Posted on Feb 8

Building an NBA Game Day Notification System with AWS Lambda, SNS & EventBridge

🏀 NBA Game Day Notification System

This project is an AWS Lambda-powered notification system that sends NBA game updates via Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service). It fetches game details from SportsData.io and notifies subscribed users via email. The function runs on a scheduled Amazon EventBridge rule.

Features

Fetches NBA game data from SportsData.io API
Sends real-time updates on game status, scores, and channels
Uses AWS Lambda, SNS, and EventBridge for automation
Supports multiple game statuses: Final, In Progress, and Scheduled

Prerequisites

Before deploying, ensure you have:

AWS Account with Lambda, SNS, and EventBridge permissions
SportsData.io API Key (Create a free API key here)
Email Subscription to the SNS topic

Setup Instructions

1️⃣ Create an SNS Topic

Open AWS SNS and create a new topic named gd_topic.
Subscribe an email address to this topic and confirm the email subscription.

2️⃣ Create an IAM Role for Lambda

Open IAM → Roles → Create Role.
Select AWS Service → Lambda.
Attach the AmazonSNSFullAccess policy.
Create a custom JSON policy with the following:

{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": "sns:Publish", "Resource": "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:XXXXXXXXXXXX:gd_topic" } ] }

Replace XXXXXXXXXXXX with your AWS Account ID.

Name the role gd_lambda_role and attach it to your Lambda function.

3️⃣ Deploy the AWS Lambda Function

Navigate to AWS Lambda → Create Function → Author from Scratch.
Function Name: gd_notification
Runtime: Python 3.13
Attach gd_lambda_role to the function.
Paste the following Python script into the function editor:

import os import json import urllib.request import boto3 from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone # Function to format NBA game data def format_game_data(game): status = game.get("Status", "Unknown") away_team = game.get("AwayTeam", "Unknown") home_team = game.get("HomeTeam", "Unknown") final_score = f"{game.get('AwayTeamScore', 'N/A')}-{game.get('HomeTeamScore', 'N/A')}" start_time = game.get("DateTime", "Unknown") channel = game.get("Channel", "Unknown") if status == "Final": return f"Game Status: {status}\n{away_team} vs {home_team}\nFinal Score: {final_score}\nStart Time: {start_time}\nChannel: {channel}\n" elif status == "InProgress": return f"Game Status: {status}\n{away_team} vs {home_team}\nCurrent Score: {final_score}\nChannel: {channel}\n" elif status == "Scheduled": return f"Game Status: {status}\n{away_team} vs {home_team}\nStart Time: {start_time}\nChannel: {channel}\n" else: return f"Game Status: {status}\n{away_team} vs {home_team}\nDetails are unavailable.\n" # Lambda function handler def lambda_handler(event, context): api_key = os.getenv("NBA_API_KEY") sns_topic_arn = os.getenv("SNS_TOPIC_ARN") sns_client = boto3.client("sns") utc_now = datetime.now(timezone.utc) today_date = (utc_now - timedelta(hours=6)).strftime("%Y-%m-%d") api_url = f"https://api.sportsdata.io/v3/nba/scores/json/GamesByDate/{today_date}?key={api_key}" try: with urllib.request.urlopen(api_url) as response: data = json.loads(response.read().decode()) except Exception as e: print(f"Error fetching data: {e}") return {"statusCode": 500, "body": "Error fetching data"} messages = [format_game_data(game) for game in data] final_message = "\n---\n".join(messages) if messages else "No games available for today." try: sns_client.publish(TopicArn=sns_topic_arn, Message=final_message, Subject="NBA Game Updates") print("Message published to SNS successfully.") except Exception as e: print(f"Error publishing to SNS: {e}") return {"statusCode": 500, "body": "Error publishing to SNS"} return {"statusCode": 200, "body": "Data processed and sent to SNS"}

Click Deploy.

Add Environment Variables:
- NBA_API_KEY: Your SportsData.io API Key
- SNS_TOPIC_ARN: ARN of your SNS Topic (e.g., arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:XXXXXXXXXXXX:gd_topic)