Sports Reference Explained

Sports Reference, LLC
Type:Private
Industry:Sports statistics
Founder:Sean Forman
Hq Location City:Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Hq Location Country:US

Sports Reference, LLC is an American sports statistics company that operates databases of several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey Reference for ice hockey, FBref for association football (soccer), and pages for college football and basketball.[1] [2] Sports Reference also operate the online sports trivia game Immaculate Grid and the statistics-based subscription service Stathead. From 2008 to 2020, the website included Olympic Games statistics from the first Games to the most recent.

History

The company was founded in Philadelphia by Sean Forman in 2004 and incorporated as Sports Reference LLC in 2007.[3] [4] The company operates databases of sports statistics for several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey Reference for ice hockey, FBref for association football (soccer), and pages for college football and basketball. Sports Reference maintained a section on the Olympics from 2008 to 2020.[5] The sites attempt a comprehensive approach to sports data. For example, Baseball Reference contains more than 100,000 box scores while Pro Football Reference contains data on every scoring play in the National Football League (NFL) since . The college basketball section includes data on NCAA Division I men's basketball, with incomplete data going back as far as 1892—predating the first NCAA divisional split (1956) and the NCAA itself (1906). Division I women's basketball stats were added in 2023 with complete scores and results and 10,000 box scores included in 2025.[6] [7] Sports Reference purchased the baseball trivia game Immaculate Grid on July 11, 2023, and integrated it with its sites.[8] [9]

Olympics

Sports Reference added a site for Olympic Games statistics and history in July 2008,[10] [11] including statistics from the first games to the most recent.

The company announced in December 2016 that the Olympics site was to shut down in the near future due to a change in its data licensing agreement.[12] Data for the 2016 Summer Olympics were added,[13] but the site was not updated for the 2018 Winter Olympics.[14] Sports Reference closed its Olympic site on May 14, 2020.[15]

The providers of the Olympic data, known as OlyMADmen, launched a new site called Olympedia in May 2020.[16] [17] [18] [19] According to Slate, editing of "Olympedia [was] restricted to about two dozen trusted academics and researchers who specialize in Olympic history."[20] The site is owned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).[21]

Notes and References

  1. News: Kramer . Staci D. . February 17, 2009 . Fantasy Sports Ventures Takes Minority Stake In Sports Reference LLC . September 24, 2021 . . . September 9, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170909005248/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fantasy-sports-ventures-takes-minority-stake-in-sports-reference-llc/ . live.
  2. News: Fisher . Eric . February 16, 2009 . FSV buys stake in reference sites . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090217165943/http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/61558 . February 17, 2009.
  3. News: Wagner . James . From a Church in Philadelphia, Sports Reference Informs the World . February 14, 2019 . . February 13, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190214011608/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/sports/sean-forman-sports-reference.html . February 14, 2019 . live.
  4. Web site: Company Overview of Sports Reference, LLC . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20151006233718/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=53311244 . October 6, 2015 . November 8, 2013 . Bloomberg Businessweek.
  5. Web site: Sports Reference Main Page . Sports Reference . April 2, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100201172906/http://www.sports-reference.com/ . February 1, 2010 . live.
  6. Web site: Sports Reference Expands Women's College Basketball Data . Mike . Lynch . Sports Reference Blog . February 15, 2024 . February 18, 2024.
  7. Web site: Every Score and Result in Women's NCAA Division I Basketball History Added to College Basketball Reference . Sports-Reference.com Blog . November 28, 2025 . November 25, 2025 . Lynch . Mike.
  8. News: Kepner . Tyler . Tyler Kepner . The Hottest Thing in Baseball Is a Grid of Nine Blank Squares . subscription . August 30, 2023 . . July 11, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230828055257/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/sports/baseball/immaculate-grid.html . August 28, 2023 . live . en.
  9. News: Winkie . Luke . The Trendy New Trivia Game That's Like Wordle for Straight Men . November 11, 2023 . . October 1, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231111114359/https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/10/immaculate-grid-nfl-mlb-sports-trivia-game.html . November 11, 2023 . live . en.
  10. Web site: Olympics at Sports Reference Launches . Sports Reference . July 9, 2008 . Foreman . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080726042758/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/blog/?p=5 . July 26, 2008 . Sean.
  11. Web site: About This Site . Sports Reference . July 20, 2018 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080729035411/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/about/ . July 29, 2008.
  12. Web site: Site Closing . December 16, 2016 . Sports Reference . November 13, 2017 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20161219000502/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/down.html . December 19, 2016.
  13. Web site: 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20180720165957/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/2016/ . July 20, 2018 . July 20, 2018 . Sports Reference.
  14. Web site: Winter Games Index . Sports Reference . July 20, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080707092830/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/winter/ . July 7, 2008 . dead.
  15. Web site: Site is Closed . Sports Reference . May 15, 2020 . October 3, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191003122720/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/br/cliff-bricker-1.html . live.
  16. News: Lohn . John . May 27, 2020 . Comprehensive Olympedia Database Available to Public; Loaded with Information . . September 24, 2021 . OlyMADmen, an international group of Olympics experts and historians, have made their exhaustive Olympics database available . September 24, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210924201336/https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/comprehensive-olympedia-database-available-to-public-loaded-with-information/ . live.
  17. News: Perelman . Rich . May 27, 2020 . LANE ONE: Staggering, brilliant, astonishing portal to Olympic history opens with debut of Olympedia.org . The Sports Examiner . September 26, 2021 . September 26, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210926145622/https://www.thesportsexaminer.com/lane-one-staggering-brilliant-astonishing-portal-to-olympic-history-opens-with-debut-of-olympedia-com/ . live.
  18. Web site: Mallon . Bill . May 27, 2020 . Olympedia now open to the public . OlympStats.com . May 27, 2020 . the result many years of work by a group of Olympic historians and statisticians called the OlyMADmen . June 6, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200606103935/https://olympstats.com/2020/05/27/olympedia-now-open-to-the-public/ . live.
  19. Web site: About . Olympedia . The group that has compiled the database refers to itself as MADmen — MAD being an acronym for several of the early members of the group, but also signifies their commitment to the project in another sense. . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20200614210347/https://www.olympedia.org/static/about . June 14, 2020.
  20. Web site: Harrison . Stephen . July 26, 2021 . How to Use Wikipedia When You're Watching the Olympics . . July 29, 2021 . July 26, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210726164036/https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/tokyo-2020-olympic-games-wikipedia.html . live.
  21. News: Bauernfeind . John . February 27, 2017 . IOC looks to acquisition of Olympedia as step toward modernizing Olympic recordkeeping . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230529021255/https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2017/02/27/Olympics/Olympedia.aspx . May 29, 2023 . May 29, 2023 . . en.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sports Reference".

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