Squiggle API

The Squiggle API offers public access to raw data about AFL games and predictions made by popular online models. It is available in computer-friendly formats so you can automatically import it into a spreadsheet or similar program for your own analysis.

Selecting Data • Using Data • Automated Usage • Changelog

Selecting Data

Query Type (required)

You must supply one of these values as the parameter "q":

teams	Info about teams (e.g. Richmond, Geelong, West Coast)
games	Info about games (e.g. Round 1, 2019 Richmond v Carlton)
sources	Info about models (e.g. Matter of Stats, GRAFT, Swinburne)
tips	Info about tips and predictions made by models
standings	Info about team standings (i.e. the ladder)
ladder	Info about predicted ladders generated by models
virtual	Info about Virtually Season 2020
pav	Info about Player Approximate Value from HPN Footy

Format (optional)

You may specify a preferred output format using the parameter "format":

JSON	JSON format (default)
XML	XML format
CSV	Comma-separated values

Additional Parameters (optional)

Each query type has additional parameters that you may specify in order to restrict the data to a particular subset that you're interested in. See below for details.

To exclude data, prepend the parameter value with an exclamation mark (!), e.g. 2020 games except Round 1.

Default behavior when parameters aren't specified (e.g. requesting "?q=games" with no "year=xxxx" parameter) is undefined and subject to change. For example, at present, "?q=games" returns data on all games, but in the future, it may default to the current year. For reliability, supply parameters to identify the exact data you want.

teams

Fetch info about one or more AFL teams.

https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=teams

Examples:

• All teams

• Richmond

Optional Parameters:

team

Team ID

games

Fetch info about one or more games.

https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=games

Examples:

• West Coast v Geelong on 8th April, 2018

• All games from Round 1, 2017

• All incomplete games in 2020

Optional Parameters:

year	Year
round	Round
game	Game ID
complete	Percent of game complete

Note: The original 2020 fixture is available as "2020-original" — e.g. all originally fixtured 2020 games.

sources

Fetch info about one or more computer models.

https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=sources

Examples:

• All sources

• Matter of Stats

Optional Parameters:

source

Source ID

tips

Fetch info about one or more tips made by computer models.

https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=tips

Examples:

• Tips for West Coast v Geelong on 8th April, 2018

• Tips for Round 1, 2020

• Tips by Live Ladders for incomplete 2020 games

Optional Parameters:

year	Year
round	Round
game	Game ID
game	Source ID
complete	Percent of game complete

standings

Fetch info about team standings at a point in time, i.e. the ladder.

https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=standings

Examples:

• The current ladder

• The ladder after Round 1, 2020

Optional Parameters:

year	Year
round	Round

ladder

Fetch info about one or more projected ladders generated by computer models. For the actual ladder, see standings instead.

https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=ladder

Examples:

• Projected ladders after Round 11, 2020

• Squiggle's projected ladder as at Round 15, 2019

Optional Parameters:

year	Year
round	Round
source	Source ID

virtual

Fetch info about one or more games in Virtually Season 2020.

https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=virtual

Examples:

• Virtual results from Round 10, 2020

• Virtual results of Essendon v Richmond on May 23, 2020

Optional Parameters:

year	Year
round	Round
game	Game ID
complete	Percent of game complete

pav

Fetch info about players using HPN Footy's Player Approximate Value.

https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=pav

Examples:

• Find summary info for all players named "Dustin"

• Find info on "Dustin Martin" of the Richmond Tigers from 2017

Optional Parameters:

firstname	Exact Player First Name
surname	Exact Player Surname
name	Player Name (full or part)
match	If set, match loosely on name and return summary info
year	Year
team	Team ID

Limitations:

A maximum of 50 rows will be returned.

Data is provided by HPN Footy.

Additional Examples

• Tips from all sources for Round 1, 2018

• Tips from The Arc for 2017

• Tips from all sources for Richmond v Brisbane, Round 4, 2018

• Tips from Squiggle for Round 4, 2018

• Completed games only from 2018

• Future games only from 2018 in XML format

• Ladder predictions after Round 10, 2019

• AFL Lab's ladder prediction after Round 10, 2019 in CSV format

• Round 10 results for Virtually Season 2020

• All non-complete games from Round 22, 2018

• All sources except Aggregate

Using Data

Google Sheets

To automatically import data into Google Sheets, enter a formula like this into a cell:

	=IMPORTXML("https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=tips;year=2018;source=1;format=xml", "/*/*")
	

... wait a second and bam! Data appears.

Microsoft Excel

I believe you can do the same thing in Excel, although I don't own a copy so can't test. From what I've read, in newer versions you do: Data → Get & Transform → From File → From JSON and then can enter an URL (like https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=tips;year=2018;source=1).

Excel can read JSON, XML, and CSV, so it shouldn't matter which you choose, so long as the URL matches the function. (That is, if you click "From JSON", don't give it an URL with ";format=xml".)

LibreOffice Calc

Use Sheet → Link to External Data and paste in the appropriate URL (like https://api.squiggle.com.au/?q=teams;format=csv). You may need to specify XML or CSV format (not JSON).

Automated Usage

Sometimes well-meaning scripts and bots spiral out of control and make hundreds or thousands of requests for data in a very short period. If you set your bot's UserAgent to something informative, I can contact you if this happens and explain the problem. If you don't, all I can do is block you. So if you're seeing a block message, that's why.

Please write a well-behaved bot:

1. Set the UserAgent to something that identifies it and allows me to contact you.

2. Cache and re-use the data you get. (I am looking right now at a bot that is fetching the names of all AFL teams in bursts of 18 identical requests, and another that asks the API every 9 seconds for every bit of data it has on everything.)

3. Avoid making large numbers of simultaneous requests — if you need information on a season's worth of games, fetch it all in one request, not one request per game.

4. Avoid fetching more data than you need — if you only need info on one game, don't ask for the whole season.

5. Consider what your bot will do when it encounters an unexpected return code or data, and make it not repeat the same request over and over at maximum speed.

Changelog

June 2020	1.5.0	Added pav for HPN Footy's Player Approximate Value ratings.
June 2020	1.4.1	Restored original 2020 fixture as '2020-original'.
March 2020	1.4.0	Added virtual for Virtually Season 2020.
June 2019	1.3.0	Added standings for generating actual ladder at a point in time
June 2019	1.2.0	Added support for output as comma-separated values (CSV)
May 2019	1.1.0	Added ladder for outputting ladder predictions
April 2018	1.0.0	Original version

Max Barry

squiggle.com.au

twitter.com/squiggleAFL