ESPN Scraper

Scrape live scores, standings, team info, news, and game details from ESPN's public API — covering NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, ATP Tennis, PGA Golf, UFC, Formula 1, and more.

No API key, no login, no proxy required. Works out-of-the-box on the Apify free plan.

What you can scrape

Mode	Description
Scoreboard	Live and recent game scores with teams, venue, broadcast info
Standings	League/conference rankings with wins, losses, win percentage
Teams	Full team roster for any league with logos and records
Team Detail	In-depth info for a single team (venue, colors, links)
News	Latest headlines with descriptions, images, and author
Game Detail	Full boxscore context — leaders, recap, venue, broadcast

Supported Sports & Leagues

Sport	League	Slug
Football	NFL	football / nfl
Football	College Football	football / college-football
Basketball	NBA	basketball / nba
Basketball	College Basketball	basketball / mens-college-basketball
Baseball	MLB	baseball / mlb
Hockey	NHL	hockey / nhl
Soccer	MLS	soccer / usa.1
Soccer	Premier League	soccer / eng.1
Soccer	La Liga	soccer / esp.1
Soccer	Bundesliga	soccer / ger.1
Tennis	ATP	tennis / atp
Golf	PGA Tour	golf / pga
MMA	UFC	mma / ufc
Racing	Formula 1	racing / f1

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
mode	select	Yes	What to fetch: scoreboard, standings, teams, teamDetail, news, gameDetail
sport	select	No	Sport category (e.g. basketball). Auto-corrected based on league.
league	select	No	League slug (e.g. nba). Default: nba.
teamId	string	For teamDetail	ESPN numeric team ID (get from teams mode output)
eventId	string	For gameDetail	ESPN numeric event ID (get from scoreboard mode output)
maxItems	integer	No	Max records to emit (1–500, default 20)

Example inputs

NBA Scoreboard (today's games):

{
  "mode": "scoreboard",
  "sport": "basketball",
  "league": "nba",
  "maxItems": 20
}

NFL Standings:

{
  "mode": "standings",
  "sport": "football",
  "league": "nfl",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Premier League Teams:

{
  "mode": "teams",
  "sport": "soccer",
  "league": "eng.1",
  "maxItems": 30
}

NBA Game Detail (requires an eventId from scoreboard):

{
  "mode": "gameDetail",
  "sport": "basketball",
  "league": "nba",
  "eventId": "401873199"
}

Output

All records include mode, sport, league, and scrapedAt fields.

Scoreboard record

{
  "mode": "scoreboard",
  "sport": "basketball",
  "league": "nba",
  "eventId": "401873199",
  "name": "Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs",
  "date": "2026-05-23T00:30Z",
  "homeTeam": "San Antonio Spurs",
  "homeScore": "98",
  "awayTeam": "Oklahoma City Thunder",
  "awayScore": "110",
  "status": "Final",
  "venue": "Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, TX",
  "broadcast": "TNT",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-23T01:00:00+00:00"
}

Standings record

{
  "mode": "standings",
  "sport": "basketball",
  "league": "nba",
  "team": "Boston Celtics",
  "teamId": "2",
  "abbreviation": "BOS",
  "conference": "Eastern Conference",
  "wins": "64",
  "losses": "18",
  "winPct": ".780",
  "rank": "1",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-23T01:00:00+00:00"
}

Teams record

{
  "mode": "teams",
  "sport": "basketball",
  "league": "nba",
  "teamId": "2",
  "name": "Boston Celtics",
  "abbreviation": "BOS",
  "location": "Boston",
  "color": "007A33",
  "logoUrl": "https://a.espncdn.com/i/teamlogos/nba/500/bos.png",
  "wins": 64,
  "losses": 18,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-23T01:00:00+00:00"
}

News record

{
  "mode": "news",
  "sport": "basketball",
  "league": "nba",
  "headline": "Celtics clinch Eastern Conference title",
  "description": "Boston defeats Miami in six games.",
  "publishDate": "2026-05-22T23:00:00Z",
  "url": "https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/12345/celtics-clinch",
  "imageUrl": "https://a.espncdn.com/photo/2026/0522/celtics.jpg",
  "author": "Adrian Wojnarowski",
  "category": "NBA",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-23T01:00:00+00:00"
}

Game Detail record

{
  "mode": "gameDetail",
  "sport": "basketball",
  "league": "nba",
  "eventId": "401873199",
  "name": "OKC at SA",
  "date": "2026-05-23T00:30Z",
  "homeTeam": "San Antonio Spurs",
  "homeScore": "98",
  "awayTeam": "Oklahoma City Thunder",
  "awayScore": "110",
  "status": "Final",
  "venue": "Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, TX",
  "broadcast": "TNT, ESPN+",
  "leaders": [
    {
      "team": "Oklahoma City Thunder",
      "category": "Points",
      "athlete": "Shai Gilgeous-Alexander",
      "value": "38"
    }
  ],
  "recap": "Thunder take 3-1 series lead with impressive road win.",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-23T01:00:00+00:00"
}

Data Source

Data is sourced from ESPN's public REST API (site.api.espn.com and site.web.api.espn.com). These endpoints are publicly accessible, require no authentication, and return full JSON responses from Apify datacenter IPs.

This actor was built as a replacement for SofascoreScraper which was blocked at the API level from datacenter IPs.

Tips

• Use mode=teams first to get valid teamId values for mode=teamDetail
• Use mode=scoreboard to get valid eventId values for mode=gameDetail
• The sport field is auto-corrected if it doesn't match the selected league
• Scoreboard returns today's scheduled or completed games; off-season will return 0 events
• Standings data may be limited or unavailable during off-season periods

FAQs

Q: Does this require an API key? A: No. ESPN's public API is freely accessible with no authentication.

Q: How often is the data updated? A: ESPN updates scores in near real-time during games. News and standings reflect the latest available data at scrape time.

Q: Can I get historical game data? A: The scoreboard endpoint shows current or recent games. For historical data, use mode=gameDetail with a specific eventId.

Q: Why is the scoreboard empty? A: If there are no games today (off-season or no scheduled games), the scoreboard will return 0 records. This is expected behavior.

Q: How do I find a team's ID? A: Run mode=teams for the relevant sport/league. The teamId field in each result is the ESPN numeric ID.

Q: Is there a rate limit? A: ESPN's public API is generous but the actor includes automatic retry logic with exponential backoff for 429/5xx responses.