Blog

Writing on odds data for developers and operators: odds APIs and feeds, matched betting data, exchange lay prices, bet365, and buying a feed.

Fundamentals

What odds APIs and odds feeds are, how their responses are shaped, and how to build on one.

Football odds data, explainedThe football markets, the sport and market keys that name them, which OddsRelay boards carry football, and what one matched football row looks like.5 min read How odds comparison sites use odds dataA comparison site is a best-price table, and the hard part is proving every column is the same bet. What the data layer has to do, and where a raw feed stops.5 min read How odds feeds handle suspended and void marketsFeeds show a suspension in one of three ways. OddsRelay's matched boards use the plainest: a price nobody offers leaves the board. Here is what that means for your code.5 min read How to display odds data in your appYou have the odds data and now need to render it. How to turn the nested response into rows, format prices, show the matched pair and its age, and keep the key off the browser.7 min read How to get bookmaker odds data into your appCollect the prices yourself or license a feed. What to settle before you choose, what a first call and its response look like, and when building your own is the right trade.4 min read How to monitor an odds feed in productionA frozen odds feed still answers 200. Three separate checks catch what one health ping misses: availability, price age from the board's own timestamps, and bookmaker coverage.5 min read How to normalise odds across bookmakersDifferent books name the same fixture, market and selection differently, so their prices don't line up on their own. Where the matching goes wrong, and what a feed can hand you already joined.5 min read How to store and version odds dataAn odds feed serves the current board. The history is yours to keep: an append-only table, the feed's own timestamps, your own fixture keys and change-only writes.5 min read Integrating an odds feed with AI coding toolsThe OddsRelay OpenAPI contract is keyless, so an AI coding assistant can read the whole API before you hold a key. What to feed it, what to ask for and what to check in what it writes.5 min read Live vs pre-match odds data: which one your product needsIn-play and pre-match odds are different data products. How to tell which one your product needs, that OddsRelay ships pre-match only, and what its freshness bound means.5 min read Odds API vs odds feed: what's the difference?Builders meet two terms for the same data and assume they are choosing between products. What each word stresses, and the distinction that does change your build: raw versus matched.4 min read Odds API vs sports data API: what's the difference?A sports data API delivers scores, fixtures and player stats. An odds API delivers bookmakers' prices for outcomes. They are different products, often used together, and matched betting runs on the odds side.4 min read Polling an odds feed efficiently with ETag and 304sStore each reply's ETag and send it back as If-None-Match. An unchanged board is an empty 304 that costs no tokens. Add gzip, narrow filters and a proper 429 handler, and the loop is done.5 min read The anatomy of an odds API responseThe whole /v2 response walked field by field: what meta dates, how events nest markets and outcomes, what back and lay offers carry, and how each-way, dutching and raw differ.6 min read Webhooks vs polling for odds dataPrices move continuously, with no discrete event to push. Why polling with ETag and 304 suits odds data, where webhooks still fit, and why OddsRelay is polled.4 min read What is an odds API? A 2026 guide for buildersAn odds API hands your software bookmakers' prices as JSON instead of a person reading betting sites. What one returns, how raw and matched feeds differ, and what to check before you commit.5 min read

Matched betting data

The data behind an oddsmatcher: back prices paired with exchange lay, and the arithmetic built on them.

Best odds guaranteed (BOG): what it means for your dataBest odds guaranteed pays the starting price when it beats the price you took. What that changes in a matched bet, and what the BOG board gives an oddsmatcher to work with.5 min read Dutching data explained: back prices grouped into dutchesDutching backs every outcome of one market at different venues. Here is the arithmetic, and the shape of a feed that hands you the legs already grouped.4 min read Horse racing odds data and each-way, for buildersA race is a variable field of runners, with place terms that differ by book. Here is how that looks in the feed, and which boards carry it.5 min read How to build an oddsmatcher (and which half to license)Building an oddsmatcher means building two things: the paired price data that feeds it, and the product around it. How to tell them apart, and which one deserves your engineering time.5 min read Qualifying loss and matched-bet ratings, worked out from the pricesThe rating and the qualifying loss are arithmetic on a back and lay pair. Here are the formulas, commission included, worked through on a real feed shape.4 min read The complete guide to matched-betting odds dataMatched betting runs on one relationship: a bookmaker back price paired with an exchange lay price and the money available to lay. Here is what that data layer contains and which parts you compute yourself.5 min read The data behind each-way and extra-place matched bettingAn each-way offer is two bets, so it needs the place terms and two lays. Here is how the each-way and extra-place boards carry them, and the arithmetic you run on a row.4 min read What is an oddsmatcher? The data behind it, explainedAn oddsmatcher ranks bookmaker back prices against exchange lay prices for the same selection. Here is the data it needs, and the arithmetic you run on it.5 min read

Exchange and lay data

Lay prices, the money behind them, and what an exchange's own API does and does not give you.

How to get Betfair lay odds (and the alternatives)Betfair's own API gives you one exchange's lay side, unpaired. This is how that route works, what it leaves to you, and the alternative: lay offers from Betfair, Smarkets, Matchbook and BETDAQ already beside bookmaker back prices.3 min read The Betfair API 5-second delay, explainedBetfair delays prices on its delayed application key and grants live keys on its own terms. What that means for a pre-match build, and when the delay is worth fixing.5 min read Why lay liquidity matters in matched betting dataA strong lay price with no money behind it cannot be taken. What lay liquidity is, where it sits in a matched board, and how to check it against your own stake.5 min read

bet365 odds data

Getting bet365 prices into a product, and what to ask of a feed that includes them.

Best bet365 odds API in 2026: how to choose a supplierThe best bet365 odds API is the supplier whose bet365 prices you can verify yourself. Here are the checks, and the calls that run them.4 min read Is there a bet365 API? What developers can use in 2026bet365 has no public odds API. The two routes to its prices, what to check before you license a feed, and what a bet365 price paired with exchange lay looks like on the wire.4 min read bet365 odds data: what you can get, and how to use itWhat to ask of a supplier's bet365 coverage, what a matched bet365 row looks like, and how to request it and tell how old its prices are.4 min read

Buying odds data

Build or buy, how to test a feed before you commit, and how to switch without breaking production.

Best odds API for matched betting: a buyer's checklistMatched betting needs back and lay prices paired per selection. The criteria that decide which odds API fits, weighted for an oddsmatcher, and how the categories of option compare.5 min read Buy vs build your odds data layer: the upkeep decides itThe five jobs inside an odds data layer, what licensing a feed takes off your team and what stays yours, set out in effort rather than money, plus a checklist for your own case.4 min read How to evaluate odds-data coverageA book count is easy to print and hard to use. How to test a feed's coverage by product, sport, market depth and last read time, with the checks you can run before and after you hold a key.5 min read How to switch odds data providers without downtimeMigrate off an odds provider by running the new feed beside your current one, diffing it on your own markets, and cutting over only when it holds up.5 min read How to test an odds feed before you buyA hands-on checklist for evaluating an odds feed before you commit: what you can check without a key, what to check once one arrives, and the red flags that should end the test early.5 min read Responsible data supply for betting productsA data supplier delivers prices and their sources. The wager, the player and the permissions around them belong to the product that uses the data.4 min read What drives the cost of an odds feedThe drivers behind odds API pricing across the market, why the metering model matters more than the headline figure, and how to budget a month of calls before you buy.5 min read Why teams stop scraping odds and buy a feedKeeping every price correct and paired across dozens of bookmakers is a job that never ends. The signs a team has outgrown its own collectors, and what a feed changes.4 min read

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