When we started Cortexscore we shipped a live scoreboard alongside the AI predictions. Match minute, in-play events, live statistics — the whole surface. Today we turned it off.
Why it never made sense
Live scores are a commodity. Sofascore, FlashScore, 365scores, FotMob, FBref — five apps with a head start, a polling infrastructure we won't catch, and a userbase that already trusts them for the live surface. Ranking against them on 'X vs Y live score' was never realistic, and even when it worked the visitor wasn't there to buy a prediction subscription — they were there to refresh a score.
Meanwhile the live polling was eating about two-thirds of our API-Football quota and pinning our Vercel / Supabase tiers into upgrade territory. We were burning the runway that funds the model on a surface we couldn't win.
What changed
- Realtime polling worker — gone (Railway service stopped).
- Live event timeline, live statistics, live scoreboard — all removed.
- Live filter chip on the match feed — removed.
- /live route — 308 redirect to /fixtures.
- Match pages in-play now show '—' for the score and a single line: 'Cortex's pick stays as-published. Result + grade land at full time.'
What stayed
Everything that makes the prediction page real:
- Pre-match Cortex pick — full reasoning, value vs market, calibrated confidence.
- Final score + 'WIN / LOSS / VOID' grade once full-time lands.
- Public track record — every settled pick, every band, every market.
- Post-match statistics from the settle pipeline (sourced once at FT, not polled).
- Pre-match analytics — head-to-head, recent form, injuries, lineups, market odds.
What this changes for the product
The savings — about $15-20 per month outside the World Cup window, more during peak — go straight back into the AI generation budget. Sharper picks, more frequent calibration audits, and the headroom to invest in surfaces that actually move the needle (deeper player props, smarter abstain logic, a proper post-match verification panel).
Positioning gets simpler too. 'AI football predictions, audited.' One thing, done well. Anything we add from here has to support that — or it shouldn't be on the site.