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What are the Best Sport Streaming Sites?

Updated on
min reading
Best sports streaming services

Whether you love sport but don’t subscribe to a TV service or you’re looking for a way to watch sporting events when you’re away from home, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we’ll discuss the best ways to tune in to the biggest football, American football and rugby matches, boxing and MMA events, golf tournaments, darts tournaments, F1 and MotoGP races, tennis and anything else you might be interested in from wherever you want to watch.

There are a number of by now well-established ways to stream the sport you love, and we’ll start by going through the most conventional methods.

Sports streaming sites & apps

As a sports fan, you’ll know by now that Sky Sports and BT Sport own the rights to the majority of sporting events aired in the UK, particularly football’s Premier League and the Football League. This is not to say, however, that they are your only options. We’ll begin with their streaming options and then move on to smaller players whose offer may tempt you more.

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Sky Sports

Sky Sports has, since its inception in the early 1990s, the major player in sports broadcasting, and it predictably jumped in early to secure its place as a leading sports streaming service with the Sky Sports Mobile App. To get the app, however, you do need to be a Sky TV customer, an alternative to which may be exactly what you’re looking for here - keep on scrolling, we'll get there.

If you are open to signing up with Sky TV in order to get access to its sports offer the most direct way with its mobile app, you’ll find all the information you need on our Sky TV page. Here’s a basic rundown of what is included in the channels associated with a Sky Sports package:

  • Sky Sports Premier League: 128 live Premier League matches in 2019/20.
  • Sky Sports Football: live Football League, SPFL, Carabao Cup & other matches.
  • Sky Sports Formula 1: every practice, qualifier and race is shown live.
  • Sky Sports Golf: exclusive PGA, European and LPGA Tour events.
  • Sky Sports Cricket: Ashes tests shown live exclusively here, plus other county and international matches.
  • Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Arena: NFL and NBA games; rugby league and rugby union club matches and internationals; plus netball, darts, and more.

If you’re getting desperate thinking that you won’t be able to access all of this without signing up to a pricey Sky TV package, fear not. Perhaps NOW TV’s Sky Sports pack is more up your street.

Sky Sports pack with NOW TV

If you don’t want Sky and all the bells and whistles that accompany it but do fancy tuning in to a particular sporting event, or a week or a month’s worth of sport, NOW TV offer Sky Sports passes that might suit you more. NOW TV’s passes are split into three - here they are:

Daily spectator Weekly warrior Sports fan on the go
£9.99 per day £14.99 per week £5.99 per month
24 hours of sports action 7 days of sport 5 channels of your choice for a month
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None of these, not even the monthly pass, involve a contract - just a NOW TV dongle. The monthly pass does automatically renew at the end of the month, but you are free to cancel it at any point - so take care to remember to if you don’t want to continue! Here are the channels you get access to with the pass (you choose the 5 you want if you’re taking the monthly pass):

  • Sky Sports Premier League
  • Sky Sports F1
  • Sky Sports News
  • Sky Sports Racing
  • Sky Sports Cricket
  • Sky Sports Golf
  • Sky Sports Football
  • Sky Sports Action
  • Sky Sports Arena
  • Sky Sports Mix
  • Sky Sports Main Event

These channels should cover all your sports-viewing needs and the monthly pass gives what we think is generous access to 5 channels for a reasonable monthly cost. We also like that there’s no contractual commitment. If you want sport but don’t want to have to sign up to TV, broadband and line rental with Sky as well, we’d say this is a solid option.

BT Sport

A more recent addition to the sports broadcasting scene, it’s now difficult to imagine a time when BT and sport were never said together in the same sentence. Since its inception in 2013, it has quickly acquired the rights to a number of the competitions we love and forced its way to the top tier of sports broadcasting. Here’s what BT TV customers with BT Sport included in their packages get access to:

  • Football:
  • Rugby:
  • Cricket:
  • Boxing and UFC:
  • Moto GP races.
  • BDO World Darts Championship events.
  • WTA events.
  • FIH Hockey World League matches.

The fixtures and events available to you are spread across five channels: BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport 3, BT Sport Extra and BT Sport ESPN, each of which can be viewed in HD if you add this pack to your deal (for an extra fee, of course). Football and rugby fans will notice that there isn’t much you’d miss as a BT Sport customer.

You should also bear in mind that, as with other sports packages, the biggest boxing and UFC fights tend to be shown on pay per view (PPV). While many fights are included, you will have to pay for the biggest ones on BT Sport Box Office - which, it is said, has gained exclusive rights to the Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder fight that it’s rumoured will happen in early 2020.

Like Sky, BT has not been slow to adopt its own streaming services via the BT Sport app, which allows you to watch everything you have access to on your package on up to two devices at a time. For more information about the BT Sport app, see our BT TV page.

BT Sport with Sky TV

If you’re already a Sky customer but see that what you want to see is available on BT but not on Sky, we’d forgive you for despairing at the idea of going through an annoying switching process. We’re glad to tell you, however, that there’s no need to go through any of this. Sky Sports customers are able to add BT Sport to their current deal, either on a 12-month contract or a 1-month rolling contract. To do so you’ll have to go to the BT website or contact BT, not Sky. Here’s the pricing:

BT Sport on Sky - 12-month contract BT Sport on Sky - 1-month rolling
£29.99 a month £29.99 a month
£20 upfront £35 upfront
*HD pack free for 3 months HD pack free for 3 months

*Goes up to £6.50 a month on top of your deal after.

You’ll notice there’s not much difference between the price of the rolling contract and the 12-month contract, which is perfect if you’re looking to give it a try or only want it for a specific period and not 12 whole months. With both deals, you get access to the following BT channels, the only difference being that with the 12-month one you also get BoxNation:

  • BT Sport 1
  • BT Sport 2
  • BT Sport 3
  • BT Sport Extra
  • BT Sport ESPN

If you’re all about boxing, you’ll want to consider getting the 12-month deal, as BoxNation will give you access to 24/7 coverage of live boxing events from all over the world. We should point out, however, that BoxNation won’t give you access to all the big boxing events - you’ll know by now that these rarely come included in any package. Many of the biggest title fights will be available for you to purchase in BT Sport Box Office.


Individual sport streaming sites & apps

Away from the major general sports broadcasters, some sports have their own little corners of the internet where you can go to watch fixtures. Here are a few that we’ve come across:

NFL Game Pass

American Football fans, which are growing exponentially in numbers in the UK, have several sources to choose from in the way they view games. Sky Sports and the BBC do broadcast many matches, but if you’re only interested in paying for the NFL or you want to every single game available to you, you’ll want to know all about NFL Game Pass. The Game Pass lets you do the following:

  • Watch games both live and on-demand.
  • Download highlights and programmes.
  • Stream the NFL Network live 24/7.

The pass allows you to watch on your TV, laptop, phone or tablet, and apps can be downloaded in the App Store or Google Play. As it’s currently (at the time of writing) mid-season, prices for the League Pass have dropped - here are your options to sign up and how much they would set you back:

Annual Pro Weekly Pro Essential (annual) Free (annual)
$91.99 per year $19.99 per week $23.99 per year $0 per year
All games to watch live, inc. playoffs and Superbowl All games to watch live, inc. playoffs and Superbowl No live games No live games
Full game replays Full game replays No full replays No full replays
*Coaches film Coaches film No coaches film No coaches film
NFL RedZone, Originals and Programmes NFL RedZone, Originals and Programmes NFL RedZone, Originals and Programmes No RedZone, Originals or Programmes
40 min. highlights 40 min. highlights 40 min. highlights No 40 min. highlights
5 min. highlights 5 min. highlights 5 min. highlights 5 min. highlights
NFL Network Live 24/7 NFL Network Live 24/7 NFL Network Live 24/7 NFL Network Live 24/7
Downloadable content Downloadable content Downloadable content Downloadable content

*Coaches film is a feature which allows subscribers to see games the way coaches see them, with exclusive camera angles (22 of them), every Wednesday after a game week finishes.

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If you don’t absolutely need to see the whole game and are happy with extensive 40-minute highlight videos (plus all the extra features) that come with the Essential package, we’d say it’s a steal, working out at less than £2 a month! If you’re mad for gridiron, and the type to stay up all night for your team’s games and analyse all the ins and outs, you’ll of course want the Pro pass - in this case, we’d recommend the one-off payment, which seems to be the best value.

The more casual fans who already have Sky Sports but pine for just a little more content would do well to simply pick up the Essential pass. This way you can enjoy the games available on Sky Sports, plus see all the highlights and extra content you get for just 20 quid a year!

NBA League Pass

The NBA is another organisation which has a one-stop-shop for fixtures - the league has a website where you can choose a package to suit your preferences. Every NBA match is available on the site, so you can watch over 1,230 games, and games are available both live and on-demand. You can also choose whether you pay monthly or yearly for your pass - here’s what the site has to offer in terms of yearly subscriptions:

League Pass Team Choice Game Choice
$149.99 one-off payment $90.99 one-off payment $67.99 one-off payment
Watch every team, every game Watch all of one team’s games Watch 8 games per month
More than 1,230 games included More than 80 games included 8 games per month included
Includes playoff and finals games Includes playoff and finals games if your team qualifies Includes playoff and finals games

As you can see, whether you’re basketball-mad, just a die-hard supporter of one team, or a fair-weather fan who only wants to tune in for certain games and at the end of the season for the playoffs, you’ll find something that suits you. If you prefer to pay bit by bit and see how you like the service, you can also pay for the same deals on a monthly basis. Here are the options if you want to sign up for a monthly subscription:

League Pass Team Choice Game Choice
$16.99 per month $11.99 per month $11.99 per month

If you’re not a total sports addict but just want to watch a bit of basketball, you could save yourself a hefty bill on a generic sports package by signing up to the League Pass. Bear in mind, however, that if you’re more generally sports-mad, you can watch many NBA fixtures free with certain Sky Sports packages - BT Sport, however, which was once the home of the NBA on UK television, no longer has the rights to any NBA matches.

Golf.tv

Looking to follow the PGA Tour and other major golfing events on the go? Golf.tv is the global home for streaming professional golf tournaments, with broadcasting rights to all of the following tours and trophies:

  • PGA Tour
  • PGA Tour Champions
  • Korn Ferry Tour
  • Mackenzie Tour (Canada)
  • PGA Tour - Latin America
  • PGA Tour - China
  • European Tour
  • Challenge Tour
  • Staysure Tour
  • World Golf Champions
  • Ladies European Tour

A subscription will also get you premium clips, exclusive videos including Quick Nine interviews with legends of the game, and weekly episodes of Tiger Woods’s series Introducing My Game - where in weekly installments viewers get an insight into every aspect of Tiger’s game. Via the website you can create a free account, which won’t give you access to much, but you’re free to update at any point to the following packages:

Live Pass (annual) Live Pass (monthly) Pro Pass (annual) Pro Pass (monthly)
~£70 ~£8 ~£100 ~£11
Live content, highlights & on-demand features for all tournaments Live content, highlights & on-demand features for all tournaments All Live Pass features plus extended content and extra features All Live Pass features plus extended content and extra features
One-off payment giving access for a whole year Rolling monthly deal, autorenews but can be cancelled at any time One-off payment giving access for a whole year Rolling monthly deal, autorenews but can be cancelled at any time

Prices are, for whatever reason, not advertised on the GolfTV website. The prices listed are the approximate converted prices quoted in the App Store’s GolfTV information section, which lists its prices (oddly) in Singaporean Dollars. Our conversions will not be exact, and have been rounded to the nearest pound - also bear in mind that pricing may vary by country and we could be way off!

To get exact pricing information, we recommend heading to the App Store or Google Play (depending on which device you’re using) to download the GolfTV app. In getting yourself signed up you’ll (eventually, surely) be quoted a price for the package you choose, which should match up roughly with the one we’ve quoted here.

RugbyPass

RugbyPass has established itself as a leading source for international rugby news and opinions, fixtures, tournament information, as well as streaming in certain parts of the world. The website also produces documentaries, podcasts, highlights videos - everything a true rugby fanatic could want from a website. RugbyPass TV, the area you’ll be interested in if you’ve come here looking for rugby content, is available to users all over the world in their monthly plan, which costs $0.99 per month and comes with the following features:

  • 24/7 access to shows and documentaries from the RugbyPassTV catalogue.
  • Content available to view in HD.
  • On-demand viewing via your TV, PC, laptop, tablet or phone.
  • Also available to watch on AppleTV, Chromecast, on via RugbyPass’s mobile apps (available in Google Play and the App Store).

Note that this package does not come with match streaming included. Unfortunately, broadcasting limitations mean that RugbyPass packages don’t allow streaming from the UK, and to use it to view live matches you would need to access through a VPN, which of course we would not recommend to anyone…

For those of you wanting to stream live rugby matches and keep it all above board, for your best bet we would recommend a BT Sport package, though Sky do offer certain club fixtures - it is the place to find French Top 14 matches, for instance - and is also where you’ll be able to watch Autumn Internationals and many one-off tests. Rights to the Six Nations, meanwhile, remain with the BBC and you can stream these matches live, watch them back, and find highlights on the iPlayer.

The services and products mentioned on this website may only represent a small selection of the options available to you. Selectra encourages you to carry out your own research and seek advice if necessary before making any decisions. We may receive commission from selected partner providers on sales of some products and/or services mentioned within this website. Our website is free to use, and the commission we receive does not affect our opinion or the information we provide.

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