{{Short description|American sports statistics company}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox company | name = Sports Reference, LLC | logo = Sports Reference Logo.svg | logo_size = 300px | type = Private | industry = Sports statistics | fate = | predecessor = | successor = | founded = {{Start date and age|2004|08|}} | founder = Sean Forman | defunct = | hq_location_city = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | hq_location_country = US | area_served = | key_people = | products = {{Bulleted list|Baseball Reference|Basketball Reference|FBref|Hockey Reference|Immaculate Grid|Pro Football Reference|SR/College Basketball|{{anchor|College_football}}SR/College Football|Stathead}} | owner = | num_employees = | num_employees_year = | parent = | website = {{official URL}} }}
'''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.<ref name=FSJ_Stake>{{cite news |last=Kramer |first=Staci D. |date=February 17, 2009 |title=Fantasy Sports Ventures Takes Minority Stake In Sports Reference LLC |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fantasy-sports-ventures-takes-minority-stake-in-sports-reference-llc/ |access-date=September 24, 2021 |work=CBS News |agency=PaidContent.org |archive-date=September 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909005248/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fantasy-sports-ventures-takes-minority-stake-in-sports-reference-llc/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Fisher |first=Eric |date=February 16, 2009 |title=FSV buys stake in reference sites |url=http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/61558 |work=Sports Business Journal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217165943/http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/61558 |archive-date=February 17, 2009}}</ref> 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.<ref name="church">{{cite news |last1=Wagner |first1=James |title=From a Church in Philadelphia, Sports Reference Informs the World |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/sports/sean-forman-sports-reference.html |access-date=February 14, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=February 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190214011608/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/sports/sean-forman-sports-reference.html |archive-date=February 14, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=FSJ_Stake /><ref name="BusinessweekOverview">{{cite web |title=Company Overview of Sports Reference, LLC |url=http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=53311244 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006233718/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=53311244 |archive-date=October 6, 2015 |access-date=November 8, 2013 |publisher=Bloomberg Businessweek}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sports Reference Main Page |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/ |website=Sports Reference |access-date=April 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100201172906/http://www.sports-reference.com/ |archive-date=February 1, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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 {{nfly|1941}}.<ref name=FSJ_Stake /> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/blog/2024/02/sports-reference-expands-womens-college-basketball-data/ |title=Sports Reference Expands Women's College Basketball Data |first=Mike |last=Lynch |work=Sports Reference Blog |date=February 15, 2024 |access-date=February 18, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Every Score and Result in Women's NCAA Division I Basketball History Added to College Basketball Reference |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/blog/2025/11/every-score-and-result-in-womens-ncaa-division-i-basketball-history-added-to-college-basketball-reference/ |website=Sports-Reference.com Blog |access-date=November 28, 2025 |date=November 25, 2025 |last=Lynch |first=Mike}}</ref> Sports Reference purchased the baseball trivia game Immaculate Grid on July 11, 2023, and integrated it with its sites.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |last1=Kepner |first1=Tyler |author1-link=Tyler Kepner |title=The Hottest Thing in Baseball Is a Grid of Nine Blank Squares |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/sports/baseball/immaculate-grid.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=August 30, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=July 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230828055257/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/sports/baseball/immaculate-grid.html |archive-date=August 28, 2023 |url-status=live |language=en}}</ref><ref name="slate">{{cite news |last1=Winkie |first1=Luke |title=The Trendy New Trivia Game That's Like Wordle for Straight Men |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/10/immaculate-grid-nfl-mlb-sports-trivia-game.html |access-date=November 11, 2023 |work=Slate |date=October 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111114359/https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/10/immaculate-grid-nfl-mlb-sports-trivia-game.html |archive-date=November 11, 2023 |url-status=live |language=en}}</ref>
== <span class="anchor" id="olympstats.com"></span> Olympics == <!--'Olympedia' redirects here--> thumb|Sports Reference Olympics logo Sports Reference added a site for Olympic Games statistics and history in July 2008,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/blog/?p=5 |title=Olympics at Sports Reference Launches |website=Sports Reference |date=July 9, 2008 |author=Foreman |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080726042758/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/blog/?p=5 |archive-date=July 26, 2008 |first=Sean}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/about/ |title=About This Site |website=Sports Reference |access-date=July 20, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080729035411/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/about/ |archive-date=July 29, 2008}}</ref> 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.<ref name="down">{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/down.html |title=Site Closing |date=December 16, 2016 |website=Sports Reference |access-date=November 13, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161219000502/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/down.html |archive-date=December 19, 2016}}</ref> Data for the 2016 Summer Olympics were added,<ref>{{Cite web |title=2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/2016/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720165957/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/2016/ |archive-date=July 20, 2018 |access-date=July 20, 2018 |website=Sports Reference}}</ref> but the site was not updated for the 2018 Winter Olympics.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/winter/ |title=Winter Games Index |website=Sports Reference |access-date=July 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080707092830/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/winter/ |archive-date=July 7, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="down" /> Sports Reference closed its Olympic site on May 14, 2020.<ref>{{cite web |title=Site is Closed |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics.html |website=Sports Reference |access-date=May 15, 2020 |archive-date=October 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003122720/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/br/cliff-bricker-1.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
The providers of the Olympic data, known as ''OlyMADmen'', launched a new site called '''Olympedia'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> in May 2020.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lohn |first=John |date=May 27, 2020 |title=Comprehensive Olympedia Database Available to Public; Loaded with Information |url=https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/comprehensive-olympedia-database-available-to-public-loaded-with-information/ |work=Swimming World |access-date=September 24, 2021 |quote=OlyMADmen, an international group of Olympics experts and historians, have made their exhaustive Olympics database available |archive-date=September 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924201336/https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/comprehensive-olympedia-database-available-to-public-loaded-with-information/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Perelman |first=Rich |date=May 27, 2020 |title=LANE ONE: Staggering, brilliant, astonishing portal to Olympic history opens with debut of Olympedia.org |url=https://www.thesportsexaminer.com/lane-one-staggering-brilliant-astonishing-portal-to-olympic-history-opens-with-debut-of-olympedia-com/ |work=The Sports Examiner |access-date=September 26, 2021 |archive-date=September 26, 2021 |archive-url=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/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Mallon |first=Bill |date=May 27, 2020 |title=Olympedia now open to the public |url=https://olympstats.com/2020/05/27/olympedia-now-open-to-the-public/ |website=OlympStats.com |access-date=May 27, 2020 |quote=the result many years of work by a group of Olympic historians and statisticians called the OlyMADmen |archive-date=June 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200606103935/https://olympstats.com/2020/05/27/olympedia-now-open-to-the-public/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.olympedia.org/static/about |title=About |website=Olympedia |quote=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. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614210347/https://www.olympedia.org/static/about |archive-date=June 14, 2020}}</ref> According to ''Slate'', editing of "Olympedia [was] restricted to about two dozen trusted academics and researchers who specialize in Olympic history."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harrison |first=Stephen |date=July 26, 2021 |title=How to Use Wikipedia When You're Watching the Olympics |url=https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/tokyo-2020-olympic-games-wikipedia.html |work=Slate |access-date=July 29, 2021 |archive-date=July 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726164036/https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/tokyo-2020-olympic-games-wikipedia.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The site is owned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bauernfeind |first=John |date=February 27, 2017 |title=IOC looks to acquisition of Olympedia as step toward modernizing Olympic recordkeeping |url=https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2017/02/27/Olympics/Olympedia.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529021255/https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2017/02/27/Olympics/Olympedia.aspx |archive-date=May 29, 2023 |access-date=May 29, 2023 |work=Sports Business Journal |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=35em}}
==External links== * {{Official website}} * {{commons category-inline}}
Category:2004 establishments in Pennsylvania Category:American companies established in 2004 Category:American sport websites Category:Data companies Category:Sports records and statistics Category:Privately held companies based in Philadelphia