Sports Reference Stats Scraper

Scrape player statistics from Sports-Reference family of sites including Basketball-Reference, Pro-Football-Reference, and Baseball-Reference. Extract per-game averages, season totals, advanced metrics, and career statistics for any player.

Features

• Search for players by name across basketball, football, and baseball
• Extract per-game, totals, per-36-minute, and advanced statistics
• Season-specific or most recent season stats
• Career totals and historical data
• Automatic player page discovery via search
• Structured output with all available statistical categories

Use Cases

Sports statistics power fantasy sports analysis, sports journalism, academic research, and professional scouting. Fantasy sports managers need up-to-date player averages for roster decisions. Sports journalists reference career statistics for storytelling and comparisons. Researchers study player performance trends, aging curves, and team composition effects. Scouts and analytics departments build predictive models using historical performance data.

Input Configuration

Parameter	Type	Description
sport	String	Sport: basketball, football, or baseball
playerNames	Array	List of player names to search and scrape
season	String	Season to look up (e.g., 2025-26 for basketball)
statType	String	Stat type: per_game, totals, per_36, or advanced

Output Format

Each player result includes:

• playerName - Full player name
• sport / season / team - Sport, season, and team identifiers
• gamesPlayed / gamesStarted - Games played and started
• pointsPerGame / assistsPerGame / reboundsPerGame - Key per-game averages (basketball)
• stealsPerGame / blocksPerGame - Defensive stats
• fieldGoalPct / threePtPct / freeThrowPct - Shooting percentages
• allStats - Complete row of all available statistics
• profileUrl - Link to the player's profile page

Rate Limiting

Sports-Reference enforces strict rate limits. This actor uses a single concurrent request to stay within limits. For large batches of players, consider running multiple actor runs with smaller player lists. The Apify API scheduling feature can help distribute requests over time.

Integration

Export player statistics as JSON, CSV, or Excel. Integrate with data analysis tools, fantasy sports platforms, or custom dashboards using the Apify API.

Limitations

Sports-Reference may block high-frequency requests. Some player pages use JavaScript rendering for certain tables that may not be accessible via Cheerio. International and minor league players may have limited data. The actor searches for the closest player name match and uses the first result.