Skip the install. Get this working in under 2 minutes.
Start a free trial on cloud.anythingmcp.com, add the ESPN in one click, then point your AI client (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot or Cursor) at the generated MCP endpoint. No Docker, no git clone, zero engineering experience required.
AnythingMCP is listed in Claude's connector directory: add it to Claude in one click (opens in a new tab), then sign in and choose which MCP servers Claude may use.
Summary
ESPN public sports data, no API key: scoreboards, game summaries, news, teams, rosters, schedules, standings and injury reports for NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL, college sports and major soccer leagues. Unofficial API without an SLA.
Try asking
Example prompts for ESPN
Click any prompt to copy it. Paste into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, Copilot or OpenClaw to run it against this connector.
Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.
💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → ESPN, install it with no key, mint an MCP API key and you're done. No Docker, no
git clone, no local server.
ESPN + Claude
ESPN public sports data, no API key: scoreboards, game summaries, news, teams, rosters, schedules, standings and injury reports for NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL, college sports and major soccer leagues. Unofficial API without an SLA.
Prerequisites
See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:
(none: public data, no API key)
Step 1 — Set up the connector
Public data, no key: setup takes under a minute. The connector reads ESPN's public site API, the same feed behind the scoreboards on espn.com. No ESPN account, API key or sign-in is needed.
- In the connector store, pick ESPN and install it. There is nothing to paste and no Authorize with Provider step.
- Check it with
espn_get_scoreboardfor sportfootballand leaguenfl: it shows today's NFL games, if there are any, with scores and status.
Unofficial, no SLA: ESPN does not document this API or promise anything about it. Fields, league slugs and limits can change without notice, and ESPN can block heavy use. The AI keeps calls few and does not poll every few seconds. Do not use it as the data feed of a commercial product: for that, license data from ESPN or a sports data provider. The content belongs to ESPN.
What it reads: scoreboards with teams, scores, status and clock, venue, TV and the betting line ESPN shows; game summaries with the score by period, box score, stat leaders, scoring plays, soccer key events and lineups; headlines for a league or one team, with the link to the article; teams with their record and next game; rosters with injury status and the head coach; a team's schedule and results for a season; standings; and league injury reports.
Leagues: NFL and college football; NBA, WNBA and men's and women's college basketball; MLB; NHL; and in soccer the Premier League (eng.1), LaLiga (esp.1), Bundesliga (ger.1), Serie A (ita.1), Ligue 1 (fra.1), MLS (usa.1), Champions League, Europa League and the World Cup. An unknown league answers 400.
Dates: a day, a month or a season: the scoreboard takes one day (YYYYMMDD), one month (YYYYMM) or one season (YYYY), and today when you leave it out. There is no time filter, and ESPN refuses ranges such as 1 to 18 October, so for a few days the AI asks day by day or for the whole month. NFL and college football can also be asked by week.
Read-only: every tool only reads, so there is nothing to confirm and no tool is switched off at install.
Reading the data: times come in UTC, and the AI converts kickoff and tip-off times to your time zone. The betting line is what ESPN displays, usually from one sportsbook; for a real odds comparison use a betting odds connector. Standings columns differ by sport: soccer has points and goal difference, US leagues win percentage and games behind. Soccer leagues usually return an empty injury report.
Limits: ESPN publishes no rate limit and can block heavy use, so the AI prefers one scoreboard or schedule over many single calls. College days can have hundreds of games, so it narrows them by conference or a limit.
The connector does not sign in to an ESPN account, show video or full articles, or provide data licensed for commercial use.
Step 2 — Install the adapter
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d
Step 3 — Add the connector in Claude
Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (
https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide showsYOUR_SERVER_ID.
Recommended path: works on claude.ai web without editing any config file.
- In Claude, open Customize → Connectors.
- Click +, then Add custom connector.
- Enter a name, e.g.
ESPN, and the remote MCP server URLhttps://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID, then click Add. - Click Connect and sign in to AnythingMCP (OAuth) to allow access.
All tools below appear in your chat: start typing prompts.
Available tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
espn_get_scoreboard | Games of one league on a day (default today): teams, scores, status and clock, venue, TV and the betting line ESPN shows |
espn_get_game_summary | One game in detail by ESPN event id: score by period, team box score stats, stat leaders, scoring plays, soccer key events and lineups… |
espn_get_news | Latest ESPN headlines for a league, or for one team: headline, short description, publish time, byline and the link to the article on… |
espn_list_teams | All teams of a league with ESPN id, abbreviation, name and location |
espn_get_team | One team: name, current record (overall, home, away), standing summary, home venue and next game |
espn_get_team_roster | Current roster of a team with ESPN athlete id, jersey, position, age, height, weight, experience, status and injury status, plus the head… |
espn_get_team_schedule | A team's schedule and results for a season: date, opponent, home or away, score, winner and status for each game, with the event id for… |
espn_get_standings | League table or standings by conference: wins, losses, points, win percentage, games behind, streak and the other columns ESPN shows |
espn_get_injuries | Injury report of every team in a league (NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL): player, position, status (Out, Questionable, Day-To-Day ...), date and… |
Example prompts
- "What are tonight's NBA scores, and which games are still being played?"
- "Who is on the Kansas City Chiefs injury report this week?"
- "Show me the Premier League table and the results of last weekend."
- "Give me the box score and the scoring plays of last night's Yankees game."
- "What are the latest ESPN headlines about the Lakers?"
FAQ
Does it work with Claude Code as well as Claude Desktop? Yes, point both at https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID.
Next steps
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