In much the same way that Netflix revolutionized how we consume film and TV content, over recent years a number of dedicated sports streaming sites have emerged to do the same thing with all of your favorite sports.
Whether it’s following a team across the country or watching your favorite athletes compete on their way to the Olympics, there is a sports streaming service available to fit the needs of fans of every sport.
These sites can also help you cut the cord on that expensive premium cable TV subscription and watch your chosen matches from anywhere, often times at a much cheaper price.
To help simplify things, we’ve broken down the best sports streaming sites into two sections: general sports streaming services and dedicated sports streaming services. General options allow you to stream your favorite sports and often have exclusive coverage that you can't get anywhere else. While dedicated sports streaming services are for die-hard fans that want to dive deep into their favorite league, teams and players - whether you're a football fan, baseball nut, grapple fan or anything else.
No matter where you live in the US or what your budget is, we’ll show you how to live stream your favorite sports on all of your favorite streaming devices.
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Best general sports streaming sites
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ESPN Plus is a relatively new sports streaming site from ESPN that offers a wide variety of live and on-demand sports programming at a very reasonable price. The service isn’t intended to replace the network’s TV channels but rather to give cord-cutting sports fans a better way to watch their favorite teams and sports.
ESPN+ allows you to watch a selection of live sporting events daily from the NHL, MLB, MLS, PGA Tour and a number of college sport leagues. in 2019, it added UFC to its roster, too. Your subscription also includes access to the network’s own original content including its award-winning documentary series 30 for 30, E:60 and SC Featured. Unfortunately though most of ESPN’s flagship shows such as NFL Live, SportsCenter and SportsNation aren’t included as well as its live NFL and NBA broadcasts.
You’ll have no trouble watching the content that is available though as ESPN+ supports Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Android phones and tablets, Chromecast, Fire TV, Roku, PS4, Xbox One, Roku, Samsung’s smart TVs and even the Oculus Go.
What began as a sports streaming service tailored to fighting fans has evolved over the years to offer more than 8,000 events a year including Premier League soccer, NBA, NFL, MLB, NH1, F1 and of course boxing and MMA.
DAZN (pronounced Da Zone) first launched in Austria, Germany, Japan and Switzerland in 2016 and since then the service has expanded to Canada as well as the US and Italy in 2018. While the service focused on fighting sports at launch with the promise of offering customers access to over 100 fights a year, it has quickly grown to encompass more sports and this trend will likely continue as more subscribers join.
Watching sports with DAZN is easy as it supports a wide variety of devices including Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, PlayStation, iOS, Android and from Chrome, FireFox, Internet Explorer and Safari via the web. If you’re interested in catching the biggest fights (and more) without paying high pay-per-view prices than DAZN is one of your best options.
While other sports streaming sites choose to focus on either sports or entertainment, FuboTV does both with over 100 TV channels available depending on the plan you choose. The base plan includes sports programming from CBS, Fox, MSG, NBA.TV, NBC, NFL Network, TBS, TNT as well as several international channels.
If you’re trying to watch a game, FuboTV will likely have it though you will need to figure out what channel it’s on first. However, the service is subject to the same blackouts and restrictions as cable. FuboTV is also one of the pricier services on this list because of its cable-like sports and entertainment coverage.
No matter where you want to watch, FuboTV has you covered with support for Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Chromecast and apps for both Android and iOS.
Sling TV takes a similar approach to FuboTV by offering customers access to a wide variety of TV channels. However, the service sets itself apart with its Sling Orange and Sling Blue plans. Depending on which channels you want, you can choose either plan or combine the two for even more content.
Additionally, Sling TV also has a number of add-on packs for more focused content such as sports, comedy, news and others. At the time of writing, each of these packs cost an extra $5 per month but having the option to add kid friendly programing or Spanish language content is a nice plus for those that would prefer to pay for just one streaming service. You can also add cloud-based DVR to record your favorite games or shows to watch later.
Sling TV supports all major streaming media devices and mobile platforms including Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast as well as Android and iOS. If you like the traditional cable experience without the long-term commitment, Sling TV could be the right choice for you.
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NBC Sports Gold is a bit different than some of the other streaming services on this list because it allows you to watch a number of sports such as figure skating that you won’t find extensive coverage of anywhere else. However, this does come at quite the cost as you need to pay for each sports pass individually.
For instance, let’s say you wanted to watch speed skating, track and field and cycling. You would need to pay for each sport individually for a total of $115. While some sports like speed skating go for as low as $19.99, others such as rugby cost $69.99.
NBC Sports Gold is certainly not the most affordable sports streaming service but its wide breadth of coverage for many less popular sports makes it worth checking out regardless.
Best dedicated sports streaming services
Football fans that want to stay up to date with everything going on in the league need to look no further than NFL Game Pass. The service focuses on out-of-market games that are available to you once they’re finished so you won’t be watching live football as you would with NFL Sunday Ticket.
Given the fact that you can’t watch live games, NFL Game Pass is a bit on the pricey side but you do get access to loads of content. In addition to replays of every game played by each team in the league, you can also watch the NFL’s original programming such as the HBO series Hard Knocks. The service also gives you the ability to track a single player throughout the season to see what they’re up to.
NFL Game Pass is available on Xbox One, PS4, Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku, Android TV as well as on Android and iOS. While the NFL’s own streaming service isn’t ideal for catching live games, it does provide NFL fans with plenty to watch and a good overview of the league as a whole which could be especially useful for your fantasy football team.
NBA League Pass provides the most extensive basketball coverage of any sports streaming site. Subscribers have the option to follow a single team at a cheaper price or to follow every team in the league for a bit more. For die-hard basketball fans, NBA League Pass has it all with live games for all teams, full game replays, audio broadcasting, classic games and even games produced specifically for virtual reality.
However, there is a catch...unfortunately NBA blackouts still apply, so you won’t be able to watch local games live (unless you want to start thinking about a VPN service). The League Pass still provides a great deal of value for the money and could be the perfect solution for basketball fans living out of state.
MLB.TV is Major League Baseball’s own streaming service that gives fans the ability to follow a single team or every team in the league throughout the regular season. However, just like NFL Game Pass, the service limits you to only watching out-of-market games live. You can still watch your local team play but all of their games will be available once their finished.
While this may be a deal breaker for casual fans, die-hard baseball fans will likely be content with MLB’s full game archives and the ability to stream almost 300 Spring Training games live. MLB.TV also supports all of your favorite streaming devices including Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and others so you can watch baseball on your preferred device when you want to.
UFC fans know just how expensive ordering a pay-per-view event can be which is why the UFC decided to create their own streaming service. UFC Fight Pass allows you to watch every PPV event at no additional cost and the service even includes early preliminary bouts known as Exclusive UFC Fight Pass Prelims.
A free seven-day trial is available so that you can test out the service for yourself and its cost does go down when you commit to either a six month or twelve month plan. UFC Fight Pass also allows you to rewatch past fights and personalize your experience by following your favorite fighters and types of fights to create specifically curated Collections.
The WWE Network offers a similar experience to UFC Fight Pass but for professional wrestling fans. The service includes every live WWE pay-per-view event at no additional cost and gives you unlimited access to the company’s premium content on any device at anytime. You can also rewatch past events at any time. To help entice new users, WWE Network even gives you the first month free with the option to cancel anytime without obligation.
If you’re a long-time wrestling fan or are just trying to catch up with the latest big events such as Wrestlemania or SummerSlam, WWE Network provides a wealth of content at a very reasonable price.
