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How to Display Real-Time Scores on a Website

Illustration of real-time scores displayed on a website

Two ways to show live scores on a site

You can either embed a ready-made live leaderboard, or pull the data via API and render it yourself. The embed takes minutes; the API gives you full control over the look. Here's how to do both.

Option 1: Embed (fastest)

Create a board on BoardQ and drop its embed into your page with an iframe:

  • Add the board's embed URL inside an iframe on your page
  • Size it to fit your layout (it's responsive)
  • It updates in real time on its own — no JavaScript required

Perfect for event pages, club sites, and landing pages where you want live standings with zero maintenance.

Option 2: API (full control)

If you want the leaderboard to match your site's design exactly, fetch the rankings from the API and render your own markup. Poll on an interval, or subscribe to real-time updates, and re-render when the data changes. You own the styling; the API owns the ranking.

Keep it performant

  • Lazy-load the embed if it's below the fold
  • Throttle polling — every few seconds is plenty for most events
  • Cache the last response so the UI never flashes empty

Get started

Add live scores to your site in minutes. Get the embed and API → To connect your data source, see how to connect your app to a live scoreboard.

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