TheSportsDB API Review 2026

TheSportsDB is an open, crowd-sourced sports database with a JSON API on top. Editors and users add teams, players, events, venues and artwork, and the site says it holds 250,000+ players, 20,000+ teams, 1.5 million+ events and 500+ leagues (checked November 2026). It began in 2015 to feed home-theatre apps, and the artwork still shows that origin.

That makes it a different tool from a live-score feed. You come here for metadata and images: team badges, player photos, fanart, league tables, past results and schedules. For tick-by-tick scoring, look at the sports data API directory.

The API groups its endpoints into search, lookup, list, schedule and video calls, in two versions. Version 1 is the older, simple one, with the key in the URL. Version 2 is newer and premium only.

• Teams, players and venues: search by name, then look up by ID. Players carry honours, former teams, contracts and milestones.
• Events: results, lineups, timelines and event statistics, plus TV listings.
• Leagues and seasons: league details, points tables and season lists.
• Artwork: badges, logos and fanart, served at original, medium, small and tiny sizes.
• Livescores and video: 2-minute livescores for soccer, NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, and YouTube highlight links, on premium plans.

The free key trims many calls. The docs show free limits of one result on most searches, and our test of the free sports list returned two sports. Check an endpoint's free limit in the docs before you build on it.

Most images are fan-created. The terms say original TheSportsDB artwork is licensed under Creative Commons, and that third-party logos and photos keep their own rights. A strCreativeCommons field records the status per record, and artwork marked unknown should not go into published apps.

One rule matters for app builders. On the free plan you cannot publish apps to an app store, and a paid subscriber must credit TheSportsDB as the source. You also cannot resell the API. Read the terms of use before you ship.

The pricing page lists three tiers (checked November 2026).

• Free, $0: the public key 123, 30 requests a minute and capped results.
• Single Developer, $9 a month: 100 requests a minute, higher data limits, 2-minute livescores and YouTube highlight links, plus your own key and the v2 API.
• Small Business, $20 a month: 120 requests a minute, no limit on returned data, email support and a private key.

You can pay monthly, annually or for a lifetime plan, through Patreon or PayPal, and refunds run 14 days under the terms. Live data and the v2 API cost money, so for a real-time app also look at the live sports data options.

The v1 API needs no signup. The docs give a shared public key, 123, and it goes in the URL path: https://www.thesportsdb.com/api/v1/json/123/searchteams.php?t=Arsenal (checked November 2026). No account, payment or approval is involved.

A premium key comes with a supporter plan, from $9 a month, and sits on your profile page. v1 takes it in the same URL slot. The newer v2 API reads it from an X-API-KEY header, and the public key does not work there. The pricing page lists the plans. See also our free sports API guide.

This sample calls searchteams.php on the v1 base URL with the public key 123 (from the docs, checked November 2026). We ran the same request with curl on November 5, 2026, and it returned HTTP 200.

import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://www.thesportsdb.com/api/v1/json/123/searchteams.php",
    params={"t": "Arsenal"},
    timeout=10,
)
resp.raise_for_status()

for team in resp.json()["teams"]:
    print(team["idTeam"], team["strTeam"], team["strLeague"], team["strCountry"])

The response is a JSON object with a teams array. Each team has fields such as idTeam, strTeam, strLeague and strCountry. The docs note that the free key limits this search to Arsenal, so a premium key opens full name search.

Limits are per minute: free users get 30 requests, Premium 100 and Business 120 (checked November 2026). Past the limit you get an HTTP 429 and must wait until the next minute. Most free endpoints also cap the number of results, and each endpoint lists its free and premium limit in the docs.

The documentation covers v1 and v2, and links OpenAPI specs, a Postman collection, a Readme.io mirror with a sandbox and a hosted MCP server, which needs a premium key. We found no official SDK. A status endpoint answers at /status. Support is by email, and Business plans get dedicated email support.

It suits builders who need rich reference data and images more than speed.

• Media-centre and app developers who want team badges, player photos and fanart under one roof.
• Hobby and student projects that can live inside 30 requests a minute and the free result limits.
• Fantasy and stats tools that want history, tables and player records for many leagues.

It has no odds, and the free plan has no live data. Pair it with an odds feed from the sports odds API guide when you need prices.

TheSportsDB is a community project that has stayed free to start since 2015, and that counts for a lot. The data is wide, the artwork is a real draw, and the OpenAPI specs and a hosted MCP server show that the team keeps building. Test the free key against the endpoints you need, then decide if $9 a month for your own key, livescores and v2 is worth it. You can start at thesportsdb.com.

Last updated: 5 November 2026 · How providers get listed