls Sports vs OddsJam

Price it at your scale

Simple pricing. Pay only for what you use.

Free

Solo

Trio

Edge

Pro

Enterprise