The-Odds-API Review 2026

The-Odds-API is a REST-based sports odds API that has been running since 2017 out of Melbourne, Australia. It covers 70+ sports from 40+ bookmakers across the US, UK, EU, and Australia. The pitch is straightforward: simple endpoints, clear docs, and a free tier that lets you validate the data before you pay.

Longevity matters in this market. Odds APIs appear and vanish. The-Odds-API has been serving data for close to a decade, which means the schema is stable, the docs are mature, and the community around it (Stack Overflow threads, GitHub examples) is larger than most competitors can claim. If you value a provider that will still exist next year, the track record counts.

70+ sports is one of the wider ranges in the directory. The US majors are all here (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, college football, college basketball), along with global soccer (100+ leagues including EPL, La Liga, Serie A, MLS, Champions League), tennis (ATP and WTA), cricket, rugby, golf, MMA, and even politics.

Market types include:

• Moneylines / head-to-head
• Point spreads / handicaps
• Totals / over-under
• Outrights / futures (a feature many competitors skip)
• Player props
• Alternate spreads

Bookmaker coverage spans about 40 operators: DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, Bovada, Pinnacle, Bet365, Ladbrokes, Betfair, William Hill, 1xBet, Sportsbet (AU), TAB (AU), and others. The list is not as deep as providers claiming 100+ or 300+ books, but the books it does cover are the ones most developers actually need. Pinnacle is in the feed, which matters if you use sharp lines as a reference price.

One notable inclusion: historical odds back to 2020. That is a separate product within The-Odds-API, and it gives you snapshots of past odds for backtesting and analysis. Many providers either do not offer historical data or charge a premium for it.

Pricing runs on a credit model with five tiers:

• Starter (free): 500 credits/month.
• 20K ($30/mo): 20,000 credits/month.
• 100K ($59/mo): 100,000 credits/month.
• 5M ($119/mo): 5,000,000 credits/month.
• 15M ($249/mo): 15,000,000 credits/month.

A credit corresponds roughly to one API request for a given sport, market, and bookmaker region. The free tier at 500 credits is enough to test endpoints and validate the response format, but it will run dry fast if you poll multiple sports. The $30 tier at 20,000 credits is where light production use begins.

The pricing curve is gentle. Moving from $59 to $119 jumps you from 100K to 5M credits, a 50x increase for double the price. That makes the higher tiers strong value for apps that poll frequently across many sports. At $249 for 15M credits, you are paying fractions of a cent per request.

There is no separate charge for features like futures or historical odds access. The credit model covers everything, which simplifies budgeting compared to providers that gate features behind specific plan tiers.

The documentation is one of The-Odds-API's genuine strengths. Code samples exist for Python and Node.js. The response format is JSON with support for both decimal and American odds formats. A Google Sheets add-on and an Excel add-on let non-developers pull odds into spreadsheets, which is useful for analysts who want the data without writing code.

A few things the API does not have. There is no WebSocket feed: you poll the REST endpoints. No bet settlement data, so grading wagers is your problem. No stats or scores beyond the odds themselves (you will pair this with a scores provider if you need live game state). No official MCP server, though a community-built one exists.

The lack of WebSocket is the most significant gap for live-betting use cases. If you need push updates for in-play odds, look at providers with a live odds WebSocket feed. For pre-game odds polling, REST is fine and the credit model keeps costs predictable.

The-Odds-API fits a wide range of developers, which is part of its appeal. The low entry price and clean docs make it a default starting point:

• Side projects and MVPs where the free tier lets you ship something real without spending money.
• Odds-comparison sites that need 40+ books across multiple regions.
• Spreadsheet-based analysts who want odds in Google Sheets or Excel without writing code.
• Model builders who need historical data for backtesting and pre-game odds for live predictions.
• Futures tracking for season-long applications (award winners, championship odds over time).

Skip it if you need real-time WebSocket streaming for live betting, if you need settlement data to grade bets automatically, or if you need 100+ bookmakers for deep arbitrage scanning. Those use cases need a different shape of product. Browse the sports odds API directory for providers that fit those requirements.

The-Odds-API occupies the reliable mid-market. It is not the cheapest (some providers offer more credits for less), not the broadest (others cover 300+ books), and not the most feature-rich (no WebSocket, no settlement). What it does offer is a stable product with mature docs, a track record measured in years, and pricing that scales well from hobby to production.

Against newer entrants that offer more books or flashier features, The-Odds-API's advantage is predictability. The schema will not change on you. The docs answer the question you actually had. The provider will still be operating when you renew. For many developers, that reliability matters more than raw feature count.

Against enterprise feeds, The-Odds-API is dramatically cheaper and requires no sales call. You sign up, get a key, and start pulling data. The tradeoff is fewer books and no push feed, which is acceptable for pre-game applications and deal-breaking for latency-sensitive live ones.

The-Odds-API is the safe pick. It covers enough sports and books for most use cases, prices gently, documents thoroughly, and has operated long enough that you can trust it to stick around. Futures support and historical odds back to 2020 round out a feature set that handles pre-game workflows well.

The gaps are real and easy to name: no WebSocket, no settlement, no stats, 40-ish books instead of hundreds. If those gaps do not hit your use case, the free tier makes it trivial to test. Sign up, pull a few sports, and see if the data matches what you need.

What stood out when we vetted The-Odds-API for the directory:

• Generous free tier
• Wide sports, market, and bookmaker coverage
• Clear documentation and example code

A longstanding and well-respected provider with a generous free tier and responsive support.

Last reviewed: 2024-01 · How providers get listed