API Overview

The VersusSportsSimulator API is organized around REST. Our API has predictable, resource-oriented URLs, and uses HTTP response codes to indicate API errors. We use built-in HTTP features, like HTTP authentication and HTTP verbs, which are understood by off-the-shelf HTTP clients. We support cross-origin resource sharing, allowing you to interact securely with our API from a client-side web application (though you should never expose your secret API key in any public website's client-side code). JSON is returned by all API responses, including errors.

Organization

The API delivers five key features for college and professional sports: Team Rankings, Conference/Divisional Rankings, Team Report Cards, Game Predictions, and Game Simulations. All ratings, rankings, predictions, and simulations are produced by a proprietary mathematical algorithm and published exclusively through the VersusSportsSimulator API.

Authentication

Authenticate your account when using the API by including your application ID and secret API key in the request. Your API keys carry many privileges, so be sure to keep them secret! Do not share your secret API keys in publicly accessible areas such GitHub, client-side code, and so forth.

To use your API key, you need to pass it along with your application ID in the header of the API call. All API requests must be made over HTTPS. Calls made over plain HTTP will fail. API requests without authentication will also fail.

Warning: Do not call the API from client side code such as Javascript or Jquery, as your credentials will be in plain view inside the browser. Usage of your credentials by a 3rd party will count against your rate limit. It is up to you to keep them safe.

Code Examples

The following code snippets demonstrate how to call the API using several popular technologies. Each example depicts the usage of your uniquely assigned application ID and secret API keys.

• Python
• PHP cURL
• Swift (NSURL)

import requests

url = "https://www.versussportssimulator.com/api/v1/teamsummary/cbb/Kansas"

headers = {
    'app-id': "[Your App ID]",
    'api-key': "[Your API Key]",
    'cache-control': "no-cache"
    }

response = requests.request("GET", url, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://www.versussportssimulator.com/api/v1/teamsummary/cbb/Kansas",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
	"api-key: [Your API Key]",
	"app-id: [Your App ID]",
	"cache-control: no-cache"
  ),
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

import Foundation

let headers = [
  "app-id": "[Your App ID]",
  "api-key": "[Your API Key]",
  "cache-control": "no-cache"
]

var request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: NSURL(string: "https://www.versussportssimulator.com/api/v1/teamsummary/cbb/Kansas")!,
                                        cachePolicy: .UseProtocolCachePolicy,
                                    timeoutInterval: 10.0)
request.HTTPMethod = "GET"
request.allHTTPHeaderFields = headers

let session = NSURLSession.sharedSession()
let dataTask = session.dataTaskWithRequest(request, completionHandler: { (data, response, error) -> Void in
  if (error != nil) {
    println(error)
  } else {
    let httpResponse = response as? NSHTTPURLResponse
    println(httpResponse)
  }
})

dataTask.resume()

Errors

The VersusSportsSimulator API uses conventional HTTP response codes to indicate the success or failure of an API request. In general, codes in the 2xx range indicate success, codes in the 4xx range indicate an error that failed given the information provided (e.g., a required parameter was omitted.), and codes in the 5xx range indicate an error with VersusSportsSimulator' servers (these are rare).

Request API Key

30-day free trials are available for developers interested in integrating the VersusSportsSimulator API with their own website or mobile app. To request a free trial, just send us a message.