The Odds API has been the default answer to “where do I get odds data” since 2017. It's Melbourne-based, well documented, has SDKs in five languages, and covers 80+ bookmakers across 40+ sports globally. It earned its position.
It is also, for Australian projects specifically, a general-purpose tool being used for a specialist job. This piece is about where that costs you and where it doesn't.
Disclosure: we build Krok Odds. Claims about our own product are checkable against the docs and the free tier; claims about The Odds API come from their public pricing and documentation as of September 2026.
The short version
- Building for Australia? Krok Odds — 140+ AU books versus ~15, plus racing, exchange pricing and built-in scanners.
- Building for the world? The Odds API — Krok Odds carries zero non-Australian bookmakers, by design.
- Building for Australia with international context? Both. They complement rather than compete.
Full comparison
| Feature | Krok Odds | The Odds API |
|---|---|---|
| AU bookmakers | 140+ scraped directly | ~15 |
| Global bookmakers | 0 — AU only by design | 80+ |
| Sport/league keys | 179 | 40+ |
| AU racing (all three codes) | Full stack | None |
| Runner form, sectionals, tote | Yes | None |
| Betfair Exchange back/lay + BSP | Yes | No |
| Pre-computed arbitrage | Yes | No — build it yourself |
| Positive EV | Yes, Pinnacle-anchored devig | Consensus, higher tiers |
| Middles & low-holds | Yes | No |
| Same-game multi (SGM) | Yes | No |
| Steam moves | Yes | No |
| Player props | Yes + line analysis + settled results | Yes |
| Closing-line archive (CLV) | Yes, per event | No |
| Historical odds | 2016+, 870,000+ records | Yes (paid add-on) |
| Prediction markets | Polymarket + Kalshi | No |
| Streaming | SSE on every tier | No — polling only |
| Webhooks | Yes | No |
| SDKs | None needed — plain REST/JSON | 5+ languages |
| Documentation | Good | Excellent — best in class |
| Free tier | 50 credits/mo, every live endpoint | 500 requests/mo |
| Paid entry | A$49/mo — everything | US$19/mo Starter |
| Top tier | A$49/mo (only one paid tier) | US$99/mo Business |
1. AU bookmaker depth: 140+ vs ~15
The Odds API covers roughly 15 Australian books. Those are the right 15 if you want the well-known names — Sportsbet, TAB, Bet365, Ladbrokes, Neds, PointsBet, Unibet, Betfair, Dabble, Betr, PlayUp, Palmerbet, BetRight, TABtouch. For a general odds display, that's adequate.
For an arbitrage scanner or a +EV tool, it isn't, and the reason is structural rather than a matter of degree. Arbitrage exists because one book is slow or wrong. The books that are slow or wrong are the small ones — the white-labels running on shared platforms that don't re-price as fast as Sportsbet does. Covering the top 15 books means covering exactly the set of books least likely to give you an outlier price.
Krok Odds scrapes 140+ AU bookmaker brands directly across 16 feed families: the corporates, plus Amused/BlackStream (10 brands), BetMakers Nimbus (22+ brands), BetEngine/GRSBet, PuntersTech, GenWeb and the rest of the long tail. Same normalised response shape for all of them.
2. Sport coverage: 179 keys, weighted to Australia
The Odds API carries 40+ sports globally. Krok Odds carries 179 sport and league keys, but the useful comparison isn't the raw count — it's the depth per key in the leagues Australians actually bet.
AFL odds, NRL odds, NBA odds, NFL, MLB, NHL, EPL, A-League, the NBL, Big Bash and IPL cricket, Super Rugby, Super Netball — for each of those Krok Odds carries head-to-head, line, totals, alternate lines, extended markets and player props with settled results and hit-rate history, across every book that prices them. That last part matters: prop coverage at 15 books versus 140+ books is a different product, not a bigger one.
3. Racing: the coverage gap
The Odds API has no Australian racing. No thoroughbred, no harness, no greyhound. This is the single largest functional difference between the two products, and it isn't a small omission in the Australian market — racing turnover here rivals all sports combined.
Krok Odds carries:
- Thoroughbred, harness and greyhound meetings from every AU track, with complete runner fields and live scratchings
- Fixed-odds win and place from 65+ AU corporate books
- Betfair Exchange back/lay, matched volume, and BSP — the sharpest AU racing close
- Tote pools and dividends including exotics
- Sectional times — 600m/400m/200m splits, speed metrics, closing ratios
- Jockey and trainer strike rates, plus jockey × trainer combination stats
- Runner form with replay video and speed maps
- Market movers — opening versus current price per book
- Racing arbs between Betfair SP and fixed-odds win/place
- Historical results back to 2016
The full breakdown is in Best Racing Odds API Australia, and you can see it rendered on the horse racing and greyhound odds boards.
4. Raw odds vs computed opportunities
The Odds API gives you odds. What you do with them is your problem — which is a defensible design choice, and part of why the API is so widely used.
The practical cost is that every team using it rebuilds the same layer: devigging to fair odds, cross-book arbitrage detection with stake splitting, +EV against a sharp baseline, middle detection across line windows, hold calculation, steam detection. That's weeks of work before your product does anything, and it's work where subtle errors (mishandling of alternate lines, stale-price contamination, wrong devig method) produce confidently wrong answers.
Krok Odds ships those as endpoints: /v1/opportunities/arbitrage, /v1/opportunities/positive-ev, /v1/opportunities/middles, /v1/opportunities/low-holds, /v1/opportunities/sgm-picks, /v1/opportunities/player-props and /v1/steam-moves, with a Pinnacle-anchored devig engine underneath. You can still take the raw feed from /v1/odds-feed/sports/{sport} and do your own maths — both are there.
5. Where The Odds API genuinely wins
Not a close call on these:
- Global coverage. 80+ bookmakers across Europe, the US and Asia. Krok Odds has none of them. If your users bet at Pinnacle, DraftKings, FanDuel, bet365 UK or Betano, The Odds API is the answer.
- Documentation and SDKs. Best in the category, with official libraries for Python, JavaScript, Ruby, Go and more. Krok Odds is plain REST with no SDK — fine, but not the same developer experience.
- Community and longevity. Operating since 2017 with a large user base, plenty of Stack Overflow answers, and a track record.
- Entry price. US$19/month Starter is the cheapest paid entry point of any provider here.
6. Cost at realistic usage
Headline prices mislead. What matters is the tier you land on once your polling is real.
The Odds API: per-request. Free is 500 requests/month — enough to prototype, not enough for anything live. A dashboard polling every 60 seconds across a handful of sports lands you on Pro (US$49/mo) or Business (US$99/mo) quickly. Historical odds are a paid add-on.
Krok Odds: A$49/month, one paid tier — 50,000 credits, 500 req/min, and everything: historical archives, bulk export, webhooks, SSE streaming, racing, exchange, props, opportunities. There is no higher tier because nothing is held back for one. The free tier includes every live endpoint at 50 credits/month, so it's volume-limited rather than feature-limited.
How to decide
Pick The Odds API if: your bookmakers are outside Australia, you want official SDKs, or you need the broadest possible sport list and AU depth is secondary.
Pick Krok Odds if: you're building for Australian punters, you need racing, you want arbitrage and +EV computed rather than derived, you need Betfair Exchange or BSP, or you want closing-line data for CLV measurement.
Run both if: your audience is Australian but you want international context — sharp offshore prices as a devig baseline, or cross-market comparison. The combined cost is under A$120/month, which is less than a day's bankroll variance for most serious operations.
The honest test: get a free Krok Odds key, pull the same AFL or NRL market from both, and count the distinct prices each returns. Then pull a Saturday metro race meeting from both, and note that only one of them returns anything at all.
Related reading
- Best Australian Sports Betting APIs 2026 — the full five-way comparison
- Krok Odds vs RapidOddsAPI
- Best Racing Odds API Australia
- Best Sports Betting Tools Australia 2026
James covers the AU bookmaker market — pricing mechanics, line movement, promotional structures, and how the corporate books actually operate.