Hot Route

Guide

Set up Hot Route, manage your weekly lineup, and prepare for a draft.

Start here

  1. Create an account or log in.
  2. Open Leagues, choose ESPN or Sleeper, and paste the league URL or ID.
  3. Click Import league, then choose your team under This league.
  4. Check Lineup, Matchup, and Waivers for the active league.

Hot Route saves imported leagues to your account. Use the league menu in the top bar to switch leagues. Click Refresh rosters when you want a new host snapshot.

Connect a private ESPN league

ESPN does not provide third-party OAuth. ESPN Connect sends your existing ESPN session only after you approve the active Hot Route Leagues tab.

  1. Open chrome://extensions and enable Developer mode.
  2. Download ESPN Connect and unzip it.
  3. Click Load unpacked and select the folder containing manifest.json.
  4. Log in at fantasy.espn.com in the same Chrome profile.
  5. Return to Leagues and click Connect ESPN session.
  6. Open the extension and click Send session to this Hot Route tab.

Hot Route never asks for your ESPN password. It encrypts the imported ESPN session in the account database.

Manage more than one league

  • Click Import another league to add another ESPN or Sleeper league.
  • Click Switch, or use the top-bar league menu, to change the active league.
  • Click Remove to delete a league from Hot Route. This does not change the host league.

Lineup, Matchup, Trades, Waivers, Standings, Activity, Rules, and Desk use the active league.

Set and push your lineup

  1. Open Lineup.
  2. Use Start and Bench to test changes locally.
  3. Review empty slots or players who do not fit a host slot.
  4. Click Push to ESPN or Push to Sleeper to update the host.

ESPN uses the connected session. Sleeper requires your GraphQL authorization token from sleeper.com DevTools. The host rejects moves after a player locks at kickoff.

Use personal API keys

Hot Route does not use shared LLM or Odds API keys. Each user supplies personal keys.

  • On Desk, paste a personal Groq API key. Desk uses the imported snapshot, not live news, and can make mistakes.
  • On Draft, open Import and paste a personal Odds API key. The free plan includes 500 credits per month.

Both keys stay in this browser. They are not saved to your Hot Route account. Remove them before using a shared device.

Refresh weekly books

On the first app visit after Thursday at 6:00 AM ET, Hot Route pulls props for games involving your roster and this week's opponent. The pull uses four markets per game and then locks that roster snapshot for the NFL week. Open Feeds to see the games, markets, mapped players, and remaining credits.

Weekly Sleeper projections remain in place when no book line maps to a player. Drafts and mocks continue to use season-long projections.

Prepare for a draft

  1. From Leagues, click Use these rules in the draft room to copy the league size, roster, and scoring.
  2. Open Draft and start a mock or connect a live draft.
  3. Choose a source chip to sort the board by Sleeper, ESPN, CBS, FFC, or FantasyPros data.
  4. Click a player name for recent seasons, weekly fantasy points, and news.

Live ESPN and Sleeper drafts follow the host. Hot Route does not rewind host picks. Open Feeds to check how many rows each source returned.

Troubleshoot an old league snapshot

If Standings, Activity, Rules, or lineup slots are missing, open Leagues and click Re-import. This replaces the saved snapshot with current host data.