Opta Analyst Ranking Scraper: Global Football Power Rankings

What does the Opta Analyst Ranking Scraper do?

The Opta Analyst Ranking Scraper is a high-precision data extraction tool designed to pull the official Global Power Rankings for over 13,000 domestic football teams. It captures the world-renowned ELO-based ratings that define team strength across all major and minor leagues.

Unlike generic scrapers, this tool replicates the exact search functionality of the Opta Analyst website, allowing you to filter by Team, League, or Country.

Key Features

• Massive Global Coverage: Access the most comprehensive database in football.
  • Men's Rankings: 13,000+ domestic teams across the globe.
  • Women's Rankings: 2,500+ domestic teams from all major professional leagues.
• Replicated Website Search: The scraper works exactly like the official Opta interface. Filter data by:
  • Team Name: (e.g., "Arsenal", "Benfica")
  • League: (e.g., "Premier League", "La Liga", "NWSL")
  • Country: (e.g., "Brazil", "Germany", "USA")
• Identify Climbers & Fallers: Capture the seven_days_ranking_change metric to instantly identify which teams are rising or falling in the global hierarchy.
• Gender-Specific Data: Dedicated toggles for Men’s and Women’s football ecosystems.
• Official Opta Ratings: Extract the 0–100 ability score assigned by Opta's proprietary ELO-based algorithms.

Why scrape Opta Analyst Rankings?

Opta Analyst is the "Home of Truth" for football data-driven storytelling. In 2026, these power rankings are the industry standard for:

• Betting & Predictive Models: Integrate official ratings into your algorithms to calculate match probabilities.
• Media & Journalism: Power your sports dashboard with live-updating global leaderboards and performance "climbers and fallers."
• Scouting & Recruitment: Identify "dark horse" teams in smaller leagues who are rapidly climbing the global rankings.

How to use the Scraper

1. Click "Try for free": Sign up for an Apify account (no credit card required).
2. Configure Input: Choose one of the four powerful scraping modes:
   • Full Database: Leave the keyword list empty to scrape the entire global table.
   • Specific Search: Use this for targeted data. You can search for:
     • Single or Multiple Items: Add multiple objects to the search list to scrape different teams, leagues, or countries at the same time.
     • Accuracy Mode: For teams with common names, provide both the Name and the Country (e.g., "Liverpool" + "Uruguay") to ensure you get the exact team you want.
   • Biggest Climbers: Scrape only the teams with the highest positive rank volatility over the last 7 days.
   • Biggest Fallers: Scrape only the teams dropping fastest in the global standings.
   • Limit Results: Use the max_results field to cap your output (e.g., "Top 100").
3. Select Category: Choose between the Men's Table or Women's Table under the Global Filters section.
4. Click Run: The scraper handles dynamic data loading and extracts the normalized ranks.
5. Download Data: Export your rankings in JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Dataset tab.

Input Parameters

The Opta Ranking Table Scraper uses a structured input to target specific football data. Below are the parameters available in the console or via API:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
Scraping Mode (mode)	String	full	Required. Choose the logic: • full: Scrapes the global database. • search: High-accuracy search mode. • climbers: Targets weekly rank gainers. • fallers: Targets weekly rank losers.
Category (gender)	String	men	Required. Choose between men (13,000+ teams) or women (2,500+ teams).
Maximum Results (max_results)	Integer	999999	Limit the total rows extracted to control costs or speed.
Specific Search List (search_keywords)	Array	[]	Used in search mode. Each object contains: • name: (String) Team/League/Country name. • country: (Optional) Resolve ambiguous names.

Advanced Search Example

To search for multiple entities or specific regional teams, use the array format:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "gender": "men",
  "max_results": 3,
  "search_keywords": [
    {
      "name": "Liverpool",
      "country": "Uruguay"
    },
    {
      "name": "Serie A",
      "country": "Brazil"
    }
  ]
}

Output in this case woude be like this:

[
    {
        "global_rank": 638,
        "team": "Liverpool",
        "logo": "https://omo.akamai.opta.net/image.php?secure=true&h=omo.akamai.opta.net&sport=football&entity=team&description=badges&dimensions=150&id=1p2mbne1t0rwtj3go5f5z98pu",
        "rating": 71.9,
        "seven_days_ranking_change": -1,
        "scraped_at": "2026-02-17T11:32:02.321389+00:00"
    },
    {
        "global_rank": 62,
        "team": "Flamengo",
        "logo": "https://omo.akamai.opta.net/image.php?secure=true&h=omo.akamai.opta.net&sport=football&entity=team&description=badges&dimensions=150&id=102ykb145wz6dtveg65nistwm",
        "rating": 83.9,
        "seven_days_ranking_change": 3,
        "scraped_at": "2026-02-17T11:32:03.667414+00:00"
    },
    {
        "global_rank": 70,
        "team": "Palmeiras",
        "logo": "https://omo.akamai.opta.net/image.php?secure=true&h=omo.akamai.opta.net&sport=football&entity=team&description=badges&dimensions=150&id=b9d2xcvxxcwplyp4le9ulnlv9",
        "rating": 83.1,
        "seven_days_ranking_change": 4,
        "scraped_at": "2026-02-17T11:32:03.667414+00:00"
    }
]

💡 Pro Tip: Scraping the "Top 5" European Leagues

To quickly extract data for all teams in the top European divisions, use the Specific Search List mode. By adding multiple league names, the scraper will batch the results into a single dataset.

Example Input for the Top 5 Leagues:

• Leagues included: Premier League (England), La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Bundesliga (Germany), and Ligue 1 (France).

{
  "mode": "search",
  "gender": "men",

  "search_keywords": [
    {
      "name": "Premier League",
      "country": "England"
    },
    {
      "name": "Primera Division",
      "country": "Spain"
    },
    {
      "name": "Serie A",
      "country": "Italy"
    },
    {
      "name": "Bundesliga",
      "country": "Germany"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ligue 1",
      "country": "France"
    }
  ]
}

💰 Pricing: Pay-Per-Event (PPE)

This Actor uses the Pay-Per-Event pricing model. This is the most transparent way to pay for data—you only pay for the teams you actually scrape.

• Price per 1,000 results: $3.99
• Price per single team: $0.00399

Cost Examples:

• Top 100 teams: $0.40
• Top 1,000 teams: $3.99
• Full Men's Database (13,000+ teams): ~$52.00

🛠 Troubleshooting

• Empty Results: Ensure the name or country matches the official spelling on Opta Analyst.
• Wrong Team/Country: If a team name is common (e.g., "National"), always provide the country in the Specific Search List to force the correct match.
• Actor Timeout: For large "Full Mode" scrapes, ensure your Apify proxy settings are enabled to prevent IP blocking.
• Incomplete Data: Check your max_results setting; it may be capping the output before the scraper finishes the full list.

✉️ Feedback & Custom Work

I am committed to keeping this scraper to be reliable. If you encounter any issues or have ideas for new features, I am here to help.

• Bug Reports: I respond quickly to issues to ensure your data pipelines stay active.
• Feature Requests: Need additional data points like club logos or deeper metrics? Let me know.
• Custom Scraper Development: I am open to business offers for custom Actor development. Whether it’s sports, e-commerce, or specialized automation, I can build a tailored solution for your needs.

Contact me: bd.pascari@gmail.com