Tracking Football Odds Movement in Python — the Full Tick History, Not Just a Snapshot
Most football data APIs will tell you what the odds are right now . A few keep yesterday around. Almost none will show you the full journey — every price change from the moment a bookmaker opened the line to the final whistle. That journey is where the interesting information lives. A 1X2 price drifting from 2.10 to 1.85 over three days tells you which way the money went. A corner line jumping…
The article explains how to track the full journey of football odds prices using Python, rather than just a single snapshot. It highlights that most data APIs provide only the current odds and limited historical data, but the full movement of prices can reveal valuable insights. For example, a shift in 1X2 prices over several days indicates the direction of betting activity, while sudden changes in corner-line odds can show how markets reacted to team lineups.
The tutorial uses the 5DollarFootballAPI, which provides complete tick history for odds since 2014, including corner and card lines. To set up, you need to install the required package, obtain an API key, and install it. The API allows access to free features like fixtures, live scores, and standings, as well as paid options for current odds and tick history.
The tutorial provides Python code to fetch today's matches, current odds, and a complete history of odds changes. Each tick in the history includes the price, running score, match minute, and a timestamp. Odds history is paginated, so the `iter_all` function is used to retrieve all ticks.
Finally, the tutorial demonstrates how to analyze pre-match moves to determine which side the market moved against before kickoff. By comparing the opening and closing prices of each outcome (home, draw, away), you can calculate the percentage move and indicate whether the market backed or drifted against each option.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
