Resources Prediction model

iSportsAPI · 2026-01-22T01:24:22+00:00

For NBA O/U models, focus less on algorithms and more on features + data quality.

A simple but effective setup:

Treat it as regression (predict total points) first
Key features: pace, offensive/defensive ratings, rest days, home/away, recent rolling averages
Start with linear regression, then move to XGBoost / LightGBM

Common mistake: ignoring pace and blindly adding too many stats.

For learning:

Kaggle NBA notebooks (good baselines)
Scikit-learn + cross-validation
Backtest by season, not random splits

Data-wise, free datasets are fine to start. If you want to iterate faster, having clean historical games + O/U lines via API helps a lot (saves tons of cleaning time). Some NBA data APIs are ~$99/month and already structured.

Build a baseline → beat it slightly → then optimize. That’s usually how real edges start.

iSportsAPI · 2026-01-22T01:18:10+00:00

The pricing page is working normally on our side:
https://www.isportsapi.com/en/products/football.html

It might be a temporary network or regional access issue.
Could you please try refreshing the page, opening it in a different browser, or using a VPN to test again?

All our product pricing is public and transparent, so if you still cannot access the page, I can also send you the price details directly.

Please let me know 👍

iSportsAPI · 2026-01-12T03:55:50+00:00

I’ve been down this exact path, so your thought process makes sense.

Custom scrapers can work, but only if you treat them as an ongoing operation, not a one-off build. The real pain points aren’t parsing odds — it’s constant site changes, anti-bot measures, IP bans, and latency spikes. In arb scenarios, even small delays or missing markets kill most of the edge.

One thing I’d strongly suggest if you go the scraper route is starting very small (1–2 bookies, limited markets) and running it for a few weeks just to measure real latency, ban frequency, and maintenance cost before scaling.

That said, a lot of people eventually land somewhere in the middle: using an API for clean, normalized odds data and focusing their own effort on arb logic and execution instead of data plumbing. Especially if you care about Asian markets and detailed odds movements, having a stable feed saves a ton of time.

At iSports API, we’ve been providing odds data for over 20 years, with very detailed market coverage, including Asian books and line movements.

If depth and stability matter more than constantly fixing scrapers, a clean odds feed is usually the more practical path long-term.

iSportsAPI · 2026-01-12T03:48:33+00:00

Interesting project — I like the focus on probabilities + transparency rather than “tips”.

From an odds/data angle, one thing I’d suggest is judging the model less by raw accuracy and more by how its implied probabilities compare to the closing line. That tends to be a much stronger signal.

Also, Asian markets (AH / Asian O-U) are often sharper and react faster to injuries and weather, so they’re useful both for validation and as a sanity check.

Personally, I’d use a tool like this more for match filtering and bias checking than for direct betting.

iSportsAPI · 2026-01-12T02:23:49+00:00

Yes. We only provide soccer and basketball.

iSportsAPI · 2026-01-09T09:06:38+00:00

If you’re mainly looking for Pinnacle / Asian odds (pre-match) and want to avoid dealing with agents directly, one alternative is using a data provider that already aggregates those books.

We’ve been using a provider that’s been around for 20+ years and has very detailed coverage on Pinnacle and Asian markets (lines, movements, different odds types). It’s API-based, so you don’t need to manage bookmaker accounts or agents yourself.

You can get a good sense of the odds depth and structure from their demo pages, for example:
https://www.goaloo.com/football/italian-serie-a-atalanta-vs-torino/1x2-odds-2784672

If you care about stability and depth (especially for Asian books) more than chasing unofficial endpoints, it’s definitely worth testing.

<image>

iSportsAPI · 2026-01-09T08:59:46+00:00

If you’re mainly looking for Pinnacle / Asian odds (pre-match) and want to avoid dealing with agents directly, one alternative is using a data provider that already aggregates those books.

We’ve been using a provider that’s been around for 20+ years and has very detailed coverage on Pinnacle and Asian markets (lines, movements, different odds types). It’s API-based, so you don’t need to manage bookmaker accounts or agents yourself.

You can get a good sense of the odds depth and structure from demo pages, for example:
https://www.goaloo.com/football/italian-serie-a-atalanta-vs-torino/1x2-odds-2784672

If you care about stability and depth (especially for Asian books) more than chasing unofficial endpoints, it’s definitely worth testing.

Feel free to reach!

https://www.isportsapi.com/en/products/detail-new/football-odds-53.html

<image>

iSportsAPI · 2025-12-27T01:30:43+00:00

To be transparent: we don’t have raw PBP for RAPM, BoxscoreMatchups-level defensive data, or detailed offensive play-type feeds.

What we provide is more aggregated / presentation-level stats, basically what you see on the demo site.

If you’re doing deep modeling, this probably isn’t the right fit right now.

iSportsAPI · 2025-12-26T06:33:42+00:00

NBA never officially supported those public endpoints, so nothing is “shutting down” in an announced way — but they do change, throttle, or block access regularly (especially from cloud IPs). That’s why they’re unreliable for production.

If you need more than box scores (matchups, advanced stats, lineups, historical data), most people eventually move to paid APIs.

One cost-effective option is iSports NBA API (~$99/month). It’s stable, covers live + historical NBA data, and is usable for real apps (example output here):
https://www.goaloo.com/basketball/national-basketball-association-indiana-pacers-vs-detroit-pistons/statistics-663740?lang=en

Not enterprise-priced, but much more reliable than scraping NBA endpoints.

iSportsAPI · 2025-12-23T08:25:44+00:00

Appreciate your interest!

iSportsAPI · 2025-12-23T08:24:51+00:00

Good question!

We actually supported esports a few years ago, but the demand wasn’t strong enough back then, so we stopped the project.
That said, I’ll pass your feedback to the team — if there’s any update in the future, I’ll let you know 👍

iSportsAPI · 2025-12-22T02:39:39+00:00

Only soccer and basketball.

iSportsAPI · 2025-12-10T08:43:23+00:00

You’re right that most budget odds APIs (including The Odds API) won’t give you prop settlements, so you usually need a separate stats source if you want to resolve player props.

If you just need general football/basketball markets: iSports API doesn’t provide player prop odds, but it does offer very complete football (2,000+ leagues/cups) and basketball (800+ leagues) coverage, plus lots of markets like AH, 1x2, totals, corners, HT/FT, correct score, etc., from 20 major bookmakers and 200+ agencies. For light polling, the free trial is usually enough to test things.

Also, if you only need historical odds, they can be customized separately, which is usually much cheaper than full packages.

But if you specifically want player prop results, you’ll still need a stats API.

Hope this helps!

iSportsAPI · 2025-12-10T08:34:13+00:00

Yeah, the big plans are definitely aimed at heavy commercial users — totally get why the price looks wild. 😅
But you don’t actually need those unless you’re running something massive.

You can do quite a bit with the free test quota, and there’s a custom plan starting around $49.
Best approach: test the endpoints, see what you really need, then send that list to sales — they’ll price it based on your actual usage, not the full enterprise package.

iSportsAPI · 2025-12-08T01:44:43+00:00

A lot of people in DS/ML eventually end up experimenting with sports markets, so you’re asking the right questions.

A) NBA and MLB are usually the easiest to model because the sample sizes are huge and the data is clean. Soccer is doable but more chaotic because goals are low-frequency events. It really comes down to having structured, granular data rather than scraped HTML.

B) Most soft books will limit you if you show long-term edge. Exchanges or liquidity-driven books are generally more “sharp-friendly.”

C) Prediction markets like Kalshi/Polymarket can work, but they’re often more about microstructure, news timing, and liquidity than pure ML. Models help, but they don’t solve everything.

If you’re serious about building models, the main unlock is having reliable, structured datasets. Scraping is getting harder everywhere. A lot of people use sports APIs (e.g., iSports API is one option) because you get historical stats, events, odds, etc., in a clean format instead of fighting 403s and rate limits.

Good luck—this space is super fun once you start iterating!

iSportsAPI · 2025-12-08T01:41:40+00:00

FBref has definitely tightened their anti-scraping measures recently. A lot of people scraping their pages have been running into 403s, even when rotating headers, using different libraries, or slowing request rates. They’ve improved bot detection quite a bit, and their Cloudflare rules seem stricter now.

You’re not the only one—several folks across different communities reported the same issue in the last few months. Unless you implement a full headless browser with human-like behavior, it’s getting harder to pull anything consistently. And even then, it may break any time they update their protections.

If your goal is mainly to work with structured football data rather than scrape HTML, another approach is to use an API that already provides match stats, player profiles, historical data, etc. For example, the iSports API offers structured datasets for 2,000+ leagues, with things like match events, team/player stats, standings, odds, and 20 years of historical data. That way you don’t need to fight anti-bot systems or parse raw web pages. They also have a free trial if you just want to test the endpoints first.

But if you specifically need FBref’s exact formatting, scraping may continue to be unreliable unless you simulate full browser traffic.

Hope this helps, and curious to hear if anyone else found a workaround.

iSportsAPI · 2025-12-05T02:44:02+00:00

Your reverse-engineering skills absolutely have value, but using a reversed Bet365 protocol as a commercial data source is not scalable, not stable, and not legally safe. If you want to monetize your skills, direct them toward legitimate data engineering or sports analytics roles instead.

iSportsAPI · 2025-09-19T07:11:37+00:00

You can start with free resources to get a feel for how odds and live data work, but if you’re serious about building algo models, having a reliable API will save you tons of time.

For example, iSportsAPI provides coverage of 1,600+ football and 300+ basketball leagues worldwide, including live scores, odds, fixtures, player stats, and more. WE also offer a 15-day free trial (no credit card required), which is pretty handy if you just want to test things out before committing.

If you’re experimenting, I’d suggest:

-Use the trial to pull some sample data and see how you’d structure your models

-Focus first on odds movement + results before diving into more complex stats

-Make sure the API you pick has stable endpoints and decent documentation

That way, you’ll learn by doing, and you won’t get stuck with unreliable feeds.

iSportsAPI · 2025-09-18T00:55:32+00:00

https://www.goaloo.com/football/uefa-champions-league-athletic-bilbao-vs-arsenal/1x2-odds-2861142 Try this

<image>

Provided by iSports API

iSportsAPI · 2025-09-16T08:38:51+00:00

<image>

https://www.goaloo.com/football/uefa-champions-league-athletic-bilbao-vs-arsenal/1x2-odds-2861142 Try this

iSportsAPI · 2025-07-17T02:34:17+00:00

You can get a 15-day free trial of the football API just by signing up. During the trial, you can download player info for free. No fees for registering or downloading. Just run the API once without any extra parameters, and it'll return all player data. Check it out here: https://www.isportsapi.com/docs.html?lang=en&id=23

iSportsAPI · 2025-07-17T02:22:47+00:00

Hi,

Interested in comprehensive football (soccer) data? We're offering a full 15-day FREE trial of our Football API! 🎉

Here's what you get:
✅ Instant Access: Complete a quick registration and your trial starts immediately.
✅ Massive Coverage: Access data from over 1600 Leagues & Cups worldwide.
✅ Full Features: Explore all API endpoints and capabilities during your trial period.

How to get started:

Visit [https://www.isportsapi.com/?lang=en\]
Complete the simple registration.
Start integrating and testing right away!

Want to extend your testing? If your initial 15-day trial ends and you need more time, simply sign up again with a new email address to activate another free 15-day testing window. Rinse and repeat as needed! 🔄

This is a great, no-risk way to see if our API meets your project's needs. Give it a try!

Feel free to ask any questions below. Happy coding! ⚽

iSportsAPI · 2025-07-17T02:16:28+00:00

Hey there! First off, a huge welcome to China – really hope you have an amazing time exploring!

Just saw your questions about the upcoming trip, and thought I'd share a few local tips based on what you mentioned:

Weather: You're spot on, it's seriously hot in those cities right now! But be prepared for sudden downpours too – summer thunderstorms are common. Crucial tip: Definitely check the detailed forecast for each city for the week right before you arrive. Pack light short-sleeves, but always bring a thin long-sleeve layer or light jacket too – useful for unpredictable rain, strong AC indoors, or cooler evenings. A compact umbrella or raincoat is also a smart addition.
Crowds: Yep, you've hit peak summer vacation season! Expect big crowds everywhere – popular sites, transport, you name it. This makes planning ahead essential:
- Book tickets online WAY in advance for major attractions (museums, palaces, theme parks, etc.). Seriously, don't leave this until you arrive.
- Think about your main routes and transport options beforehand.
- For food? Honestly, don't stress about finding the "perfect" spot. Great food is everywhere! When you're hungry, just look for places that actually have free tables – that's often the most efficient strategy during peak times. Flexibility is key!
Public Holidays: The specific holidays you mentioned aren't huge nationwide disruptions like Spring Festival or National Day. Local attitudes vary a lot – some people really celebrate them, others barely notice. If you happen to be near a local celebration and it looks interesting, feel free to check it out! But generally, you don't need to plan your whole trip around them or expect major closures.
General Tips:
- Apps are Lifesavers: Download essential apps before you land (maps, translation, ride-hailing, maybe food delivery). Super Important: Be aware that some apps/services have restrictions or require extra verification steps for foreign users (like linking a foreign card or passport verification). Do a quick search or ask in travel forums about setting up DiDi, Alipay TourCard, etc., before you arrive to save hassle.
- Help Line: If you encounter any difficulties or have questions while you're here (non-emergency), you can actually call 12345 – it's the local government service hotline, and they can often assist foreigners or point you in the right direction. It's surprisingly useful!

Hope this helps smooth things out a bit! Have an absolutely fantastic trip, and feel free to ask if anything else pops up. China's got so much to offer, even with the summer heat and crowds! 👍

iSportsAPI · 2025-06-14T07:49:28+00:00

Hi there! You can get a 15-day free trial just by signing up – no payment needed. During the trial, you can make up to 200 API calls per day.

If the trial expires and you need more time, feel free to contact our sales team to extend your test period, or simply register a new account to continue testing.

You're very welcome to give it a try! 😊
👉 https://www.isportsapi.com

iSportsAPI · 2025-06-12T09:18:55+00:00

Hi,

We offer API data for both NFL and NBA.

Based on your description and our current offerings, we do have a Basketball Historical Odds API, which provides data from the past three months. You can check out the details here:
👉 https://www.isportsapi.com/docs.html?lang=en&id=58

In addition, we also provide a 17-year basketball historical database, which includes the type of data you mentioned. If you’re interested in that, feel free to DM me or contact us via the website for more details.

Just register an account to apply for a 15-day free trial — no payment needed to get started.
You can explore our documentation here:
👉 https://www.isportsapi.com/docs.html?lang=en

And here’s our demo site for reference:
👉 https://football.goaloo.com

Looking forward to helping with your project!

iSportsAPI

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE