Score API vs TV API: what each feed is for and when you need both
Operators sometimes buy a TV API expecting scores, or a score API expecting video, and find out after integration that they have the wrong thing. The two feeds solve different problems on a betting page. This post explains what each contains, what it is used for and how to decide whether you need one, the other or both.
What a score API delivers
A score API is structured match data as JSON. For cricket that means the live score, lineups, the current batters and bowler, ball-by-ball events, over summaries, brief commentary and, at the season level, points tables and statistics. It is text, not pictures, and it is what your page uses to render the scorecard next to the odds and to drive things like the fall-of-wicket marker on a fancy market.
- Match API: live score, batting and bowling cards, wickets, extras and the current over
- Ball-by-ball and over summary: striker, non-striker, runs, wicket type, ball speed and commentary per ball
- Schedule API and recent matches: the fixture list and results your event tree hangs off
- Season, season stats and points APIs for tournament pages
- News aggregator for a headlines strip
Because a wrong score is a customer complaint within seconds, the score data passes a three-level manual check on top of the automated feed. It comes in two speeds. The Slow Score API and statistics plan is ₹15,000 per month and suits pages where a few seconds of delay is fine. The Fast Score API and statistics plan is ₹30,000 per month and is the one to use next to in-play fancy markets, where the score has to keep up with the line.
What a TV API delivers
A TV API is a live video stream of the match with an embeddable player. It gives your players the picture: the same broadcast they would otherwise watch on a second screen, inside your app, so they stay on your page while they bet. It covers cricket, soccer and tennis and is delivered as a stream you drop into the layout, not as data your backend reads.
A video stream tells your software nothing. It cannot trigger a suspension, settle a market or fill a scorecard. That is the whole distinction: the score API feeds your code, the TV API feeds your player's eyes. Pricing for the TV API depends on the sports and events you want streamed and is on the pricing page.
Where each one sits on the page
On a typical Indian cricket betting page the layout is: video at the top, scorecard beneath it, then match odds, bookmaker and fancy markets. The video keeps the player on the page; the scorecard gives context for the fancy line they are about to back; the odds take the bet. Remove the video and the player opens another app to watch. Remove the score and the fancy markets become numbers without a story.
Latency: the part operators get wrong
A live stream runs several seconds behind the ground, and so does your odds feed, but not by the same amount. If the video is ahead of the odds, a player sees the wicket before your market suspends and bets on it. If the score is ahead of the video, players see a spoiler before the ball plays out on screen, which they hate. Measure all three delays in the sandbox and, where you can, choose the score speed so the scorecard and the odds move together, with the video a beat behind both.
When you need which
- Sportsbook with fancy markets and no video: Fast Score API, so the scorecard tracks the session lines
- Results, fixtures and tournament pages only: Slow Score API is enough
- You want players to watch in-app: TV API, on top of whichever score plan you run
- Full exchange-style cricket page: both, plus odds and fancy from the same provider so the delays are known
Buying them together
Taking score, TV and odds from one provider is not about a discount, although bundles are cheaper. It is about having one party responsible when the video, the scorecard and the markets disagree, and one WhatsApp chat to raise it in. Every feed is on a fixed monthly rent with unlimited requests, and integration of each is about a week with reference code provided.
Key takeaways
- A score API is structured data for your code; a TV API is a video stream for your players
- Fast score at ₹30,000 per month belongs next to in-play fancy; slow score at ₹15,000 covers fixtures and results
- Video cannot suspend a market or settle a bet; never treat it as a data source
- Measure the delay of video, score and odds together before going live