Football data sources — historical results, live scores & ML features (xG etc.) — compiled June 2026

A developer compiled a June 2026 guide to football data sources for building match-prediction models, covering historical results, live scores, and modeling features like expected goals (xG). The guide highlights free-first options such as football-data.org, ESPN's hidden API, StatsBomb Open Data, and the soccerdata Python package, with practical tips on rate limits and data verification.

A concise, current June 2026 map of where to get historical results , live results , and modelling data like expected goals xG for football — aimed at anyone building a match-prediction model/agent. Free-first; every row notes whether you need an API key. Note: a few datasets ship historical bookmaker-odds columns — listed here purely as model features, not for betting. Always read each provider's Terms & rate limits and cache aggressively. | Source | What you get | Key? | Notes / best for | |---|---|---|---| | football-data.org https://www.football-data.org/ free forever API-Football https://www.api-football.com/ TheSportsDB https://www.thesportsdb.com/ Football-Data.co.uk https://www.football-data.co.uk/ StatsBomb Open Data https://github.com/statsbomb/open-data | Source | What you get | Key? | Notes / best for | |---|---|---|---| ESPN hidden API — site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/soccer/{league}/scoreboard | Live scores + finished results, JSON | No | Free, no signup, fast; unofficial so endpoints can change. Solid for matchday polling. | | football-data.org https://www.football-data.org/ SofaScore https://www.sofascore.com/ Live-Score API https://live-score-api.com/ | Source | What you get | Key? | Notes / best for | |---|---|---|---| | Understat https://understat.com/ StatsBomb Open Data https://github.com/statsbomb/open-data Club Elo http://clubelo.com/API soccerdata Python https://github.com/probberechts/soccerdata Start here. worldfootballR R https://jaseziv.github.io/worldfootballR/ Fixtures & results: football-data.org https://www.football-data.org/ keyed, clean — or openfootball https://github.com/openfootball for zero-setup. Live during matches: ESPN hidden API no key + API-Football https://www.api-football.com/ free tier as backup. Confirm a final score from two sources before trusting it. Model features: soccerdata https://github.com/probberechts/soccerdata → FBref xG + Understat shot xG + Club Elo http://clubelo.com/API ratings; StatsBomb Open Data https://github.com/statsbomb/open-data when you want raw events. Curated index of everything else: openfootball/awesome-football https://github.com/openfootball/awesome-football . Practical tips - Cache results locally; most free tiers are rate-limited and live feeds lag — verify FT from ≥2 outlets . - "Hidden"/unofficial endpoints ESPN, SofaScore are great but can change without notice — keep a fallback. - xG and form are features for your model, not requirements — even a clean results feed + Elo gets you far. Compiled June 2026. Free tiers and endpoints change — double-check each provider's current docs.