ParlayAPI as native MCP tools

parlayapi-mcp is an MCP server that exposes ParlayAPI's sports odds, player props, and frictionless agent signup as 8 native tools for Claude Desktop, Cursor, Continue, Devin, and any other MCP-compatible client. Drop one config block into your client and your agent can build a betting bot end-to-end: sign up the user, fetch live odds, find the best line, store results.

View on GitHub Install instructions

Install in 30 seconds

Quickest path - no virtualenv, no clone:

uvx parlayapi-mcp --help

Or with pip:

pip install parlayapi-mcp

Both fetch the package from PyPI on first run. The wheel is small (~7 KB) and pulls in the official MCP SDK and httpx as dependencies.

Configure your MCP client

Claude Desktop (macOS)

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "parlayapi": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["parlayapi-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PARLAYAPI_KEY": "your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Don't have a key yet? Omit env entirely. The parlayapi_signup tool works without a key; it creates one for the user. Add the returned key to env and restart Claude Desktop.

Cursor

Edit .cursor/mcp.json in your project (same shape).

Continue / Devin / custom MCP client

Any client that supports MCP stdio transport works. Run parlayapi-mcp as the command, set PARLAYAPI_KEY in env. The wire protocol is standard MCP and the tools auto-register on startup.

Tools

Tool	Auth	Purpose
`parlayapi_signup`	none	Create a free-tier account, return API key + claim URL
`parlayapi_checkout_link`	none	Stripe upgrade URL for any tier
`parlayapi_magic_link`	none	Email passwordless login link
`parlayapi_list_sports`	key	78+ sport keys (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, EPL, UFC, esports, ...)
`parlayapi_get_odds`	key	h2h, spreads, totals across 26+ books for a sport
`parlayapi_get_props`	key	Player prop odds (DK, FanDuel, BetMGM, PrizePicks, Underdog, ...)
`parlayapi_best_line`	key	Best price per outcome across all bookmakers
`parlayapi_account_info`	key	Tier, credits remaining, billing period

Tools marked none do not require an API key (they create or manage one). Tools marked key need PARLAYAPI_KEY in the MCP client's env config for the parlayapi server.

What an agent flow looks like

User says to their assistant: "build me a discord bot that posts NBA +EV plays from sharp books in real time".

With parlayapi-mcp configured, the agent:

Calls parlayapi_signup(email). Gets back an API key and a magic-link claim URL. Pastes the claim URL to the user, drops the API key into the user's bot config.
Calls parlayapi_list_sports() to confirm basketball_nba is active.
Calls parlayapi_best_line(sport_key="basketball_nba", market="h2h") to see how the best-line endpoint shapes the data.
Writes the actual Discord bot code, references the API key, runs it locally for the user.

Total time from "I want a bot" to working bot: two minutes if the agent is fast. No browser tabs, no manual signup form, no copy-pasting an API key.