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Blog » APIs » Top 9 Best ESPN APIs & Alternatives (2022)
ESPN API

Top 9 Best ESPN APIs & Alternatives (2022)

By Team RapidAPI // February 3, 2022

Around the world, people follow their favorite sports. Although the most popular games may differ in each country, loyalty to a team is a shared experience. In the digital age, fans crave information about scores and statistics as soon as they happen. The best ESPN API alternatives let applications provide the sports-related data that users need.


What is the best ESPN API?

After reviewing all the ESPN APIs, we found these 9 APIs to be the very best and worth mentioning:

  • API-Football API
  • API-NBA API
  • API-Basketball API
  • Cricket Live Scores API
  • Sportspage Feeds API
  • The Rundown API
  • Live Sports Odds API
  • La Liga Live Scores API
  • AllSportDB.com API

ESPN

API-Football APIBest for Worldwide football/soccer informationConnect to API
API-NBA APIBest for NBA-related dataConnect to API
API-Basketball APIBest for Worldwide basketball statisticsConnect to API
Cricket Live Scores APIBest for Global cricket dataConnect to API
Sportspage Feeds APIBest for US sports leagues and oddsConnect to API
The Rundown APIBest for Real-time sports dataConnect to API
Live Sports Odds APIBest for Global sports oddsConnect to API
La Liga Live Scores APIBest for La Liga soccer statisticsConnect to API
AllSportDB.com APIBest for Tracking sporting event schedulesConnect to API

Our Top Picks for Best ESPN APIs

1. API-Football API

Football, or soccer as it is known in the United States, has fans in every country. API-Football is a resource with information about all aspects of the game. Soccer-related applications can depend on this well-maintained API.

Features: Developers can access information for more than 800 leagues around the world. They can research player statistics by season and get up-to-date information about coaching staff members, current line-ups and transfers. This API also offers team standings and odds for upcoming matches.

Pricing: A free, basic package gives 100 requests per day and $0.005 per additional request. Paid packages include the Pro package at $19 per month and 7,500 requests per day. An advanced Mega package costs $39 per month and gives developers 150,000 requests per day with a cost of $0.001 for additional requests.

API-Football API

Popularity Score: 10/10

Best For
Worldwide football/soccer information


Connect to API

2. API-NBA API

The National Basketball Association has a large fan base in both the United States and internationally. The API-NBA has the latest scores and statistics for those who want to follow the action or develop a fantasy team.

Features: The API includes game schedules throughout the league and regularly updates live scores during gameplay. This online database includes team and player statistics for previous and current seasons.

Pricing: A free package allows 100 application requests per day. The $15-Pro, $25-Ultra and $35-Mega offer a higher request count from 5,000 to 50,000 for a monthly fee.


API-NBA API

Popularity Score: 9.8/10

Best For
NBA-related data


Connect to API

3. API-Basketball API

When most people think of basketball, they focus on the NBA or WNBA. However, there are a growing number of international leagues. API-Basketball is a global resource for tracking teams and players.

Features: This API includes statistics, schedules and live scores for 115 international basketball leagues. API resources also include information about team standings and betting odds.

Pricing: The Basic package gives a developer 100 requests per day at no cost. The affordable Mega package costs $20 per month and allows 150,000 API calls per day. In between, the Pro and Ultra packages give 7,500 and 75,000 calls per day at $10 and $15 per month respectively.


API-Basketball API

Popularity Score: 9.8/10

Best For
Worldwide basketball statistics


Connect to API

4. Cricket Live Scores API

Throughout the countries of the former British Empire, cricket continues to be a popular sport. For those who follow cricket league and cup play, the Cricket Live Scores API is a helpful resource.

Features: The API returns scores and statistics in JSON format. Users can also find team rosters, schedules and match line-ups.

Pricing: For those looking for an ESPN API for free, this API offers great value. The free package gives 2,500 requests per day. The Pro package costs $9.99 each month and increases the request quota to 10,000 per day. A $19.99-Ultra package has 50,000 requests, and the Mega package gives 100,000 daily requests for $29.99.


Cricket Live Scores API

Popularity Score: 9.8/10

Best For
Global cricket data


Connect to API

5. Sportspage Feeds API

The Sportspage Feeds API offers a wide range of information about US sports leagues. Applications that cover several sports will benefit from this resource.

Features: The API gives access to information about both professional and college sports teams. Developers can pull information on players and teams in popular leagues such as the NFL, NBA and MBL. The database also shares up-to-date standings and odds.

Pricing: The free package for this API gives only 20 requests per day for personal use or testing purposes. The Pro plan is $29 per month and gives 100 requests per day with a $0.02 charge for additional requests. The Mega plan is $119 per month but comes with 30,000 requests and a lower additional request rate of $0.005.


Sportspage Feeds API

Popularity Score: 9.7/10

Best For
US sports leagues and odds


Connect to API

6. The Rundown API

Sports betting odds change throughout a match. The Rundown API provides real-time odds from several bookmakers. It covers most American professional leagues as well as NCAA football and basketball.

Features: Developers can pull odds integrated from bookmakers such as 5Dimes, Matchbook and YouWager. Applications can also request up-to-date statistics and scores in JSON format.

Pricing: A basic plan for this API costs $24.99 per month and gives 50 requests per day. The Pro plan costs $49.99 and doubles the number of requests. With the Ultra plan at $199.99, the request number jumps to 1,000 with a $0.20 charge for each additional call. For commercial applications, the Ultra plan costs $999.99 per month and gives 10,000 calls per day with a $0.10 charge for extra requests.


The Rundown API

Popularity Score: 9.6/10

Best For
Real-time sports data


Connect to API

7. Live Sports Odds API

Sports betting is an international pastime. The Live Sports Odds API provides odds for major sports leagues from international bookmakers.

Features: Applications can pull odds from American, British and Australian bookmakers. Developers can search for odds by region or by sport.

Pricing: The basic package offers 500 requests per month at no cost. Additional requests cost $0.05 per call. The Pro plan costs only $20 per month and increases the number of free requests to 18,000. At the high end, a Mega plan costs $99 per month and offers 4,500,000 monthly application requests.


Live Sports Odds API

Popularity Score: 9.4/10

Best For
Global sports odds


Connect to API

8. La Liga Live Scores API

Spain is well-known for its soccer fans. This API provides information specifically about teams in La Liga.

Features: Applications can pull detailed information about team statistics, match scores and even referee calls. The API includes access to bookmaking odds for La Liga matches.

Pricing: The La Liga Scores API packages vary not only by number but also by feature. For example, the basic free package has 50 calls per month and a live update every 10 minutes. On the far end, the Mega package is $199.99 with 2500 calls per day and a live update every minute.


La Liga Live Scores API

Popularity Score: 7.5/10

Best For
La Liga soccer statistics


Connect to API

9. AllSportDB.com API

This API allows secondary applications to connect to the resources in the AllSportDB database. This site shares scheduling information about a wide variety of competitions.

Features: Applications can search for sporting events by date, region or type of sport.

Pricing: There are three packages available for the AllSportDB.com API. A basic plan allows 100 requests per month at no cost. The Pro plan is $30 per month and gives 10,000 monthly requests. A $100 Ultra plan gives unlimited access to the database.


AllSportDB.com API

Popularity Score: 6.6/10

Best For
Tracking sporting event schedules


Connect to API

What is an ESPN API?

An API is an online structure that connects an application to information on a server. An application makes a request to the API, and the API returns information from the server in JSON or XML format. A sports-centered API can share a broad range of data. Team or league APIs give access to current or historical statistics for a sporting organization. Live score APIs give updates about matches that are in progress. Some sporting APIs use team and player stats to generate odds for sports betting.

Who is the target audience for ESPN APIs?

Developers who are creating sports-related applications will want to use this type of API. A team site might draw information about games in progress, and player stats from an API will be a powerful tool for fantasy league sites. As the online betting industry grows, many new sites will pull information from an ESPN-style API. Because developers want to raise revenue with sports resources, it is rare to find an ESPN API for free.

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Filed Under: APIs Tagged With: best espn apis, espn api, espn api alternatives, espn api free, espn apis

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