The Gold Standard in Olympics Data Learn More
The Gold Standard in Olympics Data Learn More

Getting Started with Sports Data APIs


At SportsDataIO, we maintain the most robust sports data feeds in the industry. We are excited to help you get started integrating our data.

We offer two ways for you to test our data, formatted just as it is in our production APIs and databases.

We highly recommend that you check out our Replay functionality, offering real world data, replayed in real time, covering real sports events from all the major leagues. We do also offer a free API trial, but it is more limited by comparison:

SportsDataIO Replay


Free to use forever
Real, unscrambled sports data
Access replays of live games and events 24/7/365 - no waiting around
Integration-ready endpoints available

SportsDataIO API Free Trial


Free to use forever
Scrambled data
Must be online during the season for live games to experience live data
Some endpoints unavailable

SportsDataIO Replay - Further Information

You can learn more about our replay functionality with this video from our Founder and CEO, Scott Gimpel. Or, if you’re ready, you can jump right into the SportsDataIO Replay center, which also includes a video guide on implementation.

Free to use forever, our Replay functionality allows you to play back real API output from real-world events - entire NFL weeks, draft days, MLB games, trade deadlines and more - for all major sports.

You will see the data exactly as it was produced and fed via our APIs, in an exact duplicate of our real, production endpoints.Nothing is scrambled or masked; everything is exactly as it was for our paid clients. This way you will know for sure that your integration will work.

You can set up a recording to begin at the time and date of your choosing. We provide a handy list of suggested times to test scenarios such as pre-game lineup announcements, injury reports, trade deadlines, and more.

SportsDataIO API Free Trial - Further Information

If you would still like to try a limited SportsDataIO free trial, please fill in this form and we will get back to you with access details. Note, however, that each of the benefits described in our Replay functionality is unavailable; these scrambled feeds are offered purely as-is and will not be populated with real-world data, nor will you be able to select times, dates, and scenarios to access. To leverage such opportunities, check out our Replay functionality, which is 100% free to use.

Once You Are Set Up...

You can learn more in this section about how to leverage data, now that you have access to it. This is ideal for beginners in sports data integration. If you already know what endpoints you would like to test with, and are ready to call the API, you can skip right ahead to our more detailed Integration Guide.

Select Your Endpoints

If you have in mind what data you need - a list of players, for example, or a list of injured players - you’re ready to take it off the shelf via one of our endpoints.

You should use our Coverage page to decide which endpoint, or set of endpoints, to use to get the data you need. For example, if you wanted to build a page showing current NFL injuries, you could look at our NFL Sports Data Coverage page to find a suitable endpoint. Within our Player Feeds, we offer Injuries coverage. You could then select the main Injuries endpoint. You are then ready to call the live API to get the data you need.

Call Our API

Whether you have chosen the Replay functionality or a limited free trial, you can now make API calls. The place to start is our Replay center. Here you can choose a package of your choice from a given sport, and start replaying it so that you can call the endpoints just as you would the real API. Be sure to read our API Documentation so you know what to expect when you start your replay.

Free trial users can jump straight to our API Documentation but be warned that data will be scrambled and some endpoints will be unavailable.

Architecture

Great - you’re now making real API calls. Now, it's time to start thinking about the architecture of your system and how exactly you're going to integrate the data. Before making any decisions, please review the Integration Guide. It explains the ideal methodology to integrate live data feeds.

You also may want to have a look at these open source frameworks before you start writing code from scratch. Please note that these open source frameworks have been generously built and uploaded by other clients, are not supported or updated by SportsDataIO, and may require some upfront work on your end to make fully operational.

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