# Realtime Sports API

> Realtime Sports API is a developer API for live scores, play-by-play, box scores, schedules, teams, athletes, injuries, news and betting odds, with push delivery over webhooks and WebSocket, under one schema and one API key. 29 leagues monitored live: NFL, college football, NBA, men's college basketball, MLB, NHL and 23 soccer competitions. Data is aggregated from public sources and is typically 20-30 seconds behind live play (about 1 second after our source). There is no SLA.

Key facts:
- REST base URL: https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1 . Auth: `Authorization: Bearer <api key>` (or `X-API-Key`). Free key, no card: https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/signup?utm_source=llms
- Responses: `{ "success": true, "data": ..., "meta": { "rateLimit": { "limit", "remaining", "reset" } } }`; errors `{ "success": false, "error": { "code", "message" } }`.
- Plans: Free (1,000 calls in the first 30 days, then 125 calls/month, no card), Starter $29, Growth $49, Pro $99, Scale $299 per month. HTTP 429 with Retry-After when a limit is hit.
- Not suitable for in-play betting that needs sub-second data. Odds come from a single source book.
- Built for apps, alerts, fantasy, dashboards and bots. Not for in-play betting or trading: data typically runs 20-30 seconds behind the live broadcast, a delay set by our upstream source, and there is no SLA.
- Free plan: no credit card, and it never turns into a paid plan. When you reach the limit, requests stop until next month; you are only charged if you choose to upgrade or buy a top-up.
- Usage: commercial use is allowed on every plan, including Free; derived models, forecasts and analytics, alerts to your own users, and storing data internally are fine; reselling or redistributing the raw feed and use on streaming/piracy sites are not; no attribution required; league names, logos and marks are your responsibility. Details: https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/faq?utm_source=llms#what-you-can-build

## Docs

- [API documentation](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/docs?utm_source=llms): REST endpoints, WebSocket and webhooks with examples
- [API playground](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/docs?utm_source=llms#playground): run real read-only requests in the browser without a key or signup
- [OpenAPI 3 spec](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/openapi.json): every endpoint, parameter and response shape
- [Postman collection](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/postman.json): generated from the spec
- [Interactive reference](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api-docs?utm_source=llms): Swagger UI
- [MCP server](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/docs/mcp?utm_source=llms): hosted at https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/mcp for Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT
- [Full text for LLMs](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/llms-full.txt): this file plus every endpoint and plan detail

## Product

- [Pricing](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/pricing?utm_source=llms): plans, per-second limits, opt-in overage
- [Schedules](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/schedules?utm_source=llms): NFL, college football, NBA, NHL, MLB, men's college basketball and 23 soccer competitions (e.g. [Premier League](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/schedules/premier-league?utm_source=llms), [MLS](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/schedules/mls?utm_source=llms)), with JSON/CSV downloads
- [API by league](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/apis?utm_source=llms): one page per league with slugs, endpoints, a live example response and code samples
- [API by endpoint](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/apis/endpoints?utm_source=llms): what each endpoint returns and which leagues support it
- [Team APIs](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/apis/nfl/teams?utm_source=llms): one page per team (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, top college football programs, MLS and top soccer leagues) with its fixtures, API team id, a live response and code, e.g. [Kansas City Chiefs](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/apis/nfl/teams/kansas-city-chiefs?utm_source=llms), [Arsenal](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/apis/premier-league/teams/arsenal?utm_source=llms)
- [Guides](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/guides?utm_source=llms): 18 complete, tested builds (Node.js, Python, Home Assistant, n8n, ESP32, OBS, Google Sheets, Next.js 14) with code on GitHub
- [Free scoreboard widget](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/widgets?utm_source=llms): embed one league's live scores on any site, no key, refreshes every 60 s
- [Compare sports APIs](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/compare?utm_source=llms): dated pricing and free-tier comparison with sourced alternatives pages
- [FAQ](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/faq?utm_source=llms): includes what you can build with the data (usage rights)
- [Changelog](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/changelog?utm_source=llms): dated customer-facing changes
- [Status](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/status?utm_source=llms): live component health and per-league polling lag
- [Terms](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/terms?utm_source=llms)

## Code

- [Examples on GitHub](https://github.com/ElcoDevRepos/realtime-sports-api-examples): runnable curl, JavaScript, Python and MCP client configs (MIT)
- [JavaScript/TypeScript SDK](https://github.com/ElcoDevRepos/realtime-sports-api-js): `npm i github:ElcoDevRepos/realtime-sports-api-js`
- [Python SDK](https://github.com/ElcoDevRepos/realtime-sports-api-python): `pip install git+https://github.com/ElcoDevRepos/realtime-sports-api-python`

## Optional

- [Blog](https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/blog?utm_source=llms): guides