Migrating to ParlayAPI WebSocket

Moving from OddsJam, OpticOdds, SharpAPI, or The Odds API polling to our WebSocket? This guide maps URL paths, auth headers, sport keys, market keys, and behavior so you don't have to read both docs side-by-side.

Reference Quickstart Examples Player props Edge alerts Migration

From The Odds API (polling REST)

TOA doesn't offer push streaming. The migration is "stop polling, open a WebSocket once, react to odds_update frames as they land." Your existing TOA URL pattern maps cleanly:

The Odds API	ParlayAPI WebSocket
`GET /v4/sports/basketball_nba/odds?apiKey=K` (poll every 5–60 s)	`WSS /v1/ws/odds/basketball_nba?apiKey=K`
`GET /v4/sports/basketball_nba/events/{id}/odds`	Same WSS as above, send `{"type":"subscribe","event_id":"..."}` after connect
Auth: `apiKey` query param	Auth: `apiKey` query param (or `X-API-Key` header)
Sport keys: `basketball_nba`, `baseball_mlb`, ...	Same sport keys, byte-identical
Market keys: `h2h`, `spreads`, `totals`, `player_points`	Same market keys

Row shape differs slightly: TOA returns nested bookmakers → markets → outcomes, our WebSocket flattens to one row per outcome. See the full TOA migration guide for the field-by-field mapping.

From OddsJam (their WebSocket → ours)

OddsJam	ParlayAPI
Endpoint: `wss://api.oddsjam.com/v2/stream/...`	`wss://parlay-api.com/v1/ws/odds/{sport_key}`
Auth: `X-API-Key` header	Same: `X-API-Key` header (or query param)
Filter: subscribe channel per market	Filter: single `subscribe` frame per event, or query-param prefilters (`bookmakers=`, `markets=`) on SSE
Sport keys: OddsJam-specific (`NBA`, `MLB`)	Lower-snake (`basketball_nba`, `baseball_mlb`)
Frame envelope: `{ event_type, data }`	`{ type, data, sport_key, timestamp, count, coalesced }`
Pricing: starts at $700/mo	WebSocket on Business $499/mo, Scale $1,500/mo (no add-on tier needed)

If you have an OddsJam consumer, the structural change is: replace their per-market channel subscribe with our per-event subscribe; map their sport-name strings to our snake-case sport_keys; rename event_type → type.

From OpticOdds

OpticOdds	ParlayAPI
Endpoint: `wss://api.opticodds.com/api/v3/stream/...`	`wss://parlay-api.com/v1/ws/odds/{sport_key}`
Auth: query string `?key=K`	Query `?apiKey=K` or header `X-API-Key`
Frame: protobuf option, JSON option	JSON only (one object per WS frame)
Sport keys: nfl, nba, mlb (short)	Snake-case long (`americanfootball_nfl`, `basketball_nba`)
Subscribe: channel-per-game, multi-channel	Single `subscribe` frame, one event filter per connection
Pricing: $799+/mo	Business $499/mo

From SharpAPI

SharpAPI focuses on polling REST. Their streaming is gated behind an enterprise add-on. Our standard Business / Enterprise / Scale tiers all include WebSocket.

SharpAPI	ParlayAPI
`GET /v1/odds?sport=nba`	`WSS /v1/ws/odds/basketball_nba`
Auth: `Authorization: Bearer`	`X-API-Key` (or `?apiKey=`, or `Authorization: Bearer` for SSE)
Streaming: add-on tier, contact sales	Included on Business / Enterprise / Scale

Side-by-side row shape

How the same NBA h2h price looks across vendors. Where vendors nest, we flatten — each row is one outcome at one book.

The Odds API

{
  "id": "abc123",
  "sport_key": "basketball_nba",
  "home_team": "Boston Celtics",
  "away_team": "New York Knicks",
  "commence_time": "2026-05-13T23:30:00Z",
  "bookmakers": [{
    "key": "draftkings",
    "title": "DraftKings",
    "last_update": "2026-05-13T23:24:18Z",
    "markets": [{
      "key": "h2h",
      "last_update": "2026-05-13T23:24:18Z",
      "outcomes": [
        { "name": "Boston Celtics", "price": -135 },
        { "name": "New York Knicks", "price": +115 }
      ]
    }]
  }]
}

ParlayAPI WebSocket (per outcome, flat)

{
  "event_id":   "2026-05-13_Boston_Celtics_New_York_Knicks",
  "home_team":  "Boston Celtics",
  "away_team":  "New York Knicks",
  "commence_time": "2026-05-13T23:30:00Z",
  "bookmaker":  "draftkings",
  "market_key": "h2h",
  "outcome":    "Boston Celtics",
  "price_american": -135,
  "price_decimal":   1.741,
  "line":        null,
  "last_update": "2026-05-13T23:24:18Z"
}

To reconstruct TOA's nested shape on your end, group by (event_id, bookmaker, market_key).

Behavior differences to know about

We're silent on no-change cycles. Other vendors push every poll cycle even when prices haven't changed. We don't. If you're benchmarking "frames per second," you'll see ours much lower — that's by design (change-detect at the collector), not a coverage gap.
One sport per connection. Some vendors let you multi-sport-subscribe through a single socket. We require one socket per sport_key. Easier to reason about, cheaper on memory at our edge.
Tier coalescing is explicit. Business gets 1 s coalesce, Enterprise 0.5 s, Scale raw. The connected envelope tells you which one you're on, so you can verify in code what tier you bought.
Player-name normalization. "J. Tatum" / "Jayson Tatum" / "Tatum, Jayson" all come through as Jayson Tatum in the player field. Other vendors leave this to the consumer.
No synthetic odds. If a book doesn't quote a side, we don't derive it from the opposite side. Other vendors sometimes do; the result looks like more coverage but is fabricated. See our no-synthetic-data policy.

Pricing comparison snapshot

Vendor	Cheapest tier with WS / streaming	Concurrent conns at that tier
The Odds API	No WebSocket. REST polling only.	—
OddsJam	$799/mo	Varies, often 5–10
OpticOdds	$799/mo enterprise quote	Custom
SharpAPI	Add-on, $1,000+/mo	Custom
ParlayAPI Business	$499/mo	100
ParlayAPI Scale	$1,500/mo (raw stream, no coalesce)	1000

Numbers above are as of 2026-05-13 from each vendor's published pricing pages. Verify with each vendor for current.

Help porting

If you have a working consumer against another vendor and want help porting, paste a redacted snippet at /support and we'll send back the equivalent for our protocol. Most ports are 30–60 lines of changes.