Ask HN: How to legally obtain sports data for commercial use?
This is a long standing question of mine reignited by bignoggins post at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1772224 where he described the success of http://www.fantasymonsterapp.com.
I've often thought of building sports related apps (esp. pertaining to fantasy sports) but I've always struggled with how to legally obtain the necessary data (scheduling, statistics, player images, team logos, etc.) such that I can pursue it as a commercial venture. An obvious solution is to simply scrape the info but I'd assume you'd get shut down or blocked rather quickly. Yahoo offers a Fantasy Sports API but it's to be used for non-commercial purposes only.
Can anyone shed light on where/how to obtain current and past sports data that is available for commercial use? (I'm most interested in NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL data)
I've often thought of building sports related apps (esp. pertaining to fantasy sports) but I've always struggled with how to legally obtain the necessary data (scheduling, statistics, player images, team logos, etc.) such that I can pursue it as a commercial venture. An obvious solution is to simply scrape the info but I'd assume you'd get shut down or blocked rather quickly. Yahoo offers a Fantasy Sports API but it's to be used for non-commercial purposes only.
Can anyone shed light on where/how to obtain current and past sports data that is available for commercial use? (I'm most interested in NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL data)
Thanks!