Sports Data: Best Sports Datasets & Databases

What is Sports Data?

Sports data is information and intelligence on sports events, players and all other participants in the sporting sector. It includes a range of sports, both online and offline. With information on sports data, you can accurately make betting decisions as an individual, or major investing decisions if you’re looking for a great team to sponsor. Also, sports data provides analytics on team or individual performance. Information on all sports and respective tournaments, brands, sports influencers, media value, studios and return on investments is also available in a sports dataset.

How is Sports Data collected?

Collecting sports data is can be done using a whole range of methods. The scale is largely dependent on the type of sports which are being analyzed and how much data there is to collect. One major source of collecting sports data is a stats company. Stats companies keep records of goals, fouls, scores, team data, individual performances, and player bios. Analysts are often hired to manually record this data and at the end, this intelligence is collated and stored digitally. More complicated data is recorded using software to record all the events in a sports game, which is stored in a database or dataset.

What are the attributes of Sports Data?

Like any other type of data, there is a list of factors to be considered when it comes to what attributes a dataset should contain. For sports data, it is imperative that a dataset or database should include the following;

• Historical data: since most sports date back to many years ago, a dataset that cannot provide information from an earlier period is considered incomplete. Such data cannot be used to fully evaluate performances, or predict what is to come as the metrics for measurement are incomplete.
• Key stats: facts and figures are important in sport, and likewise for sports data! If a sports dataset does not contain verified numerical values for a particular sport, then it can not be recognized as a viable sports dataset.

What is Sports Data used for?

To the sports industry or sector, sports data is essential in many ways. Sports data gives the sports industry the ability to analyze sports with the aim of seeing opportunities for profit generation, via bets or investments. Sports data is also used within the sports industry itself, to improve both the performance of an individual player, or to improve the quality of team play. It can be used in injury prevention, and to enhance the overall sports experience.

Sports data is also used by brands, sports influencers and sponsors. These participators employ sports data to enhance the state of things to in the sports industry, create better campaigns and strike better deals.

How can a user assess the quality of Sports Data?

Assessing sports data is highly dependent on the methods used to collect the data. Data quality for sports data is only as good as the means used to acquire it. From manual means to automated spread sheets, if the methods used to capture sports data do not meet the level of sophistication that the sports requires, such sports data won’t bring the quality you need.

The metrics for measurements are also a means of ascertaining quality. The performance metrics of each sport varies according to the rules of the game, and so if these metrics do not appear in the data, it won’t be high quality.

Where can I buy Sports Data?

Data providers and vendors listed on Datarade sell Sports Data products and samples. Popular Sports Data products and datasets available on our platform are Transports & Logistics: POI and Transaction Data in US by SafeGraph, Football API | Enterprise Plan | SportsMonks Sports data for 1,200 + leagues worldwide by SportMonks, and API-SPORTS: Sports Data Product Pro Plan (Global Data Coverage) by API-SPORTS.

How can I get Sports Data?

You can get Sports Data via a range of delivery methods - the right one for you depends on your use case. For example, historical Sports Data is usually available to download in bulk and delivered using an S3 bucket. On the other hand, if your use case is time-critical, you can buy real-time Sports Data APIs, feeds and streams to download the most up-to-date intelligence.