A sports score notifier for home servers. It polls ESPN and HockeyTech APIs for final scores across multiple sports and leagues, then fires a single webhook notification per game for each team you care about. No score goes unnoticed; no notification repeats.
It is a single Go binary with no runtime dependencies. Drop it on any Linux or macOS machine, point it at a config file, and schedule it with cron or systemd.
- Tracks teams across NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, AHL, PWHL, ECHL, MLS, college football, college basketball, and more
- Follow an entire league during the playoffs with a wildcard
"*"abbreviation andpostseasonOnly: true - One notification per completed game -- no duplicates, even across restarts
- Built-in Slack and Discord payload presets; custom Go template support for any other platform
- Webhook URL configurable via environment variable or config file
- Custom HTTP headers supported (for auth tokens and other per-platform requirements)
- Persistent state in a plain JSON file; old entries are pruned automatically
- Single static binary, no runtime dependencies, no Docker required
Download the appropriate binary for your platform from the Releases page:
| Platform | File |
|---|---|
| Linux x86-64 | game-over-man-linux-amd64 |
| Linux ARM64 (Raspberry Pi, etc.) | game-over-man-linux-arm64 |
| macOS Intel | game-over-man-darwin-amd64 |
| macOS Apple Silicon | game-over-man-darwin-arm64 |
| Windows x86-64 | game-over-man-windows-amd64.exe |
# Example: Linux x86-64
curl -fsSL https://github.com/rorpage/game-over-man/releases/latest/download/game-over-man-linux-amd64 \
-o /usr/local/bin/game-over-man
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/game-over-manRequires Go 1.22+.
git clone https://github.com/rorpage/game-over-man.git
cd game-over-man
CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o game-over-man .
sudo mv game-over-man /usr/local/bin/Create a config file at ~/.config/game-over-man/config.json:
mkdir -p ~/.config/game-over-man
nano ~/.config/game-over-man/config.json{
"teams": [
{ "sport": "hockey", "league": "nhl", "abbreviation": "CHI" },
{ "sport": "football", "league": "nfl", "abbreviation": "IND" },
{ "sport": "basketball", "league": "nba", "abbreviation": "IND" }
]
}See config.example.json for a more complete example with all supported fields.
| Field | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
teams |
Yes | -- | Array of teams to track |
teams[].sport |
Yes | -- | Sport category (e.g. hockey, football) |
teams[].league |
Yes | -- | League identifier (e.g. nhl, nfl) |
teams[].abbreviation |
Yes | -- | Team abbreviation as used by the data provider (e.g. CHI, IND), or "*" to match every team in the league. Use "*" first to discover abbreviations from notification payloads if unsure. |
teams[].postseasonOnly |
No | false |
When true, skip games that are not part of the postseason/playoffs |
notificationUrl |
See note | -- | Webhook URL to POST alerts to |
notificationMethod |
No | POST |
HTTP method for notifications |
notificationHeaders |
No | -- | Extra headers (e.g. {"Authorization": "Bearer ..."}) |
notificationType |
No | webhook |
Payload format: webhook, slack, discord, or template |
notificationTemplate |
If template |
-- | Go template string used when notificationType is template |
stateFilePath |
No | ~/.config/game-over-man/state.json |
Where to persist notification state |
pruneAfterDays |
No | 30 |
How many days to keep state entries before pruning |
Notification URL: Set via the NOTIFICATION_URL environment variable (preferred, keeps it out of the config file) or as notificationUrl in the config. The env var takes precedence.
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
NOTIFICATION_URL |
Webhook URL (overrides notificationUrl in config) |
CONFIG_FILE |
Path to config file (default: ~/.config/game-over-man/config.json) |
STATE_FILE |
Path to state file (default: ~/.config/game-over-man/state.json) |
| Sport | League | sport value |
league value |
API |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Football | NFL | football |
nfl |
ESPN |
| Football | College Football | football |
college-football |
ESPN |
| Basketball | NBA | basketball |
nba |
ESPN |
| Basketball | WNBA | basketball |
wnba |
ESPN |
| Basketball | Men's NCAA | basketball |
mens-college-basketball |
ESPN |
| Basketball | Women's NCAA | basketball |
womens-college-basketball |
ESPN |
| Baseball | MLB | baseball |
mlb |
ESPN |
| Hockey | NHL | hockey |
nhl |
ESPN |
| Hockey | AHL | hockey |
ahl |
ESPN |
| Hockey | PWHL | hockey |
pwhl |
HockeyTech |
| Hockey | ECHL | hockey |
echl |
HockeyTech |
| Soccer | MLS | soccer |
usa.1 |
ESPN |
| Soccer | NWSL | soccer |
usa.nwsl |
ESPN |
| Soccer | Premier League | soccer |
eng.1 |
ESPN |
| Soccer | La Liga | soccer |
esp.1 |
ESPN |
| Soccer | Serie A | soccer |
ita.1 |
ESPN |
| Soccer | Bundesliga | soccer |
ger.1 |
ESPN |
| Soccer | Ligue 1 | soccer |
fra.1 |
ESPN |
| Soccer | Champions League | soccer |
uefa.champions |
ESPN |
| Soccer | FIFA World Cup | soccer |
fifa.world |
ESPN |
The correct API is selected automatically based on the league value -- no extra config needed.
The ESPN API may support additional leagues. Test any sport/league pair with:
curl "http://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/{sport}/{league}/scoreboard"Each alert is an HTTP POST with Content-Type: application/json:
{
"game": {
"id": "401589012",
"sport": "hockey",
"league": "nhl",
"date": "2026-05-20T02:00:00Z",
"homeTeam": { "name": "Chicago Blackhawks", "abbreviation": "CHI", "score": 4, "isHome": true, "logoUrl": "https://a.espncdn.com/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/chi.png" },
"awayTeam": { "name": "Colorado Avalanche", "abbreviation": "COL", "score": 3, "isHome": false, "logoUrl": "https://a.espncdn.com/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/col.png" },
"statusDescription": "Final/OT",
"isPostseason": true
},
"summary": "Chicago Blackhawks 4, Colorado Avalanche 3 (NHL Final/OT)",
"winner": "Chicago Blackhawks",
"loser": "Colorado Avalanche",
"isDraw": false
}winner and loser are null when the game ends in a draw.
Point notificationUrl at your topic URL (e.g. https://ntfy.sh/my-sports-alerts). The full JSON payload will be the body. To show just the summary as a plain-text push notification, use ntfy's message templating or run a small proxy.
The notificationType field controls the outgoing payload shape:
| Type | Payload sent |
|---|---|
webhook (default) |
Full JSON object (see Notification Payload) |
slack |
Slack Block Kit message with team logos, scores, and a result banner |
discord |
{"content": "<summary>"} — ready for a Discord webhook URL |
template |
Output of your Go template, rendered against the payload data |
Slack:
{
"notificationUrl": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/...",
"notificationType": "slack"
}The Slack payload uses Block Kit for a rich scoreboard layout: a header with a sport emoji (🏒🏈⚾🏀⚽) and league name, one section per team showing the score, abbreviation, team name, and logo image, and a context block announcing the winner or draw. A plain-text text field is always included as a fallback for clients that don't render blocks.
Discord:
{
"notificationUrl": "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/...",
"notificationType": "discord"
}Custom template:
Set notificationType to "template" and provide a notificationTemplate string. The template is rendered with Go's text/template and has access to all payload fields:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
{{.Summary}} |
Pre-built summary string (e.g. Utah HC 4, Colorado 3 (NHL Final/OT)) |
{{.Winner}} |
Winner's name, or empty if a draw |
{{.Loser}} |
Loser's name, or empty if a draw |
{{.IsDraw}} |
true if the game ended in a draw |
{{.Game.HomeTeam.Name}} / {{.Game.AwayTeam.Name}} |
Team names |
{{.Game.HomeTeam.Score}} / {{.Game.AwayTeam.Score}} |
Final scores |
{{.Game.HomeTeam.Abbreviation}} |
Team abbreviation |
{{.Game.HomeTeam.LogoURL}} / {{.Game.AwayTeam.LogoURL}} |
Team logo image URL (ESPN CDN for ESPN leagues; HockeyTech CDN for PWHL/ECHL; empty string if unavailable) |
{{.Game.Sport}} / {{.Game.League}} |
Sport and league |
{{.Game.StatusDescription}} |
Status string (e.g. Final, Final/OT) |
{{.Game.IsPostseason}} |
true if the game is part of the postseason/playoffs |
Example — ntfy.sh with a plain-text title:
{
"notificationUrl": "https://ntfy.sh/my-sports-alerts",
"notificationType": "template",
"notificationTemplate": "{\"topic\": \"my-sports-alerts\", \"message\": \"{{.Summary}}\"}"
}The binary is a one-shot job: it runs, checks scores, and exits.
systemd timers have proper log capture via journalctl, survive reboots cleanly with Persistent=true, run as a dedicated non-root user, and are standard on any modern Linux distro. Ready-to-use files are in deploy/systemd/.
Quick install:
# From a cloned repo
sudo bash deploy/systemd/install.sh
# Or run directly from GitHub (no clone needed)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rorpage/game-over-man/main/deploy/systemd/install.sh | sudo bashThe script downloads the latest binary from GitHub Releases (or builds from source if Go is available), creates a game-over-man system user, sets up /etc/game-over-man/ and /var/lib/game-over-man/, and enables the timer. The env file pre-configures CONFIG_FILE and STATE_FILE to those system paths. Then:
# Set your notification URL
sudo nano /etc/game-over-man/env
# Copy your config
sudo cp config.json /etc/game-over-man/config.json
sudo chown root:game-over-man /etc/game-over-man/config.json
# Start
sudo systemctl start game-over-man.timerUseful commands:
systemctl status game-over-man.timer # next scheduled run
systemctl start game-over-man.service # run immediately
journalctl -u game-over-man -f # follow logsChanging the schedule: Edit /etc/systemd/system/game-over-man.timer, update OnCalendar, then:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl restart game-over-man.timerCommon values:
OnCalendar=*:0/10 # every 10 minutes (default)
OnCalendar=*:0/5 # every 5 minutes
OnCalendar=hourly # once per hourAdd a line to your crontab with crontab -e:
*/10 * * * * NOTIFICATION_URL=https://ntfy.sh/my-sports-alerts /usr/local/bin/game-over-manOr if you prefer an env file:
*/10 * * * * env $(cat ~/.config/game-over-man/env | xargs) /usr/local/bin/game-over-manLogs go to syslog (journalctl -t game-over-man or /var/log/syslog).
- Load config from
CONFIG_FILE(default:~/.config/game-over-man/config.json) - Load notification state from
STATE_FILE, pruning entries older thanpruneAfterDays - For each unique sport/league in the team list, fetch today's scoreboard from the appropriate API (ESPN or HockeyTech, selected automatically by league)
- For each completed game involving a tracked team, check whether a notification was already sent
- If not, POST the notification payload to the configured URL and record the game ID in state
- Save state to disk
The state file is the single source of truth for idempotency. As long as it persists across runs, no game will ever trigger more than one notification.
Releases are created automatically on every push to main. The version follows CalVer: YYYY.MM.DD.N where N is the GitHub Actions run number (e.g. 2026.06.13.4). No manual tagging required.
The version is embedded in the binary at build time:
game-over-man --version
# 2026.06.13.4When running locally from source, --version prints dev.
The latest release is always available at https://github.com/rorpage/game-over-man/releases/latest.