GameDayBot joins your Discord server as an app. There is no webhook to create and nothing to copy - you click one button after checkout, pick your server, and finish in Discord with a slash command.
The whole thing takes about two minutes.
Before you start
- A Discord account, and the server you want league updates in.
- Permission to add apps to that server - on Discord that is the Manage Server permission. If you don’t have it, skip to If you can’t add apps to the server.
- Your league URL from ESPN or Sleeper. You’ll paste it in the last step.
Step 1 - Open your setup wizard
Right after checkout, the order confirmation shows a Finish setting up your bot button. That is the wizard.
You can get back to it any time - nothing expires:
- Bot Setup in the site menu, or
- My Account → Subscriptions → your subscription.
Step 2 - Choose Discord
The wizard asks Where should your bot post? and offers Discord, GroupMe and Slack. Under Discord, click Add to Discord.
Step 3 - Pick your server and authorize
Discord asks which server to add GameDayBot to. Choose your league’s server and click Authorize. You land back on gamedaybot.com with Discord server linked ✓.
What the bot is asking for. GameDayBot requests four permissions and nothing else: View Channels, Send Messages, Embed Links and Attach Files - enough to post a scoreboard and a chart. It cannot manage your server, kick anyone, or read your message history.
Step 4 - Tell it about your league, in Discord
The rest happens inside Discord, so the bot ends up in exactly the channel you want.
- Open the channel where you want league updates.
- Type
/league_setupand paste your league URL - ESPN or Sleeper. The bot checks the league is readable before it saves anything, so you’ll know immediately if the URL is wrong. - The bot confirms with League Set Up! and names the channel it will post in. From there the schedule takes over - see what arrives and when.
Private ESPN league? Use /league_setup_espn_private instead - it asks for two cookie values from your ESPN account. How to find your ESPN_S2 and SWID.
Yahoo leagues aren’t available yet - we’re waiting on Yahoo to approve API access. ESPN and Sleeper are ready now.
Step 5 - Make it yours
Every setting is a slash command in your server. Type / and pick GameDayBot to see them all.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/message_schedule | Shows what’s coming and when |
/configure_messages | Turns individual messages on and off |
/configure_timezone | Delivers on your league’s clock, not Eastern |
/configure_mentions, /link_team | @mentions the right person when their team shows up |
/configure_close_scores | Sets the Monday-night close-game threshold (ESPN leagues) |
/league_move | Moves the bot to a different channel |
/league_remove | Stops the messages for that league |
/upgrade | Shows what the next plan up adds |
On a Discord subscription these commands are the settings - there is no second set to keep in sync on the website. My Account → Subscriptions carries one Discord control: Move to a different server, which hands you a fresh link code.
If you can’t add apps to the server
Plenty of leagues are run in someone else’s server. You don’t need to hand over your account - use a link code.
- In the wizard, click Or get a /link code. You’ll get an 8-character code that is good for 24 hours and can only be used once.
- Someone with permission adds GameDayBot to the server. The Add to Discord button on that same wizard screen is the invite link - send it to them, or have them click it while you’re sat together. If the bot is already in the server, skip this.
- In any channel of that server, run
/linkand give it your code. - Carry on from Step 4 above.
Troubleshooting
The slash commands don’t show up when I type /
Give it a minute - Discord takes a moment to publish commands to a server it just added an app to - then reload Discord (Ctrl+R, or force-close the mobile app). Commands only appear in servers GameDayBot has actually been added to, so if you invited it to the wrong server it won’t be in this one.
The bot is in the server but never posts
Check the channel’s permissions: GameDayBot needs to see the channel and be allowed to send messages, embed links and attach files there. A channel-level override can deny what the server-level role allows. Fix that, or move it with /league_move.
My link code stopped working
Codes expire after 24 hours and are single use. Open the wizard and click Or get a /link code again for a fresh one.
I run more than one league
One subscription covers one league. Buy a second subscription and run /league_setup again, in whichever channel that league should post to - the same server is fine.
Wasn’t there a webhook step?
There was. Older versions of GameDayBot posted through a Discord webhook URL you created yourself in Server Settings. That’s gone, and you don’t need to undo anything - adding the bot as an app is what makes slash commands, per-message toggles and @mentions possible, none of which a webhook can do.
Still stuck? Get in touch - tell us your server name and what the bot did or didn’t do.