Quickstart · ~5 minutes

Your first API request in under 5 minutes

Six short steps from signup to live sports data in production — no approval queue, no waiting on sales, no credit card to start.

Start Free — Get API Key Try It In Sandbox

01 Create account

02 Get API key

03 First request

04 Handle response

05 Handle errors

06 Go live

See It Happen

Signup to live data, in one terminal

The same steps as below — typed out in real time. No dashboard tour required.

Signup

API Key

Request

Live

zsh — orbistats-quickstart

LIVE

Try It Yourself In Sandbox

Create your account

Free-tier keys are self-serve. Sign up with an email address and your sandbox API key is issued instantly from the dashboard — no credit card, no sales call, no waiting for approval.

No credit cardInstant key

Get your API key

Every account gets a sandbox key and a production key. The sandbox key returns realistic sample data and never counts against your rate limit or monthly quota — build and break things freely before switching to production.

Key type	Data	Counts toward quota
Sandbox	Realistic sample data	No
Production	Live data	Yes, per your plan

Make your first request

Attach your key as a Bearer token and call GET /v1/football/fixtures to pull upcoming Premier League fixtures. Every language below does the same thing.

curl "https://api.orbistats.com/v1/football/fixtures?league=premier-league" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

const res = await fetch(
  "https://api.orbistats.com/v1/football/fixtures?league=premier-league",
  { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.ORBISTATS_KEY}` } }
);
const { data } = await res.json();
console.log(data);

import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.orbistats.com/v1/football/fixtures",
    params={"league": "premier-league"},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {ORBISTATS_KEY}"}
)
print(resp.json()["data"])

$ch = curl_init("https://api.orbistats.com/v1/football/fixtures?league=premier-league");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, ["Authorization: Bearer " . $orbistatsKey]);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true)["data"];

HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
    .uri(URI.create("https://api.orbistats.com/v1/football/fixtures?league=premier-league"))
    .header("Authorization", "Bearer " + orbistatsKey)
    .build();
HttpResponse<String> response = client.send(request, BodyHandlers.ofString());

var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get,
    "https://api.orbistats.com/v1/football/fixtures?league=premier-league");
request.Headers.Add("Authorization", $"Bearer {orbistatsKey}");
var response = await httpClient.SendAsync(request);

req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET",
    "https://api.orbistats.com/v1/football/fixtures?league=premier-league", nil)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+orbistatsKey)
resp, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

require 'net/http'
uri = URI("https://api.orbistats.com/v1/football/fixtures?league=premier-league")
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req["Authorization"] = "Bearer #{orbistats_key}"
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: true) { |http| http.request(req) }

Handle the response

Every endpoint returns the same envelope — read data for the payload and meta.pagination if you need the next page.

{
  "data": [
    {
      "fixture_id": "fx_884213",
      "league": "Premier League",
      "home_team": "Manchester City",
      "away_team": "Arsenal",
      "kickoff": "2026-08-30T15:00:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "meta": { "pagination": { "page": 1, "per_page": 25, "total": 10 } }
}

Add error handling

Check the HTTP status and the errors array before trusting data. On a 429, read the Retry-After header and back off instead of retrying immediately.

if (!res.ok) {
  const body = await res.json();
  if (res.status === 429) {
    const retryAfter = res.headers.get("Retry-After");
    // wait retryAfter seconds, then retry
  }
  throw new Error(body.errors[0].message);
}

Go live

Swap your sandbox key for a production key when you're ready to launch — same endpoints, same response shapes, live data. Run through this checklist first.

Check	Why it matters
Production key set	Sandbox keys silently return sample data forever.
Error handling in place	Production traffic will eventually hit rate limits and transient 5xxs.
Plan covers your volume	Check monthly request quota against expected traffic.
Webhooks or WebSocket wired up	Only needed if you're polling live scores or odds heavily.

What to build next

The same account and key from this quickstart work for every use case below.

Use case

Live Scoreboard

Poll live scores or subscribe over WebSocket for a real-time scoreboard.

Use case

Odds Board

Combine the odds endpoint with webhooks for a live pricing board.

Use case

Fantasy Scoring Engine

Pull player statistics to power a fantasy scoring model.

Use case

Backtesting & Analytics

Use the historical data endpoint to backtest models season by season.

Troubleshooting

Common first-request problems

The issues almost everyone hits on their first call, and the one-line fix for each.

401

Unauthorized

The Authorization header is missing, misspelled, or missing the word Bearer before the key. It should read exactly Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY with no extra quotes.

Empty

Fixtures list comes back empty

Fixtures default to the next 14 days. If the league is in its off-season, widen date_from/date_to or query /results for completed matches instead.

429

Too Many Requests

You've hit the free plan's 100 requests/minute limit. Read the Retry-After header and back off, or move to live scores via WebSocket instead of polling.

404

League or ID not found

Competition slugs are case-sensitive and sport-scoped — confirm the slug against /competitions rather than guessing it.

FAQ

Common questions

What people ask before and during their first integration.

Do I need a credit card to get an Orbistats API key?

No. The free plan is fully self-serve — sign up with an email address and your API key is issued instantly from the dashboard, no credit card and no approval queue.

Why is my first request returning a 401 error?

A 401 almost always means the Authorization header is missing, misspelled, or missing the word Bearer before the key. Double-check the header reads exactly Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY with no extra quotes or line breaks.

Why is my fixtures response empty?

The fixtures endpoint defaults to the next 14 days. If the league you queried is in its off-season, widen the date_from and date_to parameters or switch to the results endpoint for completed matches.

What's the difference between a sandbox key and a production key?

Sandbox keys return realistic sample data and never count against your production rate limit or monthly quota, so you can build and test freely. Production keys return live data and are billed against your plan.

Start free. Upgrade when you need enterprise SLAs.

Self-serve API keys for developers today — dedicated infrastructure, custom feeds and SLAs when you're ready.

Start Free — Get API Key Talk to Sales

Your first API request in under 5 minutes

Signup to live data, in one terminal

Create your account

Get your API key

Make your first request

Handle the response

Add error handling

Go live

What to build next

Live Scoreboard

Odds Board

Fantasy Scoring Engine

Backtesting & Analytics

Common first-request problems

Unauthorized

Fixtures list comes back empty

Too Many Requests

League or ID not found

Common questions

Related pages

Documentation

API Reference

SDKs

Sandbox

Examples

Status

Start free. Upgrade when you need enterprise SLAs.