The deep dive
“It can’t be all hooray and hosana with Sports Data APIs, right?” No, of course not. There have been issues in the past, not only with competitors but also with our own APIs. However, at Sportmonks, we have overcome the challenges and technical issues we have faced and believe our Sports Data APIs belong to the top tier in the market. But let’s dive into some of the issues that the market had to deal with.
API Downtime: This is probably one of the most important ones for customers. If the API that is providing your data goes black, your APP will not receive any data either. That is a problem, isn’t it? Of course, it is. However, we keep track of our service status and are fully open on our uptime and downtime. Feel free to check our status page and find out for yourself. Please keep in mind that API 2.0 is deprecated, and all new users will use API 3.0 (for football).
Coverage and depth of data: Yup, this could be the achilles heel of your application and, thus, of your success. If you don’t show the leagues your users want to see or don’t have all the features, they are interested in (for example, the hottest statistic in Football right now, Expected Goals (xG), then your users will walk to your competitors with better coverage and depth. However, at Sportmonks, we strive to be innovative, and we improve every single day. “Isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration?” No, it is not. We add new leagues every day, and we improve our data features as well. This year, we have added Expected Goals (xG), multiple widgets, data translations, and over 40 new statistics and over 100 leagues to our coverage. Still thinking this is an exaggeration? Last year, we introduced API 3.0, which is not only faster than API 2.0 but also has way more features. And by that, I mean new data features and request options. Not convinced? Check out the 2200+ leagues we cover, our data features, and our other products.
- Football Coverage
- Data Features
- Widgets
- Cricket Coverage
- F1
Scalability Issues: We have covered our coverage and depth of data. Another problem is scaling up your projects or applications. Well, as we have shown our features, leagues, sports and so on, we think there won’t be an issue scaling up. Not only is our coverage immense and international, but we also offer an API with enough resources and servers to consistently provide data for over 30,000 users.
Rate limiting: All APIs restrict the number of API calls that can be made. Annoying for the API users, of course. Many probably assume that is because providers charge extra for more API calls, and of course that charging extra is the case, that is not the reason for a rate limit, let me get back to you on this one. Applications that need frequent data updates may face limitations, leading to incomplete data or the need for complex workarounds like caching. This is why Sportmonks created a rate limit of 3,000 API calls per hour per entity. For most use cases, that is enough. Adding extra API calls to your subscription is possible, though. For more information on how our Rate limit works, please read our Rate limit documentation.
Now, let me explain the real reason behind the rate limit. Rate limiting is used to prevent server overload and ensure fair usage among all clients. If people are not limited in their requests, they keep making requests to the API to be sure they receive the newest data, which can create an overload on the service. Let’s say there will be a line waiting for the check-in at the airfield, and due to this line, people actually miss their flight. You don’t want that! So, the measurements are there, we have included a rate limit with enough calls to make 3000 API request per hour per entity.
Data costs: “My wallet!” Data can be hard to get by. And many providers know that very well. When Sportmonks started a decade ago, Jur and Ron wanted to start a Fantasy game. But you know what? Data was very expensive for two regular guys wanting to create a game in their favourite sport (football). Pricetags of thousands of dollars were flying around, and they decided to start collecting data themselves. No, almost ten years later, Sportmonks is a respective business offering data to over 900 paying customers. One of the most important things is that we want to offer data for an affordable price for people like Jur and Ron. So, check out our Plans and Pricing to find out what’s in store for you and how we are one of the few providers that do not break the bank while offering quality data.
Not the right plans for you? How about creating a custom plan?
Complexity of API integration: One of the biggest challenges always seems to be integration. For good reason, some APIs are simply way too hard to understand and use properly. But what if I told you that all our developers are fans of the sports we offer data for? What if I told you that all of them use applications to follow their favourite sports? What if I told you that they know exactly what you need and want? Our API was built to be as developer-friendly as possible because our developers know what you want to build for your users and what the best way to do so is. Not only that, we have created documentation pages for every Sports API we offer:
- Football
- Cricket
- F1
For football, we created tutorials and guides to help you make your (or your developers’) work as easy as possible. We even created a best practices page to help you with your initial data load.
Security concerns: Last but definitely not least, the security of your data access. We have a way to make sure you are the only one using your license. With our authentication method, no one will be using YOUR data. You can create an API token at my.sportmonks.com. The API token is only meant for your eyes and, as such, should be stored away safely. Our tokens have no expiration date and will remain valid until you manually delete them yourself.
TIP: Directly integrating an API into the front end of a web application can be risky as it can expose sensitive information, such as your Sportmonks API token, to potential security breaches. To avoid this, it is best practice to use a middleware, such as a backend or proxy server, to handle all communication between the frontend and the API. This middleware acts as an intermediary, making sure your API tokens are stored securely and not exposed to users. Using middleware makes it much harder for malicious actors to access sensitive information, keeping your application more secure overall.”
Ease of integration
Real-time access
Scalability
Customisation and flexibility
Automation
Data accessibility across platforms
Improved data quality and consistency
Innovation and new business models
Security and Control
Gaurav
| Founder Elevenstats 
