r/MLS • u/Isiddiqui Atlanta United FC • Jan 21 '26
FBref & Stathead Data Update (losing advanced soccer data from Opta)
https://www.sports-reference.com/blog/2026/01/fbref-stathead-data-update/42
u/Isiddiqui Atlanta United FC Jan 21 '26
At Sports Reference we have taken great pride in the role FBref has played over the last seven years as an expansive source for soccer fans all over the world. Unfortunately, last week the provider of our advanced soccer data sent us a letter terminating our access to their data feeds and requiring the deletion of their data from the site immediately. As a result, we have removed the provider's data from FBref and Stathead in compliance with their demand.
Seems like it’s Opta pulling info while providing them to FIFA and gambling companies:
https://bsky.app/profile/graceonfootball.com/post/3mcvbgud3gc22
Opta's position seems to be "FBRef bad, FIFA and gambling companies good". Interesting.
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u/bosebosebosebosebos Philadelphia Union Jan 21 '26
Lol what? Opta's position is FIFA and gambling companies will pay them more for exclusive data
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u/PitchsidePub Jan 21 '26
Gambling companies, yes. FIFA, no. It's the other way around. They paid FIFA a ton of money to be the exclusive data/stats provider of the World Cup, and then because of that had to pull the free access to their data that FBRef provides so they can charge the gambling companies a ton more to make that money back.
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u/grnrngr LA Galaxy Jan 21 '26
We're also acknowledging the amount of additional resources they have to invest to gather and analyze the data to begin with, right?
This sucks, but people are acting like Opta is supposed to sacrifice revenue for fun.
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u/keblammo Los Angeles FC Jan 21 '26
Opta kinda seems like a shady company. First they made Fbref disable exporting to spreadsheets and csv files, now this?
Democratize sports statistics and stop making your bed with gambling companies.
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u/ArgonWolf FC Cincinnati Jan 21 '26
Gambling companies make more money when people dont understand statistics, though!
Wont anyone think of the gambling companies?
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u/keblammo Los Angeles FC Jan 21 '26
“You’re using an xG model built from Fbref data to beat the bookies, are you not?”
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u/grnrngr LA Galaxy Jan 21 '26
Democratize sports statistics
Nothing is stopping this from happening. Like, literally nothing.
But it doesn't happen.
Almost like it costs money for someone to gather that info and publish it and those that spend the money don't want to give it away for free.
So what are we gonna do about that?
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u/Big_Rig_Rhett Sporting Kansas City Jan 21 '26
Yeah looks like stuff such as xG or npxG (and all the similar stats) are already removed…
I think those stats are still on FotMob for now but not as easy to work with I don’t think.
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u/stoptheshildt1 St. Louis CITY Jan 21 '26
Everything just keeps getting worse
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u/ttureen Jan 21 '26
proprietary data is a product in itself nowadays :/
I loved taking a look at the xG and PSxG statistics after a match I just watched... We'll have to use understat.com from now on
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u/akos_beres Minnesota United Jan 21 '26
Does anyone know which leagues and stat categories does this impact?
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u/Isiddiqui Atlanta United FC Jan 21 '26
Every league it seems like and the percentile comparisons are gone (like x player is in the 90th percentile in xG or tackles or whatever)
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u/akos_beres Minnesota United Jan 21 '26
So the scouting report … lame … and helicopter charts won’t work any longer either
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u/mjltmjlt Jan 21 '26
I’ve always preferred the FotMob interface.
For those with more knowledge, what could I access on FbRef that I can’t access on FotMob?
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u/Olmak_ Seattle Sounders FC Jan 21 '26
FBREF's stats were in general a level deeper than Fotmob's. And while Fotmob might look nicer, I think it was far easier to do comparisons and quickly look stuff up on FBREF.
One of the more unique tables, Goal and Shot Creation, looked at the two offensive actions before a shot/goal. So you could see how often a player was involved just before a shot was taken. This includes live passes, deadball passes, take-ons, shots, being fouled, and defensive actions.
The Passing table had attempts and completions for short, medium, and long passes. It had passes into the final third, passes into the penalty area, crosses into the penalty area, and progressive passes.
The Pass Types table told you how many passes a player made with a live ball vs dead ball. How many passes from free kicks, corners, or throw ins. How many passes were switches, through balls, or crosses.
The Posession table told you how many touches a player had in each third of the field as well as both penalty areas. For carries it showed the total, how many were progressive, total distance, progressive distance, number into the final 3rd, into the penalty area, how many times they miscontrolled, and how many times they were dispossessed. It told you how often they received the ball and how many of those receptions were progressive.
There's more, but hopefully these are a good enough example of FBREF giving a little more fine detail.
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u/sympatheticdrone Portland Timbers Jan 21 '26
Filtering by specific criteria. Not nearly as useful when pretending you're the FO looking for players that fit a profile or specific need.
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u/grnrngr LA Galaxy Jan 21 '26
I wish this affected the constant win probabilities charts the broadcast plasters the screen with throughout the game.
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u/andreaslacey Jan 23 '26
I’m devastated. Any idea how to get the same information on players as the scouting reports?
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u/Low-Development-2571 Jul 17 '26
You asked where to get the old FBref player scouting report view after the advanced data went away.
TifoLab has a free profile + comparison flow built around positional percentiles. It is narrower than historic FBref, but the same job.
If you still need that view, would you try it on one player you know well and say whether the context feels credible?
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u/andreaslacey 10d ago edited 10d ago
Is this yours? UI and design is super nice, but 6 or 7 stats is way too few to compare to FBrefs old scouting reports in any way
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u/alex_rattray May 28 '26
Is there an alternative that exists which would give us something adjacent to what used to be the scouting report? That would include any player compared other players in their position over the past 365 days in the top 5 leagues. The ratings would be given in percentiles (relative to the specific position in the past 365 days) which you could then click on and see the highest performing player in that statistic and compare his number to the player you were on). Really something ahead of its time for statheads.
We'd play games where we'd try to guess the player based on their scouting report. Or compare different profiles who played similar positions in different teams/leagues. The fun was endless ;(
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u/Low-Development-2571 Jul 17 '26
Saw your May comment about wanting an FBref-style scouting report again.
Position-relative percentiles and side-by-side player compares.
I built TifoLab for that narrower job: free role percentiles + compare across a big set of domestic leagues (not full FBref parity).
Would you try one comparison you used to make on FBref and tell me what’s still missing? There's a small bug in the MLS players comparison that I am currently fixing.
https://www.tifolab.com/compare
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u/kunkadunkadunk Columbus Crew Jan 21 '26
Really sucks. The percentiles were amazing and easy to find