Odds APIs Explained | How to choose the right sportsbook supplier

Odds APIs and what they mean for your sportsbook 

An odds API is software provided by a supplier that feeds odds probability data into your sportsbook. It delivers pre-match or in-play betting odds to display on your sportsbook website, app and retail terminals. 

But not all odds APIs are built in the same way. Each odds feed provider’s APIs will deliver odds curated in different ways, for example, unique algorithms, also known as trading models. 

Choosing a high quality sportsbook API feed benefits your sportsbook in a number of ways: 

 

How do sportsbook APIs differ? 

When evaluating sportsbook APIs, there are several factors to consider.

1. Latency

Especially for in-play betting, which accounts for over 75% of sports betting turnover in European online sports betting markets, speed is critical. The lowest latency odds feeds provide the lowest bet delays, suspensions times, and fastest conformations for bet settlement. 

The best odds API  feeds are powered by live sports data directly from the sports stadiums, with near zero latency, as opposed to live sports data sourced from TV footage, which is delayed by as much as 10 seconds. The fastest, most reliable odds ultimately generate greater turnover for your sportsbook. 

2. Odds quality 

Odds reflect the probability of an outcome occurring, with a margin for your sportsbook applied. When your odds are accurate, your sportsbook can yield sustainable, long-term profits across all the sports you allow betting on. 

The most accurate odds API feeds rely on trading models to simulate sporting events to predict the most likely outcome, and set accurate odds probabilities. Faster and more accurate odds eliminate the potential for arbitrage from sharp punters and the rest of the market. Risk management involves adjusting odds based on betting liabilities to drive the maximal potential for profits. 

3. Customisation options 

Your sportsbook trading strategy will differ to another sportsbook in a different region. Therefore, every trading team must be able to localise and adjust their betting odds strategy, based on their regional requirements and customer trends. 

In Brazil, football is the most popular betting sport, but in the United States, the NFL accounts for the largest proportion of sports betting handle. Sportsbook operators in Brazil therefore need to offer attractive odds on key Brazilian football leagues, whereas U.S. operators need a strong product for the NFL that includes betting markets like “Next Drive” and Total Player Passing Yards. 

A one-size-fits-all approach to trading will simply stunt your growth, and result in lost revenues. By working with an expert odds supplier like Genius Sports, you can customise odds settings including: 

• Booking specific fixtures – Across thousands of fixtures per day, clients can select the fixtures they want to book odds on. 

• Configuring overrounds, odds ladders & supremacies – Via the Genius Console, traders can adjust pricing based on their individual strategy and even adjust in real-time based on the bets taken on a particular outcome, to limit exposure. 

• Suspension strategy – By selecting “Danger States” like “Goal” or “Dangerous” attack, traders can select when their in-play betting product suspends and remains open, in order to dynamically maximise the number of bets taken during the live game. 

While accessing odds API feeds through an all-in-one sportsbook platform is possible, working directly with a vendor like Genius Sports provides an unmatched level of flexibility and customisation.

4. Market-type offering

The rise of online in-play sports betting has driven the expansion of market-type offerings. Player betting, micro-betting and betbuilders are driving increased betting turnover, with stats-savvy sports bettors seeking deeper engagement. 

The demand for increased betting opportunities has resulted in sportsbooks expanding the range of pre-match and in-play market-types to stay competitive. In the NFL for example, up to 30% of wagers are now bet on player props, according to Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, This trend is evident beyond on the NFL, on sports like football, basketball and tennis, where markets like “Goal to be Scored in the Next Five Minutes Yes / No” and “Next Point Winner” are mainstream.

5. Depth 

Today’s betting schedule offers around-the-clock betting coverage, including at off-peak hours. With funds in their accounts, sports bettors want the ability to bet on markets, including in-play, on a 24/7 basis. 

From core sports like soccer, basketball, tennis and the NFL to table tennis, football, virtual sports and Esports, sportsbooks need a high-volume of always-on coverage, no matter the sport. Much of this betting content is bolstered by live streaming, widgets and scorecentres to keep sports bettors engaged and inform their next decision. 

Why choose odds API feeds from Genius Sports? 

For over 20 years, Genius Sports has enabled sports betting operators to grow profits, engage users and drive operational efficiencies with sports betting solutions, including odds APIs across pre-match and in-play that are trusted by over 300 operators including bet365, Flutter Entertainment, Entain, DraftKings and 888holdings. 

Genius Sports has been at the heart of the growth of live betting, with in-play services powered by official live venue sports data across over 500 sports leagues, including the English Premier League, NFL, English Football League and FIBA. We employ over 500 traders across two continents to deliver the highest-quality odds feeds. 

Precisely engineered trading models

The best trading models needs to combine predictive analysis, historical data and real-time sports data to deliver precise split-second odds probabilities.  

The team at Genius Sports engineers trading models using the latest approaches to machine learning, and smart logic like Monte Carlo simulations, to automate odds pricing in an efficient way across millions of outcomes each day. 

Across every sport, our in-play odds service processes vast amounts of live data to simulate outcomes. 

• Our NFL trading model applies Monte Carlo simulations to model millions of different play-by-play eventualities every few seconds for hyper-accurate live pricing.  

• Our AI-driven football models keeps markets open for near 100% of the live game, including after a penalty is awarded and after VAR checks with unique instant recalculation capabilities. 

• Our automated tennis model leverages real-time data to drive the market’s highest in-play uptimes, including 95% on the Australian Open, with features like Smart Suspend and Key Points Boost which consider current momentum in any match. 

Unparalleled sportsbook coverage  

Through Genius Sports, operators access odds APIs that are powered by ultra-fast live sports data for accurate, low-latency in-play odds. 

Genius Sports holds official data rights to over 400 sports leagues and federations around the world. These agreements give Genius Sports’ network of over 9,000 statisticians authorisation to capture live sports data directly from the press box in the stadium., 

• Recently, we extended our strategic partnership with the NFL (National Football League), including the exclusive right to distribute official sports betting content to sports betting operators. 

• We are the exclusive distributor of English Premier League, EFL (English Football League) and SPFL (Scottish Professional Football League) through our agreement with Football DataCo. 

We also partner with trading specialists to provide the highest quality level of trading coverage across a range of sports: 

• By partnering with GRID and Bayes Esports, our odds APIs deliver the sharpest, most accurate Esports content on the market – powered by official data directly from the game servers, with over 250 markets available on Dota 2, League of Legends and many more. 

• A proven betting turnover driver, we provide over 150,000 high-octane Competitive Gaming events per year across EA Sports FC and NBA 2K content through an agreement with SIS. 

• In partnership with Decimal, we offer a fully-modelled cricket product, across 130 competitions including the IPL, Big Bash and all international Test Matches, T20s and ODIs. 

Proven leaders on market uptime  

Want the fastest, most accurate odds API feeds on the planet, with more uptime and faster bet settlement? Genius Sports does that too. 

• Over 98% in-play market uptime on the Premier League this season, with up to 5 minutes more availability per game than alternative feeds. 

• Over 95% uptime across the Men’s and Women’s 2025 Australian Open. 

• A 4% improvement in NFL market uptimes in 2024, driven by model enhancements. 

• Over 92% market uptime across FIBA competitions in 2024. 

Meanwhile: 

• Multi-territory European operator Admiral achieved a 14% margin using our high-uptime Premier League odds feed. 

• Tipico reported over 4 extra minutes of uptime per football fixture and 100 extra seconds per basketball fixture with our odds feeds. 

• Brazilian operator Betsul, secured 8% trading margins across football content with our odds feed. 

Retain control of your odds strategy 

Genius Sports’s odds APIs give operators full control over their strategy, from suspension settings to odds ladders, fixture selection and overrounds on a fixture and market-type level. Traders can simply login to configure their odds strategy with the Genius Console. 

The growth of betbuilder 

As part of its odds service, Genius Sports also provides customers with MultiBet, a complete betbuilder solution including pre-match and in-play coverage. 

According to Flutter, 65% of UK sports bettor’s SGP selections include player markets, while US sportsbook BetRivers reports that 20% of all NFL bets are now SGPs. 

Using the same trading technology as our score in-play service, MultiBet allows users to instantly create a same-game accumulator bet, by combining a wide a range of bet selections into a single bet. The automated solution enables all contigencies, and at the 2022 FIFA World delivered over 15% average margin. 

MultiBet is available for pre-match and in-play, via the same integration as our odds API service. 

 

Like what you hear? Get in touch to demo our odds APIs.