Sockodds MCP Server

sockodds-mcp

Ask Claude "what are the odds on X right now" and get Australian bookmakers' prices, the best price and the no-vig fair price, from the SockOdds sports odds API. The free key covers 3 bookmakers and 4 leagues; paid plans add more (pricing).

A free, open-source MCP server plus a Claude Code skill, built for the "$1M in 365 Days" series. MIT licence.

30-second demo

This transcript uses demo mode (SOCKODDS_DEMO=1), so the prices are invented samples, not real odds.

You: What are the odds on Lions v Crows?

Claude calls find_event with { "query": "Lions v Crows", "league_id": "AFL" }:

1. Brisbane Lions v Adelaide Crows (AFL)
   Starts: Sat, 12 Sept 2026, 7:35 pm AEST (09:35 UTC)
   Event ID: afl_2026-09-12_brisbane_lions_vs_adelaide_crows
   Best head to head: Brisbane Lions 1.95 (Unibet), Adelaide Crows 1.90 (TAB)

You: Is 1.95 on the Lions a fair price?

Claude calls fair_odds with { "event_id": "afl_2026-09-12_brisbane_lions_vs_adelaide_crows", "market": "h2h" }:

No-vig fair odds: Head to head, from 3 bookmakers
  Brisbane Lions: fair 2.03 (49.3% chance)
  Adelaide Crows: fair 1.97 (50.7% chance)
Per bookmaker (margin, then its own no-vig prices):
  Sportsbet: margin 5.3%, 2.03 / 1.97, read 11 Sept 06:00:12 UTC
  TAB: margin 5.0%, 2.01 / 1.99, read 11 Sept 06:01:40 UTC
  Unibet: margin 5.3%, 2.05 / 1.95, read 11 Sept 05:59:03 UTC

Claude: The best Lions price is 1.95 at Unibet (read 05:59 UTC). With the bookmakers' margins taken out, the Lions come out at about 2.03, so 1.95 is a little shorter than the fair price. Odds change, so check the price at the bookmaker. 18+. Nothing here is a tip. Gamble responsibly: Gambling Help Online 1800 858 858.

Tools

How fair_odds works

For each bookmaker that prices every outcome at the same line, each price becomes an implied chance (1 / price). Those chances add up to more than 100%; the extra is the bookmaker's margin. Dividing each chance by the total removes the margin (the proportional method). The tool then averages each bookmaker's margin-free chances and turns them back into prices (1 / chance). It also shows each bookmaker's margin and the combined margin of the best prices.

The free plan's books are retail bookmakers, so this is an estimate of the chance, not a prediction. When your plan includes SockOdds' own fairOdds (built from exchanges and sharp books), the tool shows it too.

No line movement tool

SockOdds has a price history endpoint (/v2/odds/history/), but its homepage and FAQ list recorded price movements as a Pro and Platform feature. The free key cannot read it, so this server does not include an explain_line_movement tool.

Get a free SockOdds key

Get a free SockOdds key. No card needed. Sign-up asks for an Australian or international mobile number and sends a one-time SMS code to confirm it. The key is shown once, so copy it somewhere safe. To try the tools before signing up, set SOCKODDS_DEMO=1: every tool works on invented sample data, no key needed.

The free Developer plan, as stated on the pricing page, the signup page and the rate limit docs:

• 2,500 objects a month (one event with all its markets and bookmakers is one object), reset each UTC calendar month
• 10 requests a minute
• About 2 minute update frequency
• 4 leagues: MLB, NFL, AFL and NRL
• 3 bookmakers: Sportsbet, TAB and Ladbrokes

To stay inside that, this server caches every response for 60 seconds, never retries a failed request, and after a rate limit error (HTTP 429) refuses further calls until SockOdds' Retry-After time has passed. find_event asks for one league and a date window where it can, and tells you how many objects a search used.

Install

You need Node.js 20 or newer. The server is on npm as sockodds-mcp, so there is nothing to build.

Claude Code

claude mcp add sockodds --env SOCKODDS_API_KEY=your-key -- npx -y sockodds-mcp

No key yet? Try it on invented sample data first:

claude mcp add sockodds --env SOCKODDS_DEMO=1 -- npx -y sockodds-mcp

To add the skill, which tells Claude when to use the tools and how to quote prices:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/sockodds-odds
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jameselle/sockodds-mcp/main/skill/SKILL.md -o ~/.claude/skills/sockodds-odds/SKILL.md

Claude Desktop

Add this to claude_desktop_config.json (Settings, Developer, Edit Config), then restart Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sockodds": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "sockodds-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SOCKODDS_API_KEY": "your-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

For demo mode, swap the env block for "SOCKODDS_DEMO": "1".

Other MCP clients

Any client that runs a local (stdio) server: command npx, arguments -y sockodds-mcp, environment SOCKODDS_API_KEY. It is also listed in the official MCP Registry as io.github.jameselle/sockodds-mcp.

From source

git clone https://github.com/jameselle/sockodds-mcp.git
cd sockodds-mcp
npm install
npm run build
claude mcp add sockodds --env SOCKODDS_API_KEY=your-key -- node "$(pwd)/dist/src/index.js"

Settings

Develop

npm install
npm test

Tests use Node's built-in test runner. They cover the fair odds maths, best price selection, parsing of the example responses from the SockOdds docs, the missing key and rate limit errors, and the MCP tools end to end. No test calls the live API.

docs/API-NOTES.md lists every endpoint and field this server relies on, with links to the SockOdds docs. fixtures/docs/ holds example responses copied from those docs; fixtures/demo/ holds invented data in the same shape for demo mode.

Release

package.json (version, mcpName) and server.json (version, packages[0].version) must carry the same version. To release:

npm test
npm publish
mcp-publisher login github
mcp-publisher publish

server.json lists this server in the official MCP Registry as io.github.jameselle/sockodds-mcp, and the registry checks that the npm package's mcpName matches. glama.json names the maintainers of the Glama listing.

Gamble responsibly

18+. Odds change all the time and nothing this tool shows is a tip or advice. If gambling is causing you or someone close to you harm, call Gambling Help Online on 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au. You can exclude yourself from Australian online bookmakers at BetStop.

Licence

MIT. See LICENSE.