Watching online sports can be an expensive experience for sports fans. Monthly subscriptions to major broadcasters cost a small fortune and you need a huge variety of channels to be able to watch every football match, horse race, tennis match and other sporting events you might want to… And that’s why you want to discover whether or not you can really watch sports for free.
What big broadcasters do bring to the table is assured quality, but, if you don’t mind the quality being not quite as good or mixed with adverts, there are several sites where you can watch sports for free.
Another possible alternative worth considering is to watch sports streamed live on bookmaker websites. You may have to place a small bet to watch some events, but this can still work out cheaper than costly subscriptions and safer than illegal streaming sites.
Here are some sites where you can watch sports for free from the comfort of your own home:
ESPN
ESPN is a well-known brand in the world of sports and its live sports streaming offers excellent visual and audio quality. Events you can watch on ESPN include golf, tennis, baseball, basketball, hockey, NASCAR, MMA, and a variety of e-sports.
The problem is many of the events it covers are simply tempters, and you’ll still have to subscribe to watch some of the bigger events. ESPN also only streams sports events that it is licensed to, meaning you can’t watch every event you want to on ESPN.
Facebook Watch
Facebook is trying to legitimately move into the world of streaming live sporting events, and you’ll find a variety of basketball, football, MLB games, and surfing tournaments that can be watched on Facebook Watch if you have a Facebook account.
But serious Facebook users never miss a trick to use this social media platform to get what they want, and you’ll find many savvy Facebook users have worked out how to use Facebook Watch to stream a lot of sporting events that Facebook isn’t licensed to. Of course, most of these are inferior quality, but hey they are free.
To search Facebook for live sports being streamed, simply enter the name of the event + streamed live. If someone is streaming it, that should help you find the feed.
Laola1
This Austrian-based live sports streaming platform has an English version that can be watched by a global audience. You’ll be able to watch sports such as motorsports, volleyball, table tennis, basketball, hockey, and soccer, as well as a variety of other sports.
Laola1 has a decent following in the United States of America, and plenty of US sports fans use it to watch lots of sports from around the world for free that aren’t easily found in more traditional live streaming sites in the US. This is particularly true for international soccer leagues, table tennis, and volleyball.
The first thing you need to know about Reddit is it doesn’t officially host live sports streaming. But what it does do is allow its members to create subreddit communities that dedicate themselves to sharing links where members of Reddit can enjoy watching all sorts of popular sporting events.
Reddit is widely considered to be one of the best resources when it comes to live sports streaming, especially as users can upvote or downvote streams depending on whether they’re good or bad. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever come across bad streams on Reddit, but it does mean finding a bad stream is less likely than randomly clicking on links you’ve found via your search engine. Popular sports on Reddit include NFL, MLB, and NCAA.
One bit of advice is to always use an ad blocker when searching on Reddit and other similar sites, as this should stop plenty of unwanted spam.
Stream2Watch
There are a major pro and a big con with watching live sports stream on Stream2Watch. The pro is you should be able to find just about any sporting event live stream you want, including a big choice of soccer, rugby, volleyball, and baseball matches.
But this means there is a greater chance you’ll be exposed to invasive and potentially harmful pop-up ads, as the site uses several sources to embed its live sports streaming links. You should always use an ad blocker when using Stream2Watch, but this may not stop all adds. So, if an add appears over the stream you’re watching, try and close the add. If you’re then redirected to another add, close your browser immediately.
SportRAR.tv
This streaming site is especially popular with people who like to watch sports like football, golf, basketball, tennis, baseball, and hockey. But it’s also another streaming site that embeds its links from a variety of sources, making it susceptible to harmful ads and pop-ups.
When you go to SportRAR.tv, you will find a variety of matches and events you can watch. But if the one you’ve chosen doesn’t launch, look for an option that offers more links to the same event. Once again, to help to stop harmful adds and pop-ups, make sure you use an ad-blocker.
Bosscast
You’ll need to have Flash installed to operate this streaming platform, but you will be able to use it to live stream a variety of football, basketball, and baseball matches, as well as other sports. The streams are decent quality and you should be able to find most events for the sports mentioned above. Not everyone likes to use Flash, as it does have its evasive downsides, but Bosscat is an option if you can’t find a live stream of the event you want to watch elsewhere.
Cricfree
Pop-ups are again a downside of this streaming site, but it doesn’t stop people enjoying a decent selection of live cricket, soccer, motorsports, rugby, tennis. golf, and baseball events. As the name suggests, this site specializes in Cricket but does offer a variety so you can watch sports for free.
Bet365
Not everyone likes to bet on sports, but there are a variety of bookmakers that stream a variety of sports such as horse racing, as well as football, tennis, rugby, and cricket matches – and the best of these is the world’s biggest bookmaker Bet365.
You can watch some events for nothing, whilst others require you to place a small bet of say 50p to unlock the feed.
If you’re not normally someone who bets on sports, you shouldn’t just dismiss this possibility out of hand. That’s because it could still work out cheaper than expensive monthly subscriptions to high-profile broadcasters. You also won’t need to navigate your way through a variety of potentially harmful pop-ups.
For example, a monthly sports subscription can cost in the region of £30 to £40. That means, if you tend to watch just one sporting event a day, you can watch those at 50p a day or about £15 a month simply by placing the minimum bet required to watch the feed. If you want to watch multiple events in a day, in some instances you can place doubles, trebles, or accas that may unlock all these events for one bet.
Of course, this strategy to watch live sports streaming also offers you the chance to win some money, as any bets you place to watch live events could win, reducing your live streaming expenditure even further. Of course, you could always make sure you have quality racing tips and football tips to follow at the same time…
When you sign up to Bet365 as a new member, you could also be able to take advantage of a welcome bonus, whilst existing players are eligible to take advantage of other promotions and concessions.
Can You Watch Sports for Free AND Legally?
And herein lies the problem. Most of the sources above are illegal so you need to ask yourself whether the £30-£50 saving you’re going to make is worth it. The only legal option from the above for major sports is Bet365 and even then it’s not completely free to access as you need to be betting on the markets.
