Athletes and player search API
Find players by name within a league, then fetch a profile with statistics or a season game log. Data is aggregated from public sources and is typically 20-30 seconds behind live play (about 1 second after our source). There is no SLA.
- Search matches on names; pass a surname or full name.
Paths and parameters
GET/api/v1/sports/{sport}/leagues/{league}/athletes/search
Search athletes by name
sport(path, required): Sport slug: football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer.league(path, required): League slug, e.g. nfl, college-football, nba, mens-college-basketball, mlb, nhl, eng.1, usa.1.query(query, required): Name to search for (`q` is accepted as an alias).limit(query): Maximum results to return (default 25).
GET/api/v1/sports/{sport}/leagues/{league}/athletes/{athleteId}
Get an athlete. Athlete profile with statistics. Omit season for career/current totals.
sport(path, required): Sport slug: football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer.league(path, required): League slug, e.g. nfl, college-football, nba, mens-college-basketball, mlb, nhl, eng.1, usa.1.athleteId(path, required): Athlete id, as returned by the athletes endpoints.season(query): Scope statistics to a season year.seasonType(query): 1 = preseason, 2 = regular season, 3 = postseason. `type` is accepted as an alias.
GET/api/v1/sports/{sport}/leagues/{league}/athletes/{athleteId}/gamelog
Get athlete game log
sport(path, required): Sport slug: football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer.league(path, required): League slug, e.g. nfl, college-football, nba, mens-college-basketball, mlb, nhl, eng.1, usa.1.athleteId(path, required): Athlete id, as returned by the athletes endpoints.season(query, required): Season year.week(query): Only this week.seasonType(query): 1 = preseason, 2 = regular season, 3 = postseason. `type` is accepted as an alias.
Live example
Request
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
"https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/athletes/search?query=mahomes&limit=1"Response captured from live data at 2026-10-05 02:10 UTC (refreshed every few minutes). Long arrays are trimmed; meta.rateLimit values are illustrative for a Free key.
Response
{
"success": true,
"data": [
{
"id": "3139477",
"displayName": "Patrick Mahomes",
"shortName": "P. Mahomes",
"jersey": "15",
"sport": "football",
"league": "nfl",
"team": {
"id": "12",
"displayName": "Kansas City Chiefs",
"abbreviation": "KC",
"logo": "https://realtimesportsapi.com/api/images/proxy?id=GgcVSgNPTUMITUgaFFQVVVQXBVwOHV5LRQBZD1lbBllDXR0HVl9AUlxGCE5HFFQR"
}
}
],
"meta": {
"query": "mahomes",
"count": 1,
"rateLimit": {
"limit": 125,
"remaining": 124,
"reset": 1793491200000
}
}
}Fields
| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| id | string | |
| displayName | string | |
| shortName | string | |
| jersey | string | |
| sport | string | |
| league | string | |
| image | string | |
| team | object |
League support
Checked against live data on 2026-10-04: 29 available, 0 limited, 0 seasonal or not verified, 0 not available.
Code samples
curl
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
"https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/athletes/search?query=mahomes&limit=1"JavaScript (fetch)
const res = await fetch("https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/athletes/search?query=mahomes&limit=1", {
headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.RSA_API_KEY}` }
});
const { success, data, meta } = await res.json();
console.log(data, meta.rateLimit);Python (requests)
import os, requests
res = requests.get(
"https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/athletes/search?query=mahomes&limit=1",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['RSA_API_KEY']}"},
timeout=10,
)
body = res.json()
print(body["data"])MCP prompt (Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT)
Using the Realtime Sports MCP server (https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/mcp), call search_athletes with sport "football" and league "nfl" and find a player by surname and show the team and position for NFL.Connect the hosted MCP server first: setup guide. Each tool call counts as one API call.
Rate limits and pricing
| Plan | Price | Calls | Rate | WebSocket | Webhooks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 125/mo (1,000 first 30 days) | 1/s | 500 msgs/mo | No |
| Starter | $29/mo ($290/yr) | 10,000/mo | 5/s | Shares monthly pool | Shares monthly pool |
| Growth | $49/mo ($490/yr) | 25,000/mo | 10/s | Shares monthly pool | Shares monthly pool |
| Pro | $99/mo ($990/yr) | 50,000/mo | 20/s | 100,000 msgs/mo | 25,000/mo |
| Scale | $299/mo ($2,990/yr) | 500,000/mo | 100/s | 500,000 msgs/mo | 100,000/mo |
Every successful REST call counts as one call. Over the limit you get HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header. No SLA. Full pricing.
FAQ
- What does the athletes endpoint return?
- Find players by name within a league, then fetch a profile with statistics or a season game log.
- Which leagues support athletes?
- All 29 monitored leagues returned data when we checked on 2026-10-04.
- Is it free to try?
- Yes. The Free plan is $0 with 125 calls per month (1,000 in the first 30 days) at 1 request per second, no card required. Every successful call counts as one call.
- How fresh is the data?
- Data is aggregated from public sources and is typically 20-30 seconds behind live play (about 1 second after our source). There is no SLA.
- Can I get updates pushed instead of polling?
- Webhooks are included on every paid plan (Starter, Growth, Pro, Scale). WebSocket is included on paid plans, and the Free plan gets a 500-message monthly preview.