OpenLigaDB API

Beginner's Pick Sports & Fitness / No Auth Required Beginner HTTPS CORS
Free to Use
72 B
Measured Score 0 50 100 Speed 13/30 Consistency 20/20 Security 20/20 Browser access 15/15 Transparency 4/15 TESTED 2026-08-10

Overview

OpenLigaDB is a free, crowd-sourced API providing sports league results, schedules, and standings for various leagues primarily German football (Bundesliga) but also others. No API key is needed, so you can fetch current matchday results with a simple GET request. It is a friendly entry point for sports data beginners thanks to its clean JSON responses.

Beginner Tip

Start with the /getmatchdata/{leagueShortcut}/{leagueSeason}/{group} endpoint to retrieve results for a specific matchday. Use bl1 as the league shortcut for Bundesliga 1st division.

Measurement Record

What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.

Request
GET https://api.openligadb.de/getmatchdata/bl1/2023/1
Result
HTTP 200 · application/json · 17,381 bytes
Response time
295 ms (median of 3) · fastest 294 ms
Transport
TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Let's Encrypt
Browser CORS
Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Served by
Microsoft-IIS/10.0
Recorded
2026-08-10

Fields Returned

Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.

Field Type Value received
matchID integer 66631
matchDateTime string (date) 2023-08-19T18:30:00
timeZoneID string W. Europe Standard Time
leagueId integer 4608
leagueName string 1. Fußball-Bundesliga 2023/2024
leagueSeason integer 2023
leagueShortcut string bl1
matchDateTimeUTC string (date) 2023-08-19T16:30:00Z
group object {3 fields}
team1 object {5 fields}
team2 object {5 fields}
lastUpdateDateTime string (date) 2023-08-19T20:26:19.993
matchIsFinished boolean true
matchResults array [1 item]

Captured Response

Captured from a real request to https://api.openligadb.de/getmatchdata/bl1/2023/1 on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.

JSON Response · Captured
[
  {
    "matchID": 66631,
    "matchDateTime": "2023-08-19T18:30:00",
    "timeZoneID": "W. Europe Standard Time",
    "leagueId": 4608,
    "leagueName": "1. Fußball-Bundesliga 2023/2024",
    "leagueSeason": 2023,
    "leagueShortcut": "bl1",
    "matchDateTimeUTC": "2023-08-19T16:30:00Z",
    "group": {
      "groupName": "1. Spieltag",
      "groupOrderID": 1,
      "groupID": 41129
    },
    "team1": {
      "teamId": 7,
      "teamName": "Borussia Dortmund",
      "shortName": "Dortmund",
      "teamIconUrl": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Borussia_Dortmund_logo.svg/960px-Borussia_Dortmund_logo.svg.png",
      "teamGroupName": null
    },
    "team2": {
      "teamId": 65,
      "teamName": "1. FC Köln",
      "shortName": "Köln",
      "teamIconUrl": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/1._FC_Koeln_Logo_2014%E2%80%93.svg",
      "teamGroupName": null
    },
    "lastUpdateDateTime": "2023-08-19T20:26:19.993",
    "matchIsFinished": true,
    "matchResults": [
      {
        "…": "(8 more fields)"
      }
    ],
    "…": "(3 more fields)"
  }
]

Field Reference

matchID Unique identifier for the match
matchDateTimeUTC Match kick-off time in UTC ISO 8601 format
matchIsFinished True if the match has been completed

Implementation Example

Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.

Request
const url = "https://api.openligadb.de/getmatchdata/bl1/2023/1";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

What Can You Build?

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

How This API Fails

We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.

HTTP 404 Requesting a path that does not exist unknown

Returned an HTML error page rather than JSON — worth knowing if your client assumes every response can be parsed as JSON.

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.

404 Not Found Incorrect league shortcut or season year
Check the available leagues at /getavailableleagues and use the correct leagueShortcut value
Null matchResults array Requesting future matches that have no results yet
Only scores for completed matches are available; filter by the matchIsFinished field
Unexpected data structure Different leagues may return slightly different field sets
Always check for the presence of optional fields before accessing them

Measured Score Breakdown

Live HTTP request to the API endpoint

Speed 13/30
Consistency 20/20
Security 20/20
Browser access 15/15
Transparency 4/15
Endpoint Response Time 295ms

Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026

Technical Specifications

Auth No Auth
HTTPS REQUIRED
CORS YES
Category Sports & Fitness
Difficulty Beginner
Endpoint last called: 2026-08-10

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