Why doesn't boxrec offer an API?

[SRCP]

There's no API where you can get boxer data. BoxRec's got all the data, so why not make an API available? Even companies like Marvel have APIs that are free.

Would really enjoy making web apps based on boxing data. You could set rules for crediting you.

[fraac]

I would pay $100/year for the amount I need, which is about 40 pages a day. I can keep fixing bugs with scrapers but I would rather pay for an API and not have to think about it again.

[Duaner]

Boxrec not offering an API is the stupidest thing ever. Every websites that have little bit of data have an API to make it available. I would pay no bother 10$/month to have data from boxrec.

Imagine that 500 people all around the world are paying that, it's 5,000$ every month. And you can expect more people if the API is working well. 5,000 * 12 = 60,000$ per year for people having trouble with multiplication.

Trying to understand why is not been already made since years...

[Controversial]

I'm not up on this type of stuff so what would an API allow people to do? If it means the ability to copy records and create them elsewhere I guess that's what they wouldn't want.

[Duaner]

People already scrap all the data of boxrec... Making it available through an API would allow people to do it by paying boxrec and having good services.
And it's how internet works.

[JCS]

I suspect the site owners don't want to make it easy for someone to duplicate the site. It isn't like Sherdog and MMA where the sport started in the 90s... a lot of research and work is/was necessary to populate the DB here.

Though if it were me, I'd make an API available.. expensive and with limits.

[Controversial]

People already scrap all the data of boxrec... Making it available through an API would allow people to do it by paying boxrec and having good services.
And it's how internet works.

You will have to excuse my ignorance, why do people need to take the data if it’s already freely available and what could you do that you can’t now if it were an API?

[JCS]

People already scrap all the data of boxrec... Making it available through an API would allow people to do it by paying boxrec and having good services.
And it's how internet works.

You will have to excuse my ignorance, why do people need to take the data if it’s already freely available and what could you do that you can’t now if it were an API?

When he says scrap (I think he means scrape), he means that he and others, come up w/ an automated method to pull the data from a browser. If BoxRec changes something w/ the layout, access, etc., the scraper likely will need updated, because it needs to have explicit code to know where a boxer's name is... where the result is, the round, on and on. Typically, site owners know this is occurring and may implement some kind of protection to prevent it. With a site like BoxRec, updates could be happening anywhere... to new shows, old shows... could be new data, updated data, data removed.... these guys will never have an exact replica of BoxRec.

An API is supported by the site owner... and it is a data feed where both sides know what to expect.. the structure of the data, etc. makes this communication much easier. Subscribers could easily have a 1:1 copy because everything is organized, streamlined, etc.

[Duaner]

Making an API to share you data do not means people will be trying to "copy boxrec". Boxrec already exists and is the well established website for boxing historic data. Nobody has interest to try to make a copy, especially if the data come from boxrec. If you are a concurrent that decide to make his own website, it's because you have other data that you think people will be interest into, because your data is better. But that is the market system. There is no risk of copy, again internet is working like that. I'm sure that if someone do a clone of boxrec with boxrec data, legally he can be stopped quite easily. It's why data is a business, and a very big one.

After when you make an API, you choose what you want to share. Example: I'm a guy that want to try some criteria to calculate the list of p4p boxers. If I see than Boxrec has an API that allow me to retrieve informations about a boxer like all his fights with the date and his opponents, I can request some data, do my calculations and have fun. I can decide to make a website about my list, and I will put a link to boxrec fighter's profile for each fighters for the visitor of my website if he want more informations (because it's simpler and everything is already on boxrec), which will make boxrec better referenced in Google (more your website is referenced by other, more it means your website is "important", better it is for Google). So boxrec will have my money with the API, and more visits because people will referenced boxrec more. More visits, more money from ads, etc.

Again it's how internet works and website grows. Boxrec being the only source of data about boxing in the entire internet, it's kind of sitting on a gold mine but doing nothing.

[Controversial]

People already scrap all the data of boxrec... Making it available through an API would allow people to do it by paying boxrec and having good services.
And it's how internet works.

You will have to excuse my ignorance, why do people need to take the data if it’s already freely available and what could you do that you can’t now if it were an API?

An API is supported by the site owner... and it is a data feed where both sides know what to expect.. the structure of the data, etc. makes this communication much easier. Subscribers could easily have a 1:1 copy because everything is organized, streamlined, etc.

Thank you but I’m still struggling to see what you would gain from paying for an API though? So you would get the data and be able to do what with it, lay it out in a different format? Or can you add filters and then be able to display all fights on a specific day? Or earliest listed fight on the database or total fights in one arena over a year etc….I guess if so that would be quite useful!!

[JCS]

You will have to excuse my ignorance, why do people need to take the data if it’s already freely available and what could you do that you can’t now if it were an API?

An API is supported by the site owner... and it is a data feed where both sides know what to expect.. the structure of the data, etc. makes this communication much easier. Subscribers could easily have a 1:1 copy because everything is organized, streamlined, etc.

Thank you but I’m still struggling to see what you would gain from paying for an API though? So you would get the data and be able to do what with it, lay it out in a different format? Or can you add filters and then be able to display all fights on a specific day? Or earliest listed fight on the database or total fights in one arena over a year etc….I guess if so that would be quite useful!!

- Full or partial clone of BoxRec DB
- Come up with your own boxing rankings
- Data project
- A 'better' upcoming schedule

[Duaner]

You will have to excuse my ignorance, why do people need to take the data if it’s already freely available and what could you do that you can’t now if it were an API?

An API is supported by the site owner... and it is a data feed where both sides know what to expect.. the structure of the data, etc. makes this communication much easier. Subscribers could easily have a 1:1 copy because everything is organized, streamlined, etc.

Thank you but I’m still struggling to see what you would gain from paying for an API though? So you would get the data and be able to do what with it, lay it out in a different format? Or can you add filters and then be able to display all fights on a specific day? Or earliest listed fight on the database or total fights in one arena over a year etc….I guess if so that would be quite useful!!

You gain access to data in a format where you can use them, in a coding way. The only way right now is to scrap the data directly from the website of boxrec with automatic scripts that "read" the website and take the data you want. It's not illegal but it could be depending of how you do it. It's not fun to do, the data are not clean so you have to do all the work and boxrec is against that.

About the data, it's not the business of boxrec to know what people gonna do with it. The wins and loses of Mohammed Ali and against who are not the propriety of Boxrec, it's public information. See it like a newspaper, the information is public and not own by the newspaper's company, but if you want to know all the news about the world yesterday, it's a very complicated work to try to learn everything by yourself. So you buy the newspaper, you accept to give some money, to have the information you want in an useful format. And after, if you want to use it to write a book about let say, the finance world of the XXI century, it's not the business of the newspaper company.

[Controversial]

An API is supported by the site owner... and it is a data feed where both sides know what to expect.. the structure of the data, etc. makes this communication much easier. Subscribers could easily have a 1:1 copy because everything is organized, streamlined, etc.

Thank you but I’m still struggling to see what you would gain from paying for an API though? So you would get the data and be able to do what with it, lay it out in a different format? Or can you add filters and then be able to display all fights on a specific day? Or earliest listed fight on the database or total fights in one arena over a year etc….I guess if so that would be quite useful!!

You gain access to data in a format where you can use them, in a coding way. The only way right now is to scrap the data directly from the website of boxrec with automatic scripts that "read" the website and take the data you want. It's not illegal but it could be depending of how you do it. It's not fun to do, the data are not clean so you have to do all the work and boxrec is against that.

About the data, it's not the business of boxrec to know what people gonna do with it. The wins and loses of Mohammed Ali and against who are not the propriety of Boxrec, it's public information. See it like a newspaper, the information is public and not own by the newspaper's company, but if you want to know all the news about the world yesterday, it's a very complicated work to try to learn everything by yourself. So you buy the newspaper, you accept to give some money, to have the information you want in an useful format. And after, if you want to use it to write a book about let say, the finance world of the XXI century, it's not the business of the newspaper company.

I get that it’s public data but there is nothing to say they have to share their database, it’s probably taken hundreds of thousands of hours of research over 20 plus years to create what they have. But on the flip side if they could sell the data via an API then at it would generate them revenue. Maybe they just don’t want a rival setting up off the back of all their hard-work as I guess what would stop someone doing that?

[jwfg]

I have no experience of scraping, but I am trying to find an easy way to take all the data from a fight card and add it to an Excel file. I want to be able to have columns for fighters names, promoter, result etc. Any ideas?

[John]

It's very simple, just do what we do and type it in

[cophbulls]

I would like an api for my own personal benefit, i like taking top 50 of each division and combining it with upcoming schedules/opponents to grade on my own. It would be cool, but most likely just for us data nerds. Hey, don't judge, its a hobby, whatevs....