Streaming sites have a positive reputation for offering tons of TV shows and movies for a small monthly flat fee. On-demand and accessible from anywhere. However, streaming sports is somewhat of a pejorative at this point, with many people assuming it’s illegal or going to inflict.
However, streaming sites are quickly becoming the best way to catch today fixtures. Legal and remote, we no longer have to pay for a set of overpriced cable TV channels and watch things live.
It can also mean staying away from the hazardous and illegal streaming sites that are laden with pop-up adverts.
Here are some of the best legal streaming site providers for sports.
DAZN
DAZN is a global sports subscription streaming service that was founded in London, but operates in many languages around the world. For around $19.99 a month, s gain access to many live boxing events and a huge archive of classic fights – something they regularly add to and grow as well. This is the perfect subscription for fight fans around the world as it even has UFC content, too.
Furthermore, DAZN is also great for soccer and American football fans, in which NFL, Premier League, and even UEFA Champions League games are all shown. However, check the access from your country, as the likes of Canada and Japanese customers tend to get the most soccer games.
ESPN
ESPN makes the cut because it is considered to be a sporting encyclopedia where almost anything can be consumed in regards to sports. Whilst it doesn’t actually provide free live streaming of sports events (but things like UFC can be paid for and streamed), there are highlights, commentary, live scheduling, and an incredible amount of analysis and content on all sports – all for free.
If you pay for ESPN+ for $6.99 per month, then suddenly you gain access to thousands of live events and studio shows. There’s also a large library for ESPN films and game replays too. The live sports events it has plenty of is tennis, golf, rugby, cricket, and even some boxing events. However, there won’t be many NFL, NBA, or MLB games shown live.
BBC iPlayer
For the Brits, BBC iPlayer is worth mentioning. It requires no payment whatsoever and yet there are numerous sports events streamed and it will be particularly popular during the Qatar World Cup. National and FA Cup football are widely available here. Beyond the big events from tennis, rugby, and football, there are endless more live events to catch, such as Welsh boxing, athletics, and cycling. This is your chance to dive into new sports that you haven’t yet given a chance, such as snooker, for free.
Fox Sports Go
Fox Sports Go is a popular streaming service in the states, as it’s free and offers content from a lot of different promotions. For example, NFL, NHL, MLB, NCAA, WWE, boxing, soccer, and NASCAR all appear on the streaming service. The website and streaming quality is usually decent, and the Sports Go app can be enjoyed on even the Xbox One and Google Chromecast.
This is particularly useful for replays and highlights, but there are still options to catch live events too for free. The app for Android and iOS is highly rated too, which is unusual for streaming services as there can often be issues (i.e. ITV Hub, which is a free UK option). Clearly, there are just as many free options as there are paid options.
Which sites to stay away from?
Now, there are a lot of streaming sites out there that operate in a grey area – or are outright illegal. For example, Stream2Watch is often illegal despite its popularity as it allegedly makes copyrighted content available to s without owning the rights to it – a bit like Putlocker and 123Movies.
Furthermore, Reddit Soccer Streams gained huge popularity on Reddit before it was shut down due to legal implications – but remains to exist outside of the social media platform. Websites like these are centralised places to link to other sites, but the issue (beyond legal reasons) is that they can lead to viruses and in particular, browser hijackers, which take over your browser and can even install extensions against your knowledge. Even the best anti-virus software cannot prevent these.
If you have ever had your default homepage or search engine changed randomly, perhaps to Yahoo, then you have had a browser hijacker. Paying for the legal right to stream sports is becoming increasingly affordable and offers more security and far more convenience. Perhaps ironically, it’s often the citizens of the country in which the sport is based that get the worst service.
For example, many countries have full access to every Premier League game for very cheap, whilst Brits suffer from a lack of options (BT Sport is an okay option, but is expensive). Likewise, Americans get the worst options when it comes to UFC, in which most European countries can legally stream it for a fraction of the PPV cost.