Balldontlie MCP Server

The Balldontlie MCP Server bridges the gap between conversational AI assistants and real‑time sports data. By wrapping the publicly available Balldontlie API, it exposes a set of intuitive tools that let developers query teams, players, and games across the NBA, NFL, and MLB without writing any custom HTTP requests. This capability is especially valuable for building interactive sports dashboards, chat‑based coaching assistants, or analytics bots that need up‑to‑date information about schedules, rosters, and game outcomes.

At its core, the server offers four primary tools. get_teams retrieves a league’s roster of franchises, enabling quick look‑ups or populating dropdowns in user interfaces. get_players searches for athletes by league and optional name filters, supporting pagination through a cursor parameter. get_games lists fixtures for a league, filtered by date ranges or team identifiers, while get_game fetches the full details of a single match by its unique ID. These tools are designed to be lightweight, stateless calls that return JSON objects the same way a native API would, making them straightforward to consume from any LLM or custom workflow.

Beyond the raw data tools, the server includes a dedicated prompt—schedule_generator—which takes a league and date range as input and produces an interactive schedule directly in Claude Desktop. This feature demonstrates how MCP servers can not only supply data but also orchestrate higher‑level UI interactions, turning simple queries into rich, context‑aware experiences for end users.

Typical use cases involve sports analytics platforms that want to surface live scores or historical player statistics within a chat interface, or educational tools that let students explore team histories and game outcomes. Developers can embed the server into their own LLM‑powered applications, leveraging the existing MCP infrastructure to handle authentication, rate limiting, and error handling automatically. The result is a plug‑and‑play component that adds authoritative sports data to any AI workflow with minimal friction.

What sets this MCP apart is its focus on multiple major American sports leagues and the inclusion of both low‑level data tools and a higher‑level schedule prompt. By combining these elements, the Balldontlie MCP Server offers a comprehensive, ready‑to‑use solution for any developer looking to enrich their AI assistants with live, structured sports information.