How a live score reaches your screen
Somebody scores; moments afterwards your phone shows it. In between, the event is recorded, checked, sent and displayed. Here is each step, and where things can go wrong.
Published · Updated
Live scores feel instant. They are actually the end of a short chain, and every link in it is a place where a delay or an error can creep in.
1. Collection
A licensed data provider has people or systems at the venue, or watching an official broadcast, who log each event as it happens: a goal, a card, a substitution, a point. Each event gets a time, a team and, where it matters, a player.
2. Verification at source
Good providers check fast-moving events before they are final. A goal can be logged as provisional and confirmed seconds later, or corrected when the scorer is reassigned. That is why a scorer's name occasionally changes after a goal appears.
3. Delivery
A real-time provider pushes updates to publishers over a streaming connection rather than waiting to be asked, so the number on the page changes without a reload.
Where we are today
PlayTheDream does not yet carry a real-time feed. Our editors key in results, standings and fixtures by hand once a round has been played, from the competitions' official records, cross-checked against a second reference where one exists, and every match centre links to the report it was taken from. Minute-by-minute updates will come from a licensed real-time provider; its name will appear on the Data Sources page once the agreement is signed.
When something is wrong
If a score or scorer on a live page does not match what you saw, send it to the address on our corrections page. We log every confirmed change, with the time and the reason, so a correction is visible rather than silent.
What we will never do
We do not run automated scrapers against other publishers' apps or sites. Every figure is entered by an editor from an official or clearly credited source, which is linked from the page it appears on.