# BBC Sport Scraper (`rl1987/bbcsport-api-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes BBC Sport: fixtures, results & live scores plus news for any sport, team or competition, and topic search — via the reversed BBC Sport mobile API. No account. Read-only.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/rl1987/bbcsport-api-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [R.L.](https://apify.com/rl1987) (community)
- **Categories:**
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event + usage

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## BBC Sport Scraper – Fixtures, Results, Live Scores & News ⚽🏏🎾

Scrape **BBC Sport** as clean, structured data — **fixtures, results and live scores** plus the
latest **news** for any sport, team or competition, and **topic search**. It talks directly to the
BBC Sport mobile API (reversed from the BBC Sport Android app), so there's **no account, no login,
and no API key** — pick a topic and run.

Great for building sports datasets, score/fixture trackers, news aggregators and fan apps.

### What you can scrape

- ⚽ **Fixtures & results** — per sport/competition/team: status (pre-event / live / result),
  competition, home & away teams, score, kick-off time (ISO-8601 UTC), team crests and the match/
  live-page URL.
- 📰 **News** — the topic's story promos: headline, article URL and image.
- 🔎 **Topic search** — find a sport, team or competition by keyword (name, synopsis, topic id).
- 🗂️ **Sports catalogue (FREE)** — the full list of sports/topics with their slugs, to discover
  what to scrape. This mode is **free** — no per-row charge.

### Key features

| Feature | Details |
|--------|---------|
| **Data source** | BBC Sport mobile API — the same feed the BBC Sport app uses (international edition) |
| **Auth** | **None** — no account, no cookies, no API key |
| **Coverage** | Football, cricket, rugby, F1, tennis, golf, athletics, boxing and more |
| **Export** | JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, or via the Apify API |

### Input

Scrape a topic's fixtures & news:

```json
{ "mode": "topic", "topic": "football", "include": "both", "maxItems": 100 }
```

Fixtures/results only for a competition:

```json
{ "mode": "topic", "topic": "football/premier-league", "include": "matches" }
```

Find a topic, or list the whole catalogue (free):

```json
{ "mode": "search", "searchTerm": "arsenal" }
```

```json
{ "mode": "sports" }
```

| Field | Notes |
|-------|-------|
| `mode` | `topic` (default), `search`, or `sports` (free catalogue) |
| `topic` | Topic mode: a slug (`football`, `cricket`, `football/premier-league`), path, or bbc.com/sport URL |
| `include` | Topic mode: `both` (default), `matches`, or `news` |
| `searchTerm` | Search mode: a keyword, e.g. `arsenal`, `wimbledon` |
| `maxItems` | Cap rows (`0` = all) |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Optional — off by default (not needed) |

### Output

**Match** row (fixture / live / result):

```json
{
  "type": "match", "topic": "Football",
  "status": "PRE_EVENT", "competition": "Premier League",
  "home": "Ipswich", "away": "Liverpool",
  "home_score": null, "away_score": null,
  "kickoff": "2026-09-04T19:00:00.000Z",
  "url": "https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/live/c6vgy8x2z08et"
}
```

**Story** row (news):

```json
{ "type": "story", "topic": "Football", "title": "Deadline day reaction…",
  "url": "https://www.bbc.com/sport/…", "image": "https://…" }
```

### Notes on the data

- **Fixtures live on the hub/competition pages.** A sport hub (e.g. `football`) returns the current
  fixtures/results plus news; some competition pages return mostly news — use the free `sports`
  catalogue or `search` to find the right topic for scores.
- **Read-only public content.** Scores, fixtures, news metadata — not video/audio streams (those
  are geo-restricted and out of scope).

### Pricing

Pay-per-event, so you only pay for the data you pull:

- **$0.001 per match** (fixture/result)
- $0.0005 per news story
- $0.0005 per topic search result
- **Sports catalogue (`mode: sports`) is free** — no per-row charge

### FAQ

**Do I need a BBC account or API key?** No — the actor uses BBC Sport's public mobile content feeds.

**Which sports are covered?** All of them — football, cricket, rugby, F1, tennis, golf, athletics,
boxing and more. Use the free `sports` mode to list every topic.

**Can I get video/live streams?** No. This returns scores, fixtures and news metadata only; media
is geo-restricted and out of scope.

### Disclaimer

This is an unofficial tool and is **not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the BBC**. It
returns read-only public content. All trademarks belong to their respective owners; use the scraped
data responsibly and in line with applicable terms and laws.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

'Topic' scrapes a sport/team/competition's fixtures & news (optionally with full article text). 'Article' scrapes full article bodies from URLs. 'Search topics' finds a topic by keyword. 'Sports catalogue (free)' lists all topics — no per-row charge.

## `topic` (type: `string`):

TOPIC MODE. A sport, competition or team — a BBC Sport slug (e.g. `football`, `cricket`, `tennis`, `formula1`, `football/premier-league`), a path (`/sport/football`), or a full bbc.com/sport URL. Run the free Sports catalogue to discover valid values.

## `include` (type: `string`):

TOPIC MODE. Which content to return from the topic page.

## `includeContent` (type: `boolean`):

TOPIC MODE. Fetch the full body (headline, paragraphs, word count) for each news story that is an article. Billed separately per article.

## `articleUrls` (type: `array`):

ARTICLE MODE. One or more BBC Sport article URLs (e.g. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/xxxx) to scrape the full body from.

## `contentConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many article bodies to fetch in parallel (1–16) when includeContent is on or in article mode.

## `searchTerm` (type: `string`):

SEARCH MODE. A keyword to find BBC Sport topics, e.g. `arsenal`, `wimbledon`, `lewis hamilton`.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Cap the number of rows returned (0 = all).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional — the BBC Sport content endpoints need no proxy. Enable only if you want IP rotation at scale.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "topic",
  "topic": "football",
  "include": "both",
  "includeContent": false,
  "articleUrls": [],
  "contentConcurrency": 8,
  "maxItems": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "topic": "football",
    "searchTerm": "",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("rl1987/bbcsport-api-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "topic": "football",
    "searchTerm": "",
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("rl1987/bbcsport-api-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "topic": "football",
  "searchTerm": "",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call rl1987/bbcsport-api-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,rl1987/bbcsport-api-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/YOyboDaCe0SuKYA8a/builds/nemItg6ypDXyytEBJ/openapi.json