Play-by-play of a finished game, newest action first, with the running score and lead.
Endpoint: GET https://fibalivestats.dcd.shared.geniussports.com/data/{match_id}/data.json
Rows in the feed's order: newest first by game time, so row_index 0 is the last action (normally the game end row); sort on action_number for entry order. score_1 / score_2 are always integer. qualifier joins the qualifier codes with commas. clock, action_number and previous_action are NA in the 2014-15 feed. Overtime restarts period at 1: read it with period_type.
Arguments
- match_id
Genius match id (
match_idofgenius_schedule(),genius_widget_games()orgenius_competition_games()), e.g. 2902690.- return_parsed
Parse into a tibble (default
TRUE);FALSEreturns the parsed body or page record (a list):data.jsonas served plus_request(the ids asked for), or the sdv-internal-refs capture shape of a page.
Value
A wehoop_data tibble (a zero-row tibble with these columns when Genius answers
an empty valid page), or the raw list when return_parsed = FALSE:
| col_name | type | description |
| match_id | integer | Genius match id of the game. data.json does not carry it: it is the match_id asked for, stamped by the runtime (the global match sequence shared by every Genius customer). |
| row_index | integer | Position of the action in the feed order, 0 = the newest action by game time (normally the game end row). The feed is not strictly sorted by action_number, so sort on action_number for entry order. |
| action_number | integer | Action sequence number, unique within the game (gaps where actions were deleted); a shot joins its play-by-play row on it. Null in the 2014-15 feed. |
| previous_action | integer | action_number of the linked earlier action (the shot an assist or rebound belongs to); null when the feed sends an empty string. |
| period | integer | Period number; restarts at 1 for the first overtime (read it with period_type). |
| period_type | character | Period type: REGULAR or OVERTIME. |
| gt | character | Game clock, 'mm:ss' remaining in the period |
| clock | character | Game clock with hundredths, 'mm:ss:cc' remaining in the period; absent in older feeds (the 2014-15 WBBL sample has gt only) |
| tno | integer | Team number within this game: 1 = the team listed first (home on the hosted schedule and widget), 2 = the other, 0 = no team. In-game only: not a team id. |
| pno | integer | Player number within this game, the key of the team's player map; 0 = no player. In-game only: not a person id and not the shirt number. |
| player | character | Player display name; ” when no player |
| shirt_number | character | Player shirt number (string); ” when no player |
| first_name | character | Given name in the competition's own script and spelling (Greek, Hebrew, Czech, ... as entered) |
| family_name | character | Family name in the competition's own script |
| international_first_name | character | Given name in Latin script |
| international_family_name | character | Family name in Latin script (often upper case) |
| scoreboard_name | character | Short display name ('T. Nichols'), in the local script when the org enters one |
| action_type | character | Action type: 2pt, 3pt, freethrow, rebound, assist, turnover, steal, block, foul, foulon (foul drawn), substitution, timeout, jumpball, period, game, headcoachchallenge |
| sub_type | character | Action subtype, free-text code per actionType: shot type for 2pt/3pt (layup, drivinglayup, jumpshot, pullupjumpshot, turnaroundjumpshot, ...), 'in'/'out' for substitutions, 'start'/'end' for period and game, foul kind for fouls; empty string when none |
| qualifier | character | Qualifier codes of the action joined with commas (pointsinthepaint, fromturnover, 2ndchance, fastbreak, blocked, ...); null when none. |
| success | integer | 1 = made / successful, 0 = missed (shots, free throws); 1 for other actions |
| scoring | integer | 1 when the action is a scoring attempt (shot or free throw), else 0 |
| score_1 | integer | Team 1 score after the action, always an integer (the feed sends a string in most games). |
| score_2 | integer | Team 2 score after the action, always an integer (the feed sends a string in most games). |
| lead | integer | Score margin after the action, team 1 minus team 2 (negative when team 2 leads) |
Details
Access. The Genius hosts publish no robots.txt and no terms. CloudFront refuses
datacenter IPs on the LiveStats and hosted hosts: from a server set
options(wehoop.proxy = ...) or the GENIUS_PROXY environment variable to an http(s)
proxy URL (never printed or logged). Requests are spaced at least one second apart
per host; keep crawls slow and incremental. Some league sites (the NZ NBL) forbid AI
crawlers in their own robots.txt, which does not cover these hosts. Unofficial use of a
public source: payloads are not redistributed as release assets.
Org and season. Every competition is an ORG code plus a competition id
(comp_id): genius_competitions() lists an org's competitions with the sdv END-year
season (a START-year org lists 2025-26 as season 2026), genius_match_competition()
maps a game to its competition, and data.json itself names no date, competition or
season. The hosted ORG can differ from the LiveStats ORG of /u/ (NZNBL vs NZN). Match
ids are one global sequence across every Genius customer. data.json carries no global
team or player id: tno (1 or 2) and pno are in-game numbers; only finished games
are read.
Errors (classed conditions, all inheriting wehoop_error): wehoop_no_data when
Genius has nothing for the request (HTTP 404, the S3 AccessDenied 403, an empty 200
from the hosted host, an empty recent-games window, a schedule or widget with no
matches); wehoop_bad_request for HTTP 400 / 422 or a URL that is not a Genius route
(e.g. a non-numeric id); wehoop_asset_fetch when the answer is unknown: the CloudFront
"Request blocked" 403, a rate limit or 5xx, the intermittent HTTP 500 "A website error
has occurred" page (transient = TRUE: retry later), a dead connection, an error
envelope, a cut-off page, an unfinished game, or a body for another match, competition
or ORG.
See also
Other Genius Functions:
genius_competition_games(),
genius_competitions(),
genius_game(),
genius_game_crosswalk(),
genius_match_competition(),
genius_player_box(),
genius_schedule(),
genius_schedule_embed(),
genius_shots(),
genius_team_box(),
genius_team_crosswalk(),
genius_widget_games(),
lfb_competition,
wbbl_competition
Examples
# \donttest{
try(genius_pbp(match_id = 2902690))
#> ── Genius LiveStats play-by-play ─────────────────────────────── wehoop 3.1.0 ──
#> ℹ Data updated: 2026-10-22 02:36:16 UTC
#> # A tibble: 663 × 25
#> match_id row_index action_number previous_action period period_type gt
#> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 2902690 0 1052 NA 1 OVERTIME 00:00
#> 2 2902690 1 1051 NA 1 OVERTIME 00:00
#> 3 2902690 2 1048 NA 1 OVERTIME 00:00
#> 4 2902690 3 1044 NA 1 OVERTIME 00:02
#> 5 2902690 4 1045 NA 1 OVERTIME 00:02
#> 6 2902690 5 1043 NA 1 OVERTIME 00:02
#> 7 2902690 6 1042 NA 1 OVERTIME 00:02
#> 8 2902690 7 1040 NA 1 OVERTIME 00:02
#> 9 2902690 8 1041 NA 1 OVERTIME 00:02
#> 10 2902690 9 1039 NA 1 OVERTIME 00:02
#> # ℹ 653 more rows
#> # ℹ 18 more variables: clock <chr>, tno <int>, pno <int>, player <chr>,
#> # shirt_number <chr>, first_name <chr>, family_name <chr>,
#> # international_first_name <chr>, international_family_name <chr>,
#> # scoreboard_name <chr>, action_type <chr>, sub_type <chr>, qualifier <chr>,
#> # success <int>, scoring <int>, score_1 <int>, score_2 <int>, lead <int>
# }