> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.thestatsapi.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The Stats API: Football Data for Developers

> Access live and historical football data — competitions, teams, players, matches, statistics, shotmaps, and betting odds — through a single REST API.

The Stats API gives you programmatic access to comprehensive football data. Whether you're building a sports analytics platform, a fantasy football app, or a live scores widget, you can query competitions, teams, players, match results, detailed statistics, expected goals (xG) shotmaps, and betting odds from a single, consistent REST interface.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Quick Start" icon="bolt" href="/docs/quickstart">
    Make your first API call in minutes. Get your API key and start fetching football data.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Authentication" icon="key" href="/docs/authentication">
    Learn how to authenticate every request using your Bearer token API key.
  </Card>

  <Card title="API Reference" icon="code" href="/docs/api-reference/overview">
    Explore all endpoints — competitions, teams, players, matches, and odds.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Core Concepts" icon="book" href="/docs/concepts/data-model">
    Understand the data model, pagination, and error handling before you build.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## How it works

<Steps>
  <Step title="Get an API key">
    Sign up and retrieve your API key from your account dashboard.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Authenticate your requests">
    Pass your key in the `Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY` header on every request.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Query the data you need">
    Use the REST endpoints to fetch competitions, teams, players, match results, statistics, and more.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Build your application">
    Combine endpoints to power live scores, player cards, league tables, xG visualizations, and betting tools.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What you can build

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="League Tables & Standings" icon="trophy" href="/docs/api-reference/teams/stats">
    Pull team statistics per season to render up-to-date league standings.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Live Match Tracking" icon="circle-play" href="/docs/api-reference/matches/list">
    Filter matches by status to show live games with real-time scores.
  </Card>

  <Card title="xG & Shotmap Visualizations" icon="chart-scatter" href="/docs/api-reference/matches/shotmap">
    Render per-shot expected goals data with coordinates on a pitch visualization.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Betting Odds Dashboards" icon="dollar-sign" href="/docs/api-reference/matches/odds">
    Access opening and closing odds across multiple bookmakers and markets.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>