Sources

What it costs to run this legally

Launch on TheSportsDB’s $9 artwork plan plus free commercial-friendly sources. Add The Odds API $30 when live score traffic outgrows the free 500 credits.

When the app is busy

• The Odds API 20K — live scores under real traffic$30
• TheSportsDB Small Business — if we outgrow 100 req/min+$11 vs $9 plan
• CollegeFootballData Tier 1 or 2 — busier CFB weekends$1–$5
• Comfortable production stackabout $39–$44

Providers we use

• TheSportsDB

  Team badges, team artwork, event thumbs, schedules, livescore fallback

  Paid Single Developer ($9/mo) lets us use their custom artwork in this app with attribution. Trademarked marks are shown as-is and not modified. The production key is installed. We do not scrape their website — only documented API endpoints.

  Monthly: $9 (Single Developer). $20 Small Business if traffic needs higher limits.

  Terms

• Wikimedia Commons

  Player headshots with a free license (Public Domain, CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0)

  We only display files whose Commons license allows commercial reuse. Each photo carries photographer + license credit. We skip fair-use, non-free, and CC BY-NC files. Wikimedia trademarks are not used.

  Monthly: $0

  Terms

• The Odds API

  Live scores and results when ODDS_API_KEY is set

  Terms expressly allow commercial use in websites and apps, including paid products, as long as we do not resell the feed as a standalone data product. Scores are a feature, not the product we sell.

  Monthly: $0 on 500 credits/mo. $30 for 20K credits when live traffic needs it.

  Terms

• CollegeFootballData

  Optional CFB stats and schedules when CFBD_API_KEY is set

  Commercial use is permitted on every tier. Tiers only change quota. No logos in this feed — badges still come from TheSportsDB.

  Monthly: $0 free (1,000 calls). $1–$5 if we need more volume.

  Terms

• xAI

  Original insight news reads on article pages when XAI_API_KEY is set

  Commercial API. Output is generated for the member inside the app from facts we already have. We never paste a publisher’s article into the model to reprint it. Cached per story. We do not resell the model.

  Monthly: Uses the existing xAI key. No extra vendor.

  Terms

• Draft Depot desk

  News headlines, insight reads, Locks write-ups, rankings, Lab costs, player names, team names

  Our editorial database and copy. News is written by us in our own words from licensed scores, licensed artwork, and public facts (names, scores, dates, positions). We do not host third-party articles. Rankings are our projections.

  Monthly: $0

  Terms

Priced and skipped

• API-Sports (api-nba / api-nfl / etc.) · $19–$39 per sport ($76–$156 for four leagues)

  They say logos are for identification only, they do not grant IP rights, and fantasy sports may need extra licenses from the leagues. That is not a clean commercial grant for this app.

• SportsDataIO Discovery Lab · $99 (hobby). Full commercial is a sales quote, usually hundreds per sport.

  Discovery Lab is documented as personal/hobby and not licensed for commercial redistribution. Enterprise is the real commercial path — too expensive for what TheSportsDB already licenses.

• Sportradar / Genius Sports (official league data + photos) · Enterprise, typically thousands per month

  Official league partner. Correct if we later sign NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL. Not required to ship a legal fantasy + news app on TheSportsDB + Commons + original copy.

• GNews / NewsAPI.org paid news · GNews commercial from ~€50. NewsAPI Business $449.

  Those APIs do not give us the right to reprint publisher articles or photos. We would still have to write original summaries. The desk already does that from licensed facts.

• NewsData.io · Free claims commercial use; paid from ~$200

  Their terms say they are an aggregator and do not own the third-party text or images. Copying article bodies would still be the publisher’s copyright. We do not use it.

We do not use

• ESPN unofficial JSON (site.api.espn.com) and ESPN CDN photos

  ESPN closed its public API in 2014. ESPN terms prohibit automated access and unlicensed commercial use. We do not call those endpoints and we do not hotlink espncdn images.

• Sleeper API

  Sleeper documents the API as free for non-commercial use only. Draft Depot is a paid product. We do not call api.sleeper.app at runtime. Board order is our catalog, not Sleeper ADP.

• Google News RSS

  Google News feed notices limit use to personal, non-commercial reading. A paid app cannot rely on that feed.

• NPR RSS / Content Feeds

  NPR terms allow Content Feeds only for personal use or 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Commercial apps need written consent we do not have.

• The Guardian RSS

  Guardian RSS is licensed for personal, non-commercial use only.

• Official NFL / NBA / MLB / NCAA photo CDNs

  League and union photo libraries require a league or players-association license. We use TheSportsDB’s licensed artwork and Wikimedia Commons files that allow commercial reuse instead.