The Odds API Review 2026

The-Odds-API is a REST-based sports odds API that has been running since 2017, founded in Melbourne and now based in Sydney, Australia. It covers 100+ sports from 100+ 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.

100+ 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 100+ 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 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.

Futures carry no separate charge, and historical odds come with every paid plan but not with the free Starter plan. Past that one gate, 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 player or team stats, though /v4/sports/{sport}/scores returns scores for live and recently completed games (you will pair this with a stats provider if you need deeper 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, pair it with a provider that has a live odds WebSocket feed. For pre-game odds polling, REST is fine and the credit model keeps costs predictable.

Pick the free Starter plan in the Get Access section of The-Odds-API's home page. The form wants a name, an email and a reCAPTCHA tick. Only the paid plans ask for a card, through Stripe, and they bill the day you subscribe. The site lists no trial for them. Your key arrives by email, with links to get you started (checked November 2026).

The key goes in the apiKey query parameter on each call, and a request without it comes back with a MISSING_KEY error. Starter's 500 credits reset on the 1st of each month. Usage and billing live in a separate accounts portal at dash.the-odds-api.com. You create that login yourself, with the same email you subscribed with, so the portal can find your plan.

This is step 3 of the v4 docs pointed at the NBA: odds for one sport from one bookmaker region, with the key as apiKey in the query string (from the docs, checked November 2026). The host is https://api.the-odds-api.com. The sport key basketball_nba comes from GET /v4/sports, which costs nothing against your quota.

import os

import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.the-odds-api.com/v4/sports/basketball_nba/odds",
    params={
        "apiKey": os.environ["THE_ODDS_API_KEY"],
        "regions": "us",
        "markets": "h2h",
    },
    timeout=10,
)
resp.raise_for_status()

for game in resp.json()[:5]:
    books = [b["title"] for b in game["bookmakers"]]
    print(game["away_team"], "at", game["home_team"], game["commence_time"], books[:3])

print("credits left:", resp.headers["x-requests-remaining"])

You get back a list of live and upcoming games. Each one carries an id, commence_time, home_team, away_team and a bookmakers list, where each book has a title and its prices under markets[].outcomes[]. The cost is markets times regions, so this call spends 1 credit. The x-requests-remaining header tells you what's left.

The-Odds-API caps paid plans at 30 requests a second. Go faster and you get a 429 with the code EXCEEDED_FREQ_LIMIT; the docs say to wait a couple of seconds and retry. They also warn that a few 429s can land below the limit while traffic spikes, so build the retry in from day one. A spent monthly quota answers with OUT_OF_USAGE_CREDITS instead. Each response reports x-requests-remaining, x-requests-used and x-requests-last. To send fewer requests, the docs advise putting several markets in one call, comma separated (checked November 2026).

There's no official SDK package. The-Odds-API keeps code samples on GitHub for Python, Node.js and PHP, plus an Apps Script guide for Google Sheets. The v4 docs sit beside an OpenAPI 3.0 spec at /api-reference/v4/schema.yml, an announcements page that logs new sports and books, and a status page at status.the-odds-api.com. Support is by email at team@the-odds-api.com.

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 100+ 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).

If you need real-time WebSocket streaming for live betting, settlement data to grade bets automatically, or a deeper book list for arbitrage scanning, it pairs well with a streaming or settlement feed from the sports odds API directory. The-Odds-API then covers the pre-game odds and the history.

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: 11 November 2026 · How providers get listed