Which leagues support live scores?

All 29 monitored leagues returned data when we checked on 2026-10-04.

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.

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.

Live scores API

Games in progress right now (status.state = "in") for one league, each with both teams, the current score, period, clock and status text. Returns an empty array when nothing is live. 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.

For continuous updates use webhooks or the WebSocket stream instead of polling this endpoint in a tight loop.
Pass includeOdds=true to attach current odds where the league has them.

Paths and parameters

GET/api/v1/sports/{sport}/leagues/{league}/events/live

List live events. Events currently in progress (status.state = "in"). Returns an empty array when nothing is live. For continuous updates prefer webhooks or the WebSocket stream over tight polling.

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.
includeOdds (query): Attach current betting odds (when available) to each event. Adds latency.

Live example

Request

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/events/live"

Response captured from live data at 2026-10-05 02:07 UTC (refreshed every few minutes). Long arrays are trimmed; meta.rateLimit values are illustrative for a Free key.

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "401872978",
      "uid": "s:20~l:28~e:401872978",
      "name": "Detroit Lions at Carolina Panthers",
      "shortName": "DET @ CAR",
      "date": "2026-10-05T00:20Z",
      "status": {
        "state": "in",
        "completed": false,
        "period": 3,
        "clock": "15:00",
        "detail": "15:00 - 3rd Quarter",
        "halftime": false,
        "firstHalfEnded": true
      },
      "homeTeam": {
        "id": "29",
        "name": "Carolina Panthers",
        "abbreviation": "CAR",
        "logo": "https://realtimesportsapi.com/api/images/proxy?id=GgcVSgNPTUMITUgaFFQVVVQXBVwOHV5LRQBZD1lbBllDXR0HVl9AUlxGAEwbSkoYVg",
        "color": "0085ca",
        "alternateColor": "000000",
        "winner": false,
        "score": 16
      },
      "awayTeam": {
        "id": "8",
        "name": "Detroit Lions",
        "abbreviation": "DET",
        "logo": "https://realtimesportsapi.com/api/images/proxy?id=GgcVSgNPTUMITUgaFFQVVVQXBVwOHV5LRQBZD1lbBllDXR0HVl9AUlxGB0gdSkoYVg",
        "color": "0076b6",
        "alternateColor": "bbbbbb",
        "winner": false,
        "score": 16
      },
      "competition": {
        "attendance": 0,
        "neutralSite": false,
        "conferenceCompetition": false,
        "divisionCompetition": false,
        "playByPlayAvailable": true,
        "highlightsAvailable": true
      },
      "venue": {
        "id": "3628",
        "name": "Bank of America Stadium",
        "city": "Charlotte",
        "state": "NC",
        "indoor": false,
        "grass": false
      },
      "notes": [],
      "season": {
        "year": 2026,
        "displayName": "2026",
        "type": {
          "id": "2",
          "name": "Regular Season",
          "abbreviation": "reg"
        },
        "week": {
          "number": 4,
          "startDate": "2026-09-30T07:00Z",
          "endDate": "2026-10-07T06:59Z",
          "text": "Week 4"
        }
      },
      "broadcasts": [
        {
          "network": {
            "id": "1",
            "type": "National"
          },
          "type": "TV"
        }
      ],
      "officials": [
        {
          "id": "17690",
          "fullName": "Greg Wilson",
          "displayName": "Greg Wilson",
          "order": 1,
          "position": "Back Judge"
        },
        {
          "id": "3055005",
          "fullName": "Clay Martin",
          "displayName": "Clay Martin",
          "order": 2,
          "position": "Referee"
        },
        {
          "id": "3055221",
          "fullName": "Eugene Hall",
          "displayName": "Eugene Hall",
          "order": 3,
          "position": "Side Judge"
        },
        "... 4 more"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "rateLimit": {
      "limit": 125,
      "remaining": 124,
      "reset": 1793491200000
    }
  }
}

Fields

Field	Type	Notes
id	string	Event id; use it with the detail, plays, box score and odds endpoints.
uid	string
name	string	Full matchup name.
shortName	string	Abbreviated matchup, e.g. "AWAY @ HOME".
date	string	Start time, ISO-8601 UTC.
status	EventStatus	state (pre, in, post), completed, period, clock and display detail.
homeTeam	EventTeam	id, name, abbreviation, colors, logo (proxied), record, score, winner.
awayTeam	EventTeam	Same shape as homeTeam.
competition	object	attendance, neutralSite, conference/division flags, playByPlayAvailable.
venue	object	Venue id, name, city, state, indoor, grass (null when unknown).
notes	string[]	Headline notes, e.g. round or rivalry names.
season	object	year, type (preseason/regular/postseason) and week where the league uses weeks.
broadcasts	object[]	TV/stream networks for the game.
officials	object[]	Game officials when published.
odds	Odds	Only with includeOdds=true and when the game has odds.

League support

Checked against live data on 2026-10-04: 29 available, 0 limited, 0 seasonal or not verified, 0 not available.

NFL

Available

College Football

Available

NBA

Available

Men's College Basketball

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Women's Champions League

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

World Cup Qualifying (UEFA)

Available

World Cup Qualifying (CONMEBOL)

Available

World Cup Qualifying (AFC)

Available

World Cup Qualifying (CAF)

Available

World Cup Qualifying (CONCACAF)

Available

Code samples

curl

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/events/live"

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch("https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/nfl/events/live", {
  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/events/live",
    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 get_live_events with sport "football" and league "nfl" and tell me which games are live and the current scores 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 live scores endpoint return?: Games in progress right now (status.state = "in") for one league, each with both teams, the current score, period, clock and status text. Returns an empty array when nothing is live.
Which leagues support live scores?: 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.