# ESPN Scores Scraper - NFL NBA MLB NHL Soccer Live Scores (`ninhothedev/espn-scores-scraper`) Actor

$2/1K 🔥 Fast ESPN scores scraper! Live & final scores across NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL & soccer — teams, status & venue. No key. JSON, CSV, Excel or API in seconds. Pull games for scores apps, betting & analytics ⚡

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ninhothedev/espn-scores-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ninhothedev](https://apify.com/ninhothedev) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Developer tools, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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

## ESPN Sports Scores Scraper 🏈🏀⚽🏒⚾

Scrape **live, upcoming and final game scores** from ESPN across the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and world soccer — **no API key, no login, no browser**. This actor calls ESPN's public site API directly, so it is fast, cheap and datacenter-proxy friendly.

For every game you get the teams, scores, records, status (scheduled / in-progress / final), venue and city — perfect for live-score apps, sports dashboards, betting and analytics pipelines, and fan sites.

> Only ~**$0.50 per 1,000 games** on top of platform usage. Pay for what you scrape.

### ✨ Features

- ⚡ **Fast & keyless** — hits ESPN's hidden JSON API, no scraping of HTML.
- 🌍 **Multi-league** — NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, Premier League, La Liga, college hoops and more, in one run.
- 🟢 **Live + final + upcoming** — game state, score and status detail for any matchup.
- 📅 **Any date** — fetch today's slate or any historical/future date with `YYYYMMDD`.
- 🧱 **Flat, clean schema** — one dataset item per game, every field ready for Sheets/CSV/DB.
- 💸 **Cheap** — datacenter-friendly, minimal compute.

### 🚀 Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `mode` | select | What to scrape. Currently `scores` (game scoreboard). |
| `leagues` | array | Leagues to scrape, each as `sport/league`. Prefill: `["football/nfl","basketball/nba","soccer/eng.1"]`. |
| `date` | string | Optional `YYYYMMDD` (e.g. `20260821`). Empty = today. |
| `maxItems` | integer | Max games to return (default 200, max 2000). |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "mode": "scores",
  "leagues": ["football/nfl", "basketball/nba", "soccer/eng.1"],
  "date": "",
  "maxItems": 200
}
```

### 🏆 Supported leagues

Pass any ESPN `sport/league` pair, including:

| League | Code |
|--------|------|
| NFL | `football/nfl` |
| NCAA Football | `football/college-football` |
| NBA | `basketball/nba` |
| WNBA | `basketball/wnba` |
| NCAA Men's Basketball | `basketball/mens-college-basketball` |
| MLB | `baseball/mlb` |
| NHL | `hockey/nhl` |
| Premier League | `soccer/eng.1` |
| MLS | `soccer/usa.1` |
| La Liga | `soccer/esp.1` |
| Serie A | `soccer/ita.1` |
| Bundesliga | `soccer/ger.1` |
| UEFA Champions League | `soccer/uefa.champions` |

### 📤 Output

One item per game:

```json
{
  "league": "soccer/eng.1",
  "event_id": "401879301",
  "name": "Coventry City at Arsenal",
  "short_name": "COV @ ARS",
  "date": "2026-08-21T19:00:00+00:00",
  "state": "pre",
  "completed": false,
  "status_detail": "Fri, August 21st at 3:00 PM EDT",
  "home_team": "Arsenal",
  "home_abbr": "ARS",
  "home_score": 0,
  "home_record": "0-0-0",
  "away_team": "Coventry City",
  "away_abbr": "COV",
  "away_score": 0,
  "away_record": "0-0-0",
  "venue": "Emirates Stadium",
  "city": "London",
  "source": "espn",
  "scraped_at": "2026-07-20T12:00:00+00:00"
}
```

### 💡 Use cases

- **Sports data** — power feeds and databases with structured game results.
- **Live scores apps** — poll during game days for real-time score updates.
- **Betting & analytics** — combine scores, records and status for models.
- **Fan sites** — embed schedules, results and standings context.

### 📈 Pricing

Roughly **$0.50 per 1,000 games** returned, plus Apify platform usage. A typical daily multi-league run costs a few cents.

### 🔗 Related actors

- [ESPN Teams Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/espn-teams-scraper)
- [ESPN News Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/espn-news-scraper)
- [Sports Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/sports-scraper)
- [OpenSky Flights Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/opensky-flights-scraper)

### ⚠️ Disclaimer

This actor collects publicly available data from ESPN for informational purposes. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by ESPN. Respect ESPN's terms and applicable laws when using the data.

***

**Keywords:** ESPN scraper, sports scores API, live scores, NFL scores, NBA scores, MLB scores, NHL scores, soccer scores, Premier League scores, scoreboard API, sports data scraper, game results, no API key.

# Actor input Schema

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

What to scrape. 'scores' fetches the scoreboard (live, upcoming and final games) for each league you list.

## `leagues` (type: `array`):

List of leagues to scrape, each as 'sport/league'. Examples: football/nfl, basketball/nba, baseball/mlb, hockey/nhl, soccer/eng.1 (Premier League), soccer/usa.1 (MLS), soccer/esp.1 (La Liga), basketball/mens-college-basketball.

## `date` (type: `string`):

Optional date in YYYYMMDD format (e.g. 20260821). Leave empty to fetch games for today.

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

Maximum number of games (dataset items) to return across all leagues.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "scores",
  "leagues": [
    "football/nfl",
    "basketball/nba",
    "soccer/eng.1"
  ],
  "maxItems": 200
}
```

# 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 = {
    "leagues": [
        "football/nfl",
        "basketball/nba",
        "soccer/eng.1"
    ],
    "maxItems": 200
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ninhothedev/espn-scores-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 = {
    "leagues": [
        "football/nfl",
        "basketball/nba",
        "soccer/eng.1",
    ],
    "maxItems": 200,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ninhothedev/espn-scores-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "leagues": [
    "football/nfl",
    "basketball/nba",
    "soccer/eng.1"
  ],
  "maxItems": 200
}' |
apify call ninhothedev/espn-scores-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=ninhothedev/espn-scores-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/LoEFRAigWchnRhgF0/builds/3pS682783L06rvFVM/openapi.json