General FAQs

Q. What sports are available in the Sport API?

A. A list of sports currently available in the API can be found on the Coverage page.

In October 2017, further sports will be added to the API.



##Q. Why can I only see a small number of sports?

A. The Sport API is built around an entitlement model which means when we provide your API key we activate certain sports against it (e.g. Golf, Tennis but not Snooker). When you make a request to the Sport Collection endpoint you will only ever see the sports that you're entitled to access.

If you'd like to expand these services please contact the PA Commercial team.



##Q. How do I paginate through collections?

A. Please refer to the Pagination section of this documentation.



##Q. How do I use partial response to customise the JSON fields that are returned?

A. Please refer to the Partial Response section of this documentation.



##Q. My query is returning an error, how do I know what's wrong?

A. Please refer to the Response Codes section of this documentation.

##Q. Can you replay data for any event for testing purposes?

A. We don't currently have replay functionality for testing. However, we can try to accommodate such requests where possible. Contact your service manager at PA to discuss.

##Q. How can I format data for different timezones?

A. All times in the API are in UTC:

"updated": "2017-05-14T12:49:33Z"

A timezone offset can be applied against this to display data in local timezones.

##Q. Do Live Tables have more than points? ie F A WDL?

A. Only points are exposed in live tables.

##Q. As a client of the existing XML service, do you have any identifiers or mapping between the XML and Sport API?

A. There are no identifiers in the Sport API relating to the legacy XML output

##Q. Why doesn't the API expose Venue names as they are in the legacy service?

A. We do not acknowledge commercial agreements/sponsorships in the names of venues.

##Q. Where are withdrawns/retirements defined?

A. Withdrawals (W.O.) are denoted within the event. As the event is created with the expectation that the participant is going to play, should they not start the event and withdraw, the event is still valid and the withdrawal is added to the metadata. The withdrawing participant’s opponent wins and this is reflected in the result.

##Q. Where do you define the fixture status?

A. Fixture statuses are exposed within the event status. For a list of all statuses for sports in the API, see Common Properties - Status

##Q. There's no start date/time for an event, how is this represented?

A. We use a 'To be decided' property for live competitions in Rugby Union and Rugby League. There are some exceptions in other sports like Handball and Ice Hockey where we use it only for the biggest competitions - World and European Championships (both male and female in Handball) and the World Championship in Ice Hockey, which have detailed coverage.

We present StartTimeToBeDecided “yes” when the KO date is known but the KO time of the event is still uncertain.

"start-time-to-be-decided": {
        "code": "event:start-time-to-be-decided",
        "name": "Start Time To Be Decided",
        "value": "yes"

When both KO date and KO time are unknown we have StartDateTimeToBeDecided = yes

"start-date-time-to-be-decided": {
        "code": "event:start-date-time-to-be-decided",
        "name": "Start Date Time To Be Decided",
        "value": "yes"

When we know the KO date and time of the event, this property isn’t used.