We Tried Every Odds API for UK Football. Then We Built Our Own.
Before we built UKOddsApi, we spent over a year trying to find an odds API that actually worked for UK football.
We needed something simple. An API that returned live odds from UK bookmakers — Bet365, Sky Bet, Paddy Power, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral, Betfred — across all football markets, including player props like anytime goalscorer, shots on target, and player cards. We wanted clean JSON responses, fair pricing, and documentation that didn't require a PhD to understand.
We couldn't find it. So we built it.
This article is the comparison we wish existed when we started. We've used, tested, emailed, and in some cases paid for every major odds API on the market. Below is what we found — the good, the bad, and the surprisingly expensive.
The problem with existing odds APIs
The UK is the world's largest regulated online betting market. Over £1.3 billion in gross gambling yield comes from football betting alone. Millions of people use UK bookmakers every week. Developers building betting tools, tipster platforms, odds comparison sites, and arbitrage scanners for this market need reliable odds data from UK bookmakers.
But here's what we discovered: most odds APIs aren't built for the UK market. They're built for the US market and happen to include a few UK bookmakers as an afterthought. Or they're built for global coverage and spread themselves so thin that UK depth suffers. Or they charge enterprise prices that put them out of reach for indie developers and small businesses.
We spoke to providers directly. We signed up for free tiers. We read every pricing page and terms of service. Here's what we found.
The Odds API — popular but US-focused
The Odds API (the-odds-api.com) is probably the most well-known odds API. It pulls over 250,000 monthly visitors to its website. It has a free tier with 500 credits per month and paid plans from $30 to $249. On paper, it looks great.
In practice, it has three problems for UK developers.
The credit system is confusing. The Odds API doesn't charge per request. It charges per "credit," and the cost of each request depends on how many markets and regions you include. The formula is: cost = number of markets × number of regions. So a single API call pulling three markets across two regions burns six credits, not one. The $30 plan includes 20,000 credits per month. That sounds like a lot until you realise a developer polling Premier League odds every few minutes across multiple markets can burn through 20,000 credits in two or three days. Historical odds carry an even higher multiplier — roughly ten times the cost of live odds.
UK bookmaker coverage is thin. The Odds API lists around 40 bookmakers, but the majority are US-focused — DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars. For UK bookmakers, you might find Bet365 and a handful of others. Sky Bet, Paddy Power, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral, Betfred, BetVictor, BoyleSports — the bookmakers that UK bettors actually use — are mostly absent or have inconsistent coverage.
Player props are limited to US sports. The Odds API's documentation explicitly states that player prop markets are "mainly limited to US sports." If you're building a tool that compares goalscorer odds or shots on target across UK bookmakers, The Odds API can't help you.
The Odds API is a solid product for US sports betting. For UK football, it falls short on the data that matters most.
Odds-API.io — UK pricing, global focus
Odds-API.io is a newer competitor that prices in GBP — a welcome change from the USD-only world. Their plans run from £99 to £229 per month, and they claim coverage of "265+ bookmakers."
We signed up and tested it. We also emailed their team directly to ask about UK coverage. What we found was revealing.
Most UK bookmakers are missing or inactive. When we opened their bookmaker selection dashboard, the picture became clear. The "Popular" bookmakers listed at the top were Bet365, DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM — US books. Scrolling through the full list, we found that BetVictor was marked "Inactive." BoyleSports was marked "Inactive." Betano UK was "Inactive." We couldn't find Sky Bet, Paddy Power, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral, or Betfred anywhere in the list. The "265+ bookmakers" number includes hundreds of international books — Betano CZ, Betano DE, Betano MX, Bwin ES, Bwin FR, Bwin IT — but almost none of the UK high street brands.
Player props are available for one UK bookmaker. We emailed Odds-API.io directly and asked which UK bookmakers had player prop coverage. Their response: "From the books you listed, we currently only have player props available for Bet365." One bookmaker. Out of the 25+ UK bookmakers that offer player prop markets.
The pricing model gates by bookmaker count. Odds-API.io charges £99 for 5 bookmakers, £179 for 10, and £229 for 15. If only 3-5 UK bookmakers are actually active in their system, even the £229 Pro plan doesn't give you meaningful UK coverage. And if you want WebSocket for real-time odds updates, that's a +100% surcharge on top of your plan — so the Growth plan with WebSocket costs £358 per month.
Odds-API.io has clean documentation and a nice dashboard. But for UK football specifically, the bookmaker coverage doesn't match the headline number.
Sportmonks — football-first, but odds are an expensive add-on
Sportmonks is well known in the football data world. They've been around for years and have over 30,000 users. Their football statistics API is excellent — fixtures, lineups, standings, player stats.
But odds are not part of their core product. They're a paid add-on.
The real cost is higher than it looks. Sportmonks' Premium Odds Feed, powered by TxOdds, comes in two tiers: Lite at €129 per month (10+ bookmakers, 42 markets) and Pro at €199 per month (120+ bookmakers, 42 markets). But these are add-ons — you need a base Sportmonks Football API plan first, starting at €29 per month. So the real cost for odds is €158 to €448 per month, depending on which base plan and odds tier you choose.
Only 42 markets, and no player props. This is the biggest limitation. Sportmonks offers 42 betting markets — 1X2, Both Teams to Score, Over/Under, Asian Handicap, Correct Score, and similar team-level markets. There are no player prop markets at all. No anytime goalscorer. No player shots. No player cards. No player assists. For developers building modern betting tools, this is a dealbreaker. The fastest-growing segment of UK football betting is player props, and Sportmonks doesn't carry them.
Data freshness is slow. Sportmonks' odds data refreshes on a polling cycle that documentation variously describes as 1-minute to 10-minute intervals. There's no WebSocket support. For odds comparison and content sites, this is fine. For arbitrage detection or live trading tools, it's too slow.
We used Sportmonks ourselves for nearly four years on other projects, paying around £400 per month on their enterprise plan. The statistics data is excellent. The odds data is bolted on, limited, and expensive for what you get.
BetsAPI — powerful but shockingly expensive
BetsAPI takes a different approach: they sell individual bookmaker data feeds as separate packages. Want Bet365 odds? That's one package. Want Betfair? That's another package. Want Betway? Another package.
The per-bookmaker cost adds up fast. Based on our research and conversations with their team, individual bookmaker packages run approximately $100-150 each per month. If you want comprehensive UK coverage — say, 10 major UK bookmakers — you're looking at $1,000 to $1,500 per month. For 25 bookmakers, that's potentially $2,500 to $3,750 per month.
The pricing page is deliberately opaque. BetsAPI's pricing page returns a 403 error to automated access, and their documentation steers you toward contacting sales. Transparent self-serve pricing doesn't exist. For enterprise buyers with large budgets, this might be fine. For indie developers and small businesses, it's a barrier.
BetsAPI provides solid data quality and good coverage for the bookmakers you purchase. But the per-bookmaker model means UK-wide coverage is priced at a level that only well-funded companies can afford.
TxOdds / 55tech — wholesale pricing, wholesale cost
TxOdds (sold through partners like 55tech) is an enterprise-grade odds feed provider. This is the same data source that powers Sportmonks' Premium Odds Feed.
We contacted 55tech directly to ask about pricing. Their response: €750 per month for unlimited requests across 30 bookmakers, with a dedicated server and a WhatsApp support group with their API experts.
That's a serious offering — dedicated infrastructure, real-time data, expert support. But €750 per month puts it firmly in enterprise territory. There's no self-serve signup, no free tier, no way to test before committing to a sales call and a monthly bill larger than most indie developers' entire software budget.
For companies that need wholesale odds data and can justify the cost, TxOdds/55tech is a legitimate option. For everyone else, it's out of reach.
SportsGameOdds — US-centric with object-based billing
SportsGameOdds prices from $99 to $299 per month using an "objects" billing model where each response item counts as one object. Their bookmaker coverage leans heavily US — Pinnacle and Bet365 only unlock at the $299 Pro tier, and most UK high street bookmakers aren't available.
For US sports betting developers, it's a reasonable choice. For UK football, it's not designed for the job.
OpticOdds and OddsJam — enterprise pricing, sales calls required
OpticOdds and OddsJam sit at the top end of the market. Both require sales conversations to get pricing, and both reportedly start at $500 to $1,000+ per month. OddsJam was acquired by Gambling.com Group for $160 million in 2024, which gives you a sense of the scale they operate at.
These are enterprise products for enterprise buyers. They're excellent for companies with six-figure data budgets. They're inaccessible for the vast majority of developers building UK football tools.
The gap we found
After testing and speaking with every major provider, the gap was clear:
No API offered all UK bookmakers, all football markets (including player props), betting exchange data, and an arbitrage endpoint — at a price point accessible to indie developers and small businesses.
You could get some UK bookmakers from The Odds API for $30, but without player props or proper UK coverage. You could get odds from Sportmonks for €158+, but with only 42 markets and no player props. You could get comprehensive single-bookmaker data from BetsAPI for $150 per bookmaker, but covering all UK bookmakers would cost thousands. You could get a wholesale feed from 55tech for €750, but with no self-serve option and no developer tools.
Nobody was solving the specific problem of "I need odds from every UK bookmaker, across every market, including player props, through a clean API, at a reasonable price."
Why we built UKOddsApi
UKOddsApi was built to fill that gap. Our data infrastructure covers 25+ UK bookmakers and exchanges — every major UK high street brand — across 100+ betting markets including full player and team prop coverage.
Here's what the pricing looks like compared to getting equivalent data from competitors:
To get all 25+ UK bookmakers from BetsAPI: roughly $2,500-3,750 per month (buying each bookmaker individually). UKOddsApi Starter gives you 10 UK bookmakers for £129 per month. Pro gives you all 25+ for £299.
To get odds + player props from Sportmonks: €158-448 per month, and you still don't get player props because they don't offer them. UKOddsApi Pro includes full player props across every UK bookmaker for £299.
To get a wholesale feed from 55tech/TxOdds: €750 per month with no self-serve option. UKOddsApi Scale gives you comparable UK coverage plus an arbitrage endpoint, SDKs, and documentation for £549.
To get 5 UK bookmakers (mostly inactive) from Odds-API.io: £99 per month. UKOddsApi Starter gives you 10 fully active UK bookmakers for £129 — including Bet365, Sky Bet, Paddy Power, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral, Betfred, BetVictor, 888sport, and Betfair Exchange.
The full comparison table
| Feature | UKOddsApi | The Odds API | Odds-API.io | Sportmonks | BetsAPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | £129/mo | $30/mo | £99/mo | €158/mo (base + odds add-on) | ~$150/mo (one bookie) |
| Full UK coverage | £299/mo | Not available | Not available (most UK books inactive) | €448/mo (no props) | ~$2,500+/mo |
| Active UK bookmakers | 25+ | 3-5 | 3-5 active | 12+ (via TxOdds) | Per purchase |
| Bet365 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ ($150+) |
| Sky Bet | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Paddy Power | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| William Hill | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Ladbrokes | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Coral | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Betfred | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| BetVictor | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ (Inactive) | ✅ | ❌ |
| BoyleSports | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ (Inactive) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Betting markets | 100+ | Limited | Standard | 42 | Varies |
| Player props | ✅ All UK bookmakers | US sports only | Bet365 only | ❌ None | Limited |
| Team props | ✅ Corners, cards, bookings | Limited | Limited | Limited | Limited |
| Exchanges | Betfair + Matchbook + Smarkets | Betfair only | Betfair | ❌ | Betfair (separate) |
| Arbitrage endpoint | ✅ Built-in | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Pricing model | Flat per-hour | Credits (markets × regions) | Per-bookmaker slots | Per-entity + add-ons | Per-bookmaker package |
| Data freshness | 1-5 seconds | 40-60 seconds | ~1 second | 1-2 minutes | 1-5 seconds |
| WebSocket | ✅ (Scale) | ❌ | ✅ (+100% surcharge) | ❌ | ❌ |
| Billing currency | GBP | USD | GBP | EUR | USD |
| Self-serve signup | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ (sales contact) |
What developers are building with UKOddsApi
Since launch, developers and businesses have built a range of products on UKOddsApi. Here are a few examples of what's possible:
One team built a football prediction and tips platform that combines statistical analysis with live UK bookmaker odds. It helps thousands of users find value bets across the Premier League and Championship. The platform generates consistent monthly revenue by helping bettors make more informed decisions using odds data from all major UK bookmakers.
Another developer built an arbitrage detection tool that scans odds across every UK bookmaker in real time. It identifies guaranteed-profit opportunities where bookmakers disagree on pricing — something that requires coverage of 25+ bookmakers to find enough opportunities. The tool serves a dedicated community of matched bettors and arbitrage bettors in the UK.
A third team created an AI-powered football prediction engine that uses machine learning models trained on historical odds data and live bookmaker pricing. By having access to odds from every UK bookmaker, the model can identify patterns in how different bookmakers price markets differently.
A fourth developer built a betting analytics platform that tracks odds movement, bookmaker margins, and closing line value across the UK market. The platform helps serious bettors understand whether their betting strategy is generating long-term edge.
These are real products generating real revenue — built by small teams and solo developers who needed comprehensive UK odds data at a price point that made sense.
Our pricing
We designed UKOddsApi's pricing around three principles:
No credit maths. Every plan uses flat requests per hour. You know exactly how many API calls you can make. There's no multiplier based on markets or regions. If your plan allows 5,000 requests per hour, every request costs the same whether you're pulling one market or ten.
No surprise billing. Rate limits are hard caps. When you hit your limit, you get a clean 429 response with a Retry-After header. We never automatically charge you for going over. If you need more capacity, you upgrade your plan on your own terms.
All UK bookmakers on every paid plan. We don't gate individual bookmakers behind higher tiers. The difference between plans is the number of bookmakers (10 on Starter, all 25+ on Pro and Scale), market depth (core markets vs full player props), and infrastructure features (data freshness, WebSocket, rate limits).
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (20% off) | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 | — | 2 bookmakers, 100 req/day, core markets only. For testing. |
| Starter | £129 | £103/mo | 10 UK bookmakers + Betfair, 30+ core markets, 1,000 req/hr |
| Pro ⭐ | £299 | £239/mo | All 25+ bookmakers + exchanges, 100+ markets with full player and team props, 5,000 req/hr |
| Scale | £549 | £439/mo | Everything in Pro + arbitrage endpoint, WebSocket, 20,000 req/hr, sub-second data |
The bottom line
If you're building betting tools for the US market, The Odds API is a good choice. If you need football statistics (not odds), Sportmonks is excellent. If you have an enterprise budget and need a single bookmaker's deep data, BetsAPI works.
But if you're building for the UK football betting market — and you need comprehensive bookmaker coverage, player props, exchange data, and fair pricing — that's what UKOddsApi was built for.
We built it because we needed it ourselves. Now it's available for every developer who's hit the same wall we did.
UKOddsApi provides live odds from 25+ UK bookmakers across 100+ football markets, including player and team props. Free account available for testing. Get started at ukoddsapi.com