How to Live Stream Sports From Anywhere
Jan 17, 2023
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The sports industry is one of the biggest in the world. There are hundreds of different sports around the world. From the NBA to FIFA, and Aussie rules football, you can pick and choose what sport you want to take an interest in. The list is practically endless! Watching any of these sports is another story though. The majority of sports live streams are incredibly difficult to access — that is unless you physically travel to another country.
The main problem that sports fans face when trying to live stream their favorite sport in a different country is geographical blocking. It’s also known as geo-blocking for short, and although it’s incredibly frustrating for internet users and sports fans alike, it exists for good reason. But, you don’t need to be held hostage by it —there is a way around these digital fences.
All you need to do is use a VPN while streaming, and you can watch any sports stream no matter where you are in the world. You’ll be familiar with geo-blocking if you frequently use YouTube and Netflix, and the same rules apply when it comes to bypassing geo-blocking restrictions on these platforms. Still not sure why your sports streams are blocked and how a VPN allows you to access them? Keep reading to get all the details!
Why Your Sports Live Streams Are Blocked
Media companies like ESPN, Sky Sports, and Hulu+ need to secure broadcasting rights from a sporting federation before they are allowed to live stream any of the content on their platforms. For example, ESPN needs to sign a contract with the NBA if they want to live stream any of their games.
These broadcasting rights need to be bought by the media companies for millions of dollars. Once they have secured the rights, they can start live streaming the sport to their customer — however, only within a predefined country or region based on their contract with the sporting federation.
There are several reasons for this, but the main reason behind this concept is to prevent large media companies from establishing a monopoly on any given sport and winning exclusive rights. Using this concept allows the sporting federation to sell more broadcasting rights to other companies, and ultimately generate more revenue while controlling where their sports are being broadcasted.
Websites will use your IP address to determine your geographical location when you visit their website. If you’re not in the correct location, your access to the live stream will be blocked — this is known as geo-blocking.
For example, if you’re in Japan and you try to access an ESPN stream, you’ll be met with nothing but an error message stating that the content you are trying to access is not available in your country. You’ll run into geo-blocking restrictions even if you’re a paying subscriber with an account — it’s all about the location that you’re accessing the content from. But, there is a cybersecurity tool that can come to your rescue!
Use This Cybersecurity Tool
The cybersecurity tool in question is a virtual private network, which is more commonly known as a VPN. VPNs are designed to encrypt your internet connection, which prevents anyone else from seeing what you’re doing on your device while you’re browsing the web. In other words, the main purpose of a VPN is to allow the user to browse the web anonymously and with unparalleled privacy and security. While that’s all great, it’s not going to help you bypass geo-blocking restrictions — but another VPN feature will!
VPNs have a multitude of servers that are situated in different countries and cities around the world. These servers are all secure and can be connected at the click of a button. What’s special about these servers is that when you connect to them, your real IP address will be hidden from any website that you visit.
Your internet traffic will then be routed through the server, which will make it appear as if your device is accessing the internet from the server’s location. This will trick websites into thinking that you’re accessing them from another country, all without having to physically move your device.
Let’s take our earlier example of watching an ESPN stream from Japan. If you try to access the stream without a VPN, you will be blocked. However, switch your VPN on and connect it to a server in the United States, and suddenly the ESPN website will be tricked into thinking that your device is located in the U.S. and it will grant you access to the live stream as normal.
VPNs are game-changers for any kind of streaming. This concept not only works well for tuning into sports live streams from all around the world, but you can also unblock new content on Netflix, or watch some great YouTube videos that may not be available in your country.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a VPN
Before you launch off the mark to install a VPN on your device, there are some crucial things you need to keep in mind. The most important rule to follow when choosing a VPN is to avoid free VPNs. There are tons of them, and it’s not worth using one for streaming.
Free VPNs have slow connection speeds that will cause your stream to buffer and the image quality to drop, something that won’t happen with a premium VPN. You’ll also notice that free VPNs have an extremely limited selection of global servers to choose from — preventing you from accessing the live stream that you’re looking for. Premium VPNs on the other hand often have over 3000 servers in hundreds of different countries.
As if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also be bombarded with ads if you’re using a free VPN, and the majority of free VPNs also have bandwidth limitations of around 500 MB per day. If you’re streaming, you’ll be lucky to get half an hour's worth of game time! So, save yourself the headaches and frustrations and go with a premium VPN right from the start.