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FB

FBref

Comprehensive free football statistics powered by StatsBomb

7.2 / 10GoodVerified
Football
Starting PriceFree
Free TierYes
Live DataNo
WebSocketNo
Commercial UseNo
Visit WebsiteView Documentation

Overview

FBref, operated by Sports Reference LLC, provides free comprehensive football statistics for leagues, clubs, and players worldwide. Powered by StatsBomb data, FBref offers advanced metrics including xG, progressive passes, pressure events, and detailed match reports. While primarily a website, its data is accessible for programmatic use and is a favorite among football analysts, researchers, and data scientists.

Quick answer: FBref provides comprehensive free football statistics powered by StatsBomb — xG, advanced metrics, historical seasons. It has no API and scraping violates its terms; use a licensed feed for production.

Pros

  • Free StatsBomb-powered advanced metrics
  • Extensive historical data
  • Wide league coverage
  • Detailed player and team stats
  • No registration required

Cons

  • No official API (HTML scraping required)
  • No commercial use allowed
  • No real-time or live data
  • Rate limiting may block aggressive scraping
  • No WebSocket or streaming

Best For

Football analytics researchAcademic projectsData visualizationPersonal statistics dashboards

Not Ideal For

Commercial applicationsLive score appsBetting platformsProduction real-time systems

Specifications

REST APINo
GraphQLNo
WebSocketNo
WebhooksNo
OpenAPI SpecNo
Player StatsYes
Team StatsYes
Odds DataNo
Historical DataVaries by league; 2017+ for advanced StatsBomb metrics, 1980s+ for basic stats
Request LimitsNo official limits; fair use expected, scraping discouraged
Commercial UseNo
RedistributionNo
White LabelNo

SDKs

PythonR

Leagues

Premier LeagueLa LigaBundesligaSerie ALigue 1MLSChampions LeagueEuropa League+2
Last verified: 2026-08-15

Our Verdict

7.2/ 10

FBref is a solid choice for football analytics research and academic projects, with an overall score of 7.2/10. While it performs well in most areas, consider no official api (html scraping required) when making your decision.

Editorial: 7.8/10Benchmark: 6.5/10How we score →
Data verified: 2026-08-15
✓ Pricing checked✓ Coverage checked✓ Docs checked

Coverage

Sports Supported

Football
Live DataNo
Historical DataVaries by league; 2017+ for advanced StatsBomb metrics, 1980s+ for basic stats
Player StatsYes
Team StatsYes
Odds DataNo

Leagues & Competitions

Premier LeagueLa LigaBundesligaSerie ALigue 1MLSChampions LeagueEuropa LeagueBrasileiraoEredivisie

10 leagues and competitions covered

Developer Experience

API Paradigms

✗REST
✗GraphQL
✗WebSocket
✗Webhooks

SDKs

PythonR

Documentation

View Documentation →

Commercial Terms

✗Commercial use
✗Redistribution
✗White-label
Rate limit: No official limits; fair use expected, scraping discouraged

Pricing Plans

Free

Free

Unlimited (fair use)

  • All stats pages
  • Advanced metrics
  • Historical data
  • No API key required

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Top Lists & Rankings

Best Sports APIs 2026 →Best Free Sports APIs →Best Fantasy Sports APIs →All Best Lists →

Developer Guides

Build a Live Score App →Caching Sports Data →Rate Limit Handling →Error Handling & Retry →All Developer Guides →

Building something commercial?

FBref is fine for hobby projects and prototypes. For production apps, compare licensed sports data APIs with real SLAs: