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.
[
{
"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.
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.
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.
Measured Score Breakdown
Live HTTP request to the API endpoint
Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026
Technical Specifications
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