How to Add Sports Fixtures to Your Calendar (Google, iPhone, Outlook)

Leagues publish their fixtures as a PDF, a table on the club website or a post in the team chat. Copying a season of games into your calendar by hand takes an evening, and one wrong date means a missed game. Here's how to get the whole schedule in at once, whether you need one team's games or every game in the league.

Quick answer: If your team app or league site offers a Subscribe or Sync to calendar option, use it: moved games then update by themselves. If you only have a PDF or a web page, upload or paste it into the PDF to calendar converter. Each game becomes an event with both teams in the title, the venue as the location and the start time, ready to add to a calendar of its own.

Step 1: Check for a calendar link first

Many team apps and league websites can sync games to your calendar. Look in the schedule or settings for Subscribe, Sync to calendar, iCal, ICS or Export. When there's a link, subscribe to it: a game moved for a gym conflict or bad weather moves in your calendar too.

Following a professional team? Ready-made calendars for every team are on the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL schedule pages.

The rest of this guide is for when the schedule is a PDF, a web page or a screenshot.

Step 2: Convert the fixture list

• A PDF from the league or federation: upload it to the PDF to calendar converter. It reads fixture tables row by row, including the matchday, date, time, home team, away team and venue.
• A table on a website or in an email: copy it and paste it into the text to calendar converter.
• A screenshot from the team chat or an app: use the image to calendar converter.

Each game becomes one event:

• Title: usually home team vs away team, so you can tell home and away games apart at a glance.
• Location: the venue's name and address, so tapping it opens directions in Maps.
• Time: the scheduled start time.

Only want your team's games? Every game in what you upload becomes an event. For one team out of a whole league, copy just that team's rows from the PDF or web page and paste them into the text converter, or crop a screenshot to those rows. You get a shorter calendar and use fewer events.

Step 3: Check before you add

• Spot-check two or three games against the PDF, including one home and one away game.
• Check a date early in a month. Fixture lists from most countries write the day first (05/11 is 5 November). The converter reads the rest of the list to tell which order it uses, but a quick look at one such game confirms it.
• Games with no date yet ("TBD", "da definire", "à fixer") are usually left out, because there's no date to put them on. Add them when the league confirms.
• Bye weeks and rest days don't need an event. If the converter made one, delete it.

Step 4: Add it to its own calendar

Download the calendar file (.ics) and import it into a calendar just for the team:

• iPhone: in Calendar, tap Calendars → Add Calendar and name it (e.g. "U14 Basketball"). Then tap the file, choose Add All, and pick that calendar. Step-by-step guide.
• Google Calendar: create a calendar (Other calendars → + → Create new calendar), then on a computer Settings → Import & export → Import and choose it. Step-by-step guide.
• Outlook: import the file and choose Open as New.

A separate calendar gets its own color, can be hidden in the off-season, and can be deleted in one step when the season ends. If you follow more than one team (two kids, or a player who also referees), give each its own calendar.

Step 5: Share it with the team

Coaches and team managers usually need the schedule in everyone's calendar, not just their own. After converting, click Share Link. Players and parents open the link and add the games to Apple, Google or Outlook Calendar in one tap, with no account and no file to email around. More about share links.

Step 6: Set reminders for when to leave

The start time is when the game starts, not when the team has to be there. Add a reminder that matches your warm-up:

• Google Calendar: Settings → click the team calendar → Event notifications → for example, 90 minutes before.
• iPhone: open a game → Edit → Alert. To set one alert for all events, use Settings → Apps → Calendar → Default Alert Times; it applies to every calendar.

When the league moves a game

A converted schedule doesn't update itself. When a game moves, edit that one event. If the league publishes a revised fixture list, convert it again and replace the old calendar: delete the team calendar and import the new file into a fresh one.

What it costs

Each game counts as one event. The first 3 are free without an account, and a new account gets 5 more free. After that, packs are one payment with no subscription, and unused events never expire:

• One team's season (15 to 30 games): the $4 pack of 50 events.
• A whole league group (around 70 games for 9 or 10 teams playing home and away): $6 for 100 events.
• Several groups or age categories: $12 for 250 events, the lowest price per event.