Product planning
Data Feed Requirements for an Odds Comparison Site
An odds comparison product must decide when two prices are genuinely comparable. That requires consistent event identity, source identity, market rules, period, line, participant, and timestamps—not merely labels that look similar.
01
Define the comparison key
Write a canonical key for every displayed row. At minimum it may include event, market type, period, participant or outcome, line, and rules such as overtime inclusion. If any element is omitted, the interface can present unlike prices as though they were alternatives.
Maintain source and operator identifiers separately. Display names, brands, and URLs can change without changing the underlying source relationship.
02
Make freshness and availability visible
Store the provider timestamp and your receipt time with each price. Define when a price becomes stale, suspended, or unavailable, and whether it remains visible for historical context. Do not silently treat the last known price as current.
Ask how replacements, line changes, market suspensions, event-time changes, and deletions are represented. Test these states rather than relying on static samples.
- Source, event, market, period, outcome, and line identifiers
- Provider and receiver timestamps
- Suspended, closed, stale, replaced, and deleted states
- Rules for duplicate events and conflicting mappings
03
Confirm display and commercial permissions
Confirm which prices and source names may be displayed, stored, compared, or redistributed in each territory. If the product links users onward, define who owns destination mapping and how broken or changed destinations are monitored.
Evaluate with the real comparison algorithm. Count unmatched events, falsely matched markets, stale prices, correction handling, and manual mapping effort by source.
Worksheet
Requirements to confirm
Use these rows as the start of a written evaluation. Add the exact competitions, territories, product surfaces, and acceptance evidence your team needs.
| Area | Confirm | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Comparison key | Event, market, period, outcome, line, rules, and source identifiers | Prevents unlike prices from appearing in one row |
| Freshness rule | Provider time, receipt time, stale threshold, and last-known-price behavior | Stops an old price from appearing current |
| Market lifecycle | Suspend, replace, correct, close, and delete states | Keeps availability accurate as markets change |
| Display rights | Source naming, storage, comparison, redistribution, and destination-link use | Defines what the customer-facing product may publish |
Checklist
Questions to take to a provider
- What exact fields make two prices comparable?
- How long can a price remain visible without an update?
- How are suspensions, replacements, corrections, and deletions represented?
- Which display, storage, comparison, and redistribution rights are required?
The answers should be tied to the exact sports, competitions, fields, territories, delivery, and permitted use your product needs. Current Core Data Services availability is confirmed during discovery.