ballCoordinates

The Ball Coordinates are added to the Football API. This way, you can follow exactly where the ball is on the pitch.

What does the include do?

The include provides a convenient way to request ball coordinates for a given fixture. Before implementing this include, it was available as a value when requesting the metadata include. Requesting ball coordinates via the metadata is now deprecated.

Why would I use this?

Ball Coordinates are interesting to find out where the ball is on the pitch. Betters might use this to determine if they should be betting on a specific team to score a goal or get a corner. It is also interesting to find out which team is on the attack.

A perfect combination is to use the ball coordinates in combination with the pressure index.

How to apply the include?

The include you need to use now is ballCoordinates.

Make the requests and evaluate the response

So, let’s take a look at a fixture by ID request.

We have used the first leg of the Real Madrid - Manchester City semi-final of the Champions League in 2023 (fixture ID: 18804445). First, you will find all the fixture details. After that, you will find the data provided by using the include ballCoordinates.

Here is the base request:

https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/{ID}?api_token=YOUR_TOKEN

Request

https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/18804445?api_token=YOUR_TOKEN&include=ballCoordinates

Response

{
    "data": {
        "id": 18804445,
        "sport_id": 1,
        "league_id": 2,
        "season_id": 19699,
        "stage_id": 77457729,
        "group_id": null,
        "aggregate_id": 43737,
        "round_id": null,
        "state_id": 5,
        "venue_id": null,
        "name": "Real Madrid vs Manchester City",
        "starting_at": "2023-05-09 19:00:00",
        "result_info": "Game ended in draw.",
        "leg": "1/2",
        "details": null,
        "length": 90,
        "placeholder": false,
        "has_odds": true,
        "starting_at_timestamp": 1683658800,
        "ballcoordinates": [
            {
                "id": 36389969,
                "fixture_id": 18804445,
                "period_id": 4800546,
                "timer": "93:10",
                "x": "0.96",
                "y": "0.58"
            },
            {
                "id": 36389966,
                "fixture_id": 18804445,
                "period_id": 4800546,
                "timer": "93:09",
                "x": "0.96",
                "y": "0.58"
            },
            {
                "id": 36389959,
                "fixture_id": 18804445,
                "period_id": 4800546,
                "timer": "93:06",
                "x": "0.96",
                "y": "0.58"
            },
            {
                "id": 36389955,
                "fixture_id": 18804445,
                "period_id": 4800546,
                "timer": "93:04",
                "x": "0.96",
                "y": "0.58"
            },
            {
                "id": 36389951,
                "fixture_id": 18804445,
                "period_id": 4800546,
                "timer": "93:01",
                "x": "0.96",
                "y": "0.58"
            },
            {
                "id": 36389946,
                "fixture_id": 18804445,
                "period_id": 4800546,
                "timer": "92:59",
                "x": "0.96",
                "y": "0.58"
            },
            {
                "id": 36389943,
                "fixture_id": 18804445,
                "period_id": 4800546,
                "timer": "92:58",
                "x": "0.96",
                "y": "0.58"
            },
            {
                "id": 36389938,
                "fixture_id": 18804445,
                "period_id": 4800546,
                "timer": "92:55",
                "x": "0.96",
                "y": "0.58"

Delay in the world of sports data is common. We are proud to be faster than live television (delay < 15 seconds). The delay is a little higher for ball coordinates than for other data.