Whether you want to watch matches from Europe's top football leagues, the most important American sports competitions (NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB) or second or third-tier football or other sports, you can do it online from your computer directly from the comfort of your home, or even from your mobile devices.
In the following, we'll talk about ways you can watch live streaming broadcasts and we'll also present some links you're sure to find very useful.
WHY WATCH LIVE VIDEO BROADCASTS?
When betting live it is mandatory to watch the match we are betting on. Otherwise, it is like playing the lottery. When betting before a match starts it is important to analyse the match and absolutely everything about it from the current form and the score lines to the list of players unavailable or the state of the pitch. But when placing live bets these things become less important and the course of the match and how both teams play becomes more important.
And pre-match analysis can still be important, especially if we have teams that fall off physically in the second half or teams that have a slow start to a game or if we have an impassable pitch. But watching a live match greatly increases our chances of picking the best predictions. For example, we have seen matches where the lower-ranked team opened the scoring. Many punters, thinking it was just a fluke, bet on the score being turned over, but without watching the match to see how well both teams played. So in many cases, the score return did not come and the punter lost his money.
Or we have also seen situations where the score was 0-0 in the 70-80th minute, and the "Easy money" bettors were betting that less than 1.5 goals would be scored by the end of the match. They were convinced that there was no way they could score twice if no goals had been scored up to that point. But they weren't watching the game to see how it was played, and in some cases, there were even spectacular matches where they simply hadn't scored up to that point because of bad luck. So the end of the match was much more intense than punters expected, and bets on trivial odds of 1.10-1.20 were lost.
But by watching a live match we know exactly how the game is played and can avoid risky bets. So we think it is mandatory to bet live only on matches we can watch live on video! Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to watch your favourite matches.
LIVE VIDEO STREAMING FROM YOUR BROWSER
Live matches via Sopcast
SopCast is a web tool that allows you to watch live TV online for free. It is available both as a stand-alone program (i.e. an application that can be downloaded to your computer and even mobile devices) and as a plugin for the Internet Explorer browser.
How do I download sopcast?
To download the program, all you have to do is go to sopcast.com and go to the Downloads section. Here you will see that you have four options to choose from:
- SopCast for Windows - select this option if you want to install the program directly on your personal computer.
- SopCast for Android - if you want to install the program on an Android mobile device, select this option.
- SopCast for Linux - if you have a personal computer running Linux, then this is the option to select
- SopCast for Mac - unfortunately, the app is not available for iPhone or Ipad, but it can be used on a Mac Pc.
If you want to download the app for Windows, then select this option, after which you will see which versions are available, and links to each version. I recommend downloading the newest version.
The application is easily installed by double-clicking on an executable file. Once installed, a window will open where you need to log in. If you intend to use this application often, then you could open a new account by clicking on the "Create a new account" button in the bottom right corner. But if you don't want to open an account, then you can continue without logging in. All you have to do is select the "Login as anonymous" option, leave the auto-filled "Account name" and "Password" unchanged, and click on "Login".
How do I watch live matches online via sopcast?
At the top of the application, there is an "Address" box where you have to fill in the address of the channel you want to watch. How do you find out the address? Do a google search, and you'll quickly find links where you can see a whole list of channels. But I'll be honest with you; I don't know what's happened, but in recent years fewer and fewer of these channels continue to work. If you find a list that's more than a year old, you'll be surprised to find that almost every channel on that list is down. Even on newer lists, you will encounter similar problems.
If you choose the "Live Channels" option in the app, you'll be shown a list of live channels that work. But the available options are more than limited, and you'll mostly only find Asian channels, of which only a couple are sports. So if you really want to watch live matches from SopCast, then you'll have to search the internet for working links.
SopCast plugin for Internet Explorer
If you want to watch live matches on the internet via Sopcast, you can do it right from your browser. But it only works on Internet Explorer version 8 or higher. But here, as on any other site, these TV channels may not always work. A good idea is that when a match you want to watch starts, do a quick google search to see which sites are broadcasting it via SopCast.
SITES OFFERING FREE FLASH PLAYER STREAMING
Many sites offer live streaming through a flash window. These are picked up from TV stations in different countries, so don't be too surprised if you search for a Real Madrid vs Barcelona match and find a live stream with Arabic commentary.
This is how you find by far the most streams, especially if you know where to look. But even a simple google search will return dozens of results. Although you can find a stream of almost any televised match in the world, you should also be prepared for some drawbacks. First of all, watching matches this way without a plugin like AdBlock is almost impossible; the streams are full of annoying ads that keep popping up even after you turn them off. Fortunately, this is a fixable problem, but on the other hand, I think in the next few years more and more live stream sites will start banning the use of AdBlock.
But for now, this method is effective. Another disadvantage is the delay which can be as long as 1 minute and the rather poor resolution. Plus you have to be prepared for the worst, as the stream can crash or freeze at any time. I for one have yet to have the good fortune to come across a flash stream that runs continuously for an entire match, from minute 1 to 90, without crashing even once.
Below I'll list 7 good sites that offer live video streaming via flash, but I'm sure many others are at least as good.
- co/sports/soccer - here you can find lots of football streams, from Premier League and Primera Division games to matches in Sweden, Scotland or Iceland. But there's a wide range of other sports on offer too, so you can watch live video of basketball, boxing, American football, hockey, baseball and tennis. There are even broadcasts of wrestling, golf and darts.
- me - is a site based strictly on European sports. The offer focuses mainly on the six most popular sports from the "Old Continent": football, tennis, basketball, volleyball, handball and hockey.
- eu - has a similar offer to the above site.
- me - doesn't offer very many feeds
- me - doesn't offer a lot of streams, but it's not out of the question to find some matches that can't be found elsewhere
- net - a lot of tennis, football and other sports streams are offered. There are even American football matches from both the NFL and secondary competitions.
- me - here the offer on ice hockey is richer than elsewhere
Both of the above options offer the possibility to watch for free almost any match that is televised, whether it is broadcast by a TV station in China or Saudi Arabia. But in both cases, you'll have to make some compromises. If you want access to quality broadcasts then you might consider taking a few dollars/euros out of your pocket to watch the matches you want in the best conditions.
Free broadcasts from the competition's website
In the case of niche sports or certain very small competitions, there is also this option: free broadcasts directly from the competition's official website, or from a third-party website authorised to offer such broadcasts.
Maybe you don't want to watch football or tennis and are looking for broadcasts of niche sports like yachting, golf or e-sports. Competitions in such sports probably won't be watchable via any of the methods listed above, but the solution might be even simpler than you imagine. Often the main competitions in these niche sports can be watched for free directly from the official websites, or from sites with which there are direct collaborations. For example, if you want to watch matches from e-sports like CS: GO, DOTA2 or LOL, then you'll almost certainly find the streams you want on twitch.tv.
The quality of the broadcasts is very good, the sites don't crash, and in many cases, they can be accessed from other platforms (even if the support offered is not as good as a Pay Per View site). For example, Twitch, since we've been talking about this service, has an app for IOS and Android that allows you to watch live video broadcasts in the best conditions from your phone or tablet. On the other hand, it's much harder to install on Smart TV (not impossible though).
LIVE STREAMS ON YOUTUBE
This is a newer but very interesting variant, especially as it works on both PC and mobile. You search directly on Youtube after the match starts. The quality is good, the delay is small, and the stream doesn't get stuck. Sounds like the perfect option, you just won't find all the matches you can think of. I often can't even find important matches from top leagues. But on the other hand, I found quite a lot of matches from League 1 for example, but also other average leagues like the Czech Republic or Poland. You can search to see if you get lucky, and it takes a minute at most. And if you're lucky, you get a free Pay Per View quality stream!
LIVE VIDEO BROADCASTS FROM ONLINE BOOKMAKERS
Some online bookmakers have their own live video streaming service where you can watch a game in real-time from the same window you are betting from. There is no charge to customers, but you must have a positive betting account balance or have placed at least one bet in the last 24 hours. This rule applies to most bookmakers who offer this service (there are a few exceptions), which is why I recommend that you always keep at least some money in your account.
Why choose an online bookmaker with live streaming?
If you've read the above, then you've come to the following conclusion: there are indeed free sites that stream live video matches but they have some major problems. First of all, browser streams via Flash (the way we find most matches) are full of ads, and they reappear after a certain amount of time if we don't watch the match "full screen". And we can't really watch it that way as we have to constantly switch between windows to bet on the match. Sure, we can install Adblock, but I say that in 1-2 years maximum no such site will allow us to access it if we have Adblock installed.
A second problem is that these streams can break quite often and sometimes even crash. They can also have a delay of several seconds or tens of seconds. When we bet live every second counts so this delay can get us quite confused. And the fact that we have to constantly switch between the betting window and the live broadcast window is not exactly a pleasant thing.
Live video streams from bookmakers on the internet have no delay, no ads, and rarely get stuck. We can also watch the match from the same window we are betting from, without having to move between pages. We can also find some fairly rare streams that are not available on any other live video streaming site. But it's best to see an exact list of advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages:
- You can watch a match directly from the live betting page, and so you don't miss a second of the action
- You get free access to some streams that are normally only available for a fee. The best example is the American basketball league (NBA), where you have to spend some money on a league pass, but at Betwinner or some other bookmakers, you can watch all the games for free.
- You can watch matches from the most important football leagues in Europe and beyond.
- You can find streams of second and third-tier matches from football and other sports, streams that are very hard to find even on free sites where you have to put up with poor quality streaming, lots of ads and the possibility of streams getting blocked.
- You get full free access to all streams as long as you have a positive betting account balance. Top agencies even offer over 10,000 streams annually.
- At some bookmakers, you can watch the streams directly from your phone or tablet. The important thing is that your net and battery last.
Disadvantages:
- You can't watch fullscreen broadcasts, and the resolution is only good enough to watch the match in good conditions from a small window anyway.
- There's a delay of a few seconds or tens of seconds between what's happening on the pitch and the broadcast.
- Sometimes the streams get stuck or don't work (but that's not usually the case).