It’s game night, and everything’s ready to go. You’ve cleared your schedule, food is on the table and everyone’s gathered around the TV, ready to enjoy the big game. Then the nightmare scenario happens. You can’t stream it. The last thing you want to be doing during the opening minutes is hurriedly switching between streaming services, trying to find one that’ll let you tune in. That’s where a virtual private network, or VPN, comes into play.
VPNs allow you to sidestep geographical restrictions on streaming content by making you appear as though you’re connecting from a different location. If you’re unable to stream because of a local blackout zone or you’re trying to watch league games while on holiday in another city or country, a VPN is your ticket to getting back into the game at a moment’s notice.
Learn everything you need to know about using a VPN to stream sports, from understanding why blackouts happen to choosing the right VPN and setting it up for game day.
Understanding geo-restrictions
The licensing behind sports broadcasting is complex. For example, despite some NFL games being available on network television, in 2024, the NFL licensed exclusive rights to Amazon Prime, Netflix, Peacock and ESPN for 20 games in the season. Finding exactly which service you need to subscribe to for a specific match can be pretty difficult.
Individual broadcasters spend huge amounts of money for the rights to stream sports games in specific regions, too. The rights to show Premier League soccer in the UK are sold to different networks than the rights in the United States.
That’s why if you’re trying to stream a game from abroad by going through a streaming service you use back home, you may end up with a notification that the content you’re trying to watch isn’t available in your area. When you travel abroad, your public IP address reveals your new location, so you may be locked out of the services you pay for at home.
Then there’s the issue of local blackouts. If the game you’re watching is taking place in your local area, streaming services might be contractually obliged to block these games in order to encourage local fans to head to their local stadium and pay for tickets instead. Of course, it’s not viable for everyone to do that. Even forgetting the cost of a day out at the ballpark, sometimes it’s nicer to sit indoors with your creature comforts and watch the game from your own sofa and avoiding a chaotic parking deck and heavy traffic if it’s an indoor event.
Some countries also offer free over-the-air coverage of events that other broadcasters would require paid subscriptions to stream live. The BBC, for instance, shows some events free to UK viewers, like the UEFA European Championship, that would cost money to watch in other regions.
How a VPN helps you watch sports
A VPN routes your internet connection through a server in a location of your choosing. If you’re connecting from an internet provider in the UK, you can choose to route your traffic through a VPN server in, say, New York. From the perspective of the rest of the internet, you’re connecting from New York. Then you can access streaming services available to residents of New York, even if you’re really sitting thousands of miles away.
A VPN is essential if you’re a dedicated sports fan because it allows you to change where it looks like you’re connecting from at a moment’s notice without dealing with complex technical settings. The best VPNs offer servers in over 100 countries and allow you to switch your location with just a few clicks. That allows you to bypass local blackouts when you’re at home by connecting to a server outside of your territory. It also means you can watch games when you’re away from home, as you can set your VPN location to a server back home and keep enjoying the sports streaming package you’ve paid for.
It’s especially useful if you’re trying to watch international sports, too. You might find that the games you’re interested in simply aren’t covered by a local broadcaster, which leaves you with no choice but to pay for an international streaming service. Using a VPN lets you sign up and stream games from abroad that otherwise just wouldn’t be available in your region.
VPNs offer some additional benefits beyond streaming. The traffic you send through a VPN server is encrypted on the way, meaning snoops like your internet provider or network administrators can’t tell whether you’re browsing the internet or streaming the latest NBA game. Accordingly, your internet provider can’t intentionally slow down your streaming using traffic-shaping, so you won’t be hit with buffering during the last crucial moments of the game. Plus, you may even be able to save money by using a VPN for streaming.
Step-by-step: Watching sports with a VPN
Watching a sports broadcast with a VPN is pretty simple, but I’ve put together a quick primer to walk you through it.
Step 1: Subscribe to a quality VPN
We’ve found that not all VPNs work well for sports streaming. The VPN provider you pick should have a worldwide server network and be able to provide high-speed connections. Streaming sites are always trying to stay one step ahead by blocking VPN connections, so you’ll also need to pick a provider that’s constantly upgrading server hardware and buying new IP addresses for its customers to use.
The best VPNs for streaming include NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark and Proton VPN. If you’re streaming sports, free VPNs rarely meet these requirements, and you’re likely to be paying in other ways by handing over your data to less-than-reputable companies.
Step 2: Install the VPN app
Most reliable VPN providers offer installation guides for setting up your VPN. However, the general process is easy enough. Once you’ve paid for a subscription on your VPN provider’s site, you’ll typically be able to download the VPN app directly to your device. You can also head to your device’s app store, like the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, if you’d prefer to download the VPN client from there, but make sure you’re downloading the real thing and not a copycat client.
While many devices support native VPN apps, including Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV streaming boxes or sticks, some don’t. For instance, Rokus, some smart TVs and most game consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S and X can’t run VPNs directly. If you want to protect all of your devices simultaneously or use a VPN on devices that aren’t compatible with VPN apps, providers like ExpressVPN and NordVPN let you install your VPN on a router. Alternatively, you can use a VPN with game consoles, Rokus and smart TVs without a VPN router by bridging a connection with a desktop or laptop.
Step 3: Connect to the appropriate server
This depends on what you’re trying to access, but changing your location inside a VPN is pretty easy. All you need to do is select the location you want to connect from using the server list in your VPN app and connect. You’ll then be sending traffic through the VPN server in the location you want.
To bypass a local blackout for an MLB game, connect to a server in a different US city outside the blackout zone. For access to ESPN Plus while you’re traveling, you’d need to connect to a US server. It’s the same for Premier League coverage in the UK: Just connect to a UK server. Check your streaming provider beforehand to see which locations have access.
Step 4: Clear your browser cookies and cache or your app cache and data
This might not be totally necessary, but if you’re still having trouble logging in to your streaming service after setting a new location in your VPN you should try clearing the cookies in your browser. Some platforms store data about your location in your cookies, and clearing them forces the service to operate as though you’re connecting from a new location provided by your VPN. Similarly, if you’re using a streaming app and having issues, you can try clearing your app cache and data.
Step 5: Open your streaming app or website
Once your VPN connection is set up, you should have access to the game as if you were located in your VPN server’s region. If you encounter an error or the stream is still blocked, try switching to a different server in the same region. Streaming platforms continuously work to detect and block VPN IP addresses, and switching servers often resolves the issue.
You may be able to resolve some streaming issues on a VPN with these tricks
You might encounter a few common problems while streaming on a VPN. Firstly, if you’re streaming on a mobile device, the app you’re using might also be using your GPS location in addition to your IP to determine where you are. A VPN won’t change the information your GPS hands over, which gives away your actual location.
Some VPNs, including Surfshark and Windscribe, have GPS spoofing, but it’s often limited to certain platforms, like Android. If you aren’t using a VPN with GPS spoofing and a device that supports the feature, the easiest thing to do is try a mobile browser to stream instead of relying on your streaming provider’s dedicated app. It’s a little inconvenient, but it may work and is far easier than jailbreaking your device just so you can spoof your GPS location.
You may also encounter buffering while streaming. Generally, you want to pick the closest server to your real location that still allows you to stream content. For example, if you’re in Europe and want to watch an NFL game, it may be best to pick a server on the US’s East Coast as opposed to the West Coast.
The VPN protocol you pick can also massively impact your streaming bandwidth. Where possible, you should use WireGuard or derivatives and equivalents over OpenVPN, as we’ve found in our internet speed tests that WireGuard usually provides far better speeds.
If you’re trying to connect to a sports stream and you’re still being blocked after turning your VPN on, you may also need to bounce back and forth between a few different servers until you’ve found one that’s unblocked.
You might also find your local network provider is blocking your VPN connection entirely if you’re using hotel, corporate or school Wi-Fi, in which case you’ll want to turn your VPN provider’s obfuscation settings on, which tries to disguise your traffic as normal browsing traffic instead of VPN traffic. For obfuscation, you may be able to use specialty servers or a dedicated VPN protocol, like NordVPN’s NordWhisper or Proton VPN’s Stealth.
Streaming sports with a VPN should be legal, but check your provider’s terms of service
So long as you’re a paying customer subscribed to a legitimate streaming video service, watching sports with a VPN should be completely legal. However, changing your location artificially or using a VPN could be violating your provider’s terms of service. Check your subscriber agreement to make sure you’re abiding by the terms of service.
Never miss the big game again
Once you’ve seen how easy connecting to sports streaming is with a VPN, you’ll never want to go back. Forget about spending hours trying to piece together a streaming schedule with different providers for your region. A VPN allows you to go straight to the most convenient place to watch the sports game you’re trying to tune into, whether you’re trying to dodge a local blackout or you’re catching a game while on holiday.
The key is choosing a VPN that excels at streaming, with fast speeds, an extensive server network and a track record of working with major sports platforms. Once you’re set up, you’ll wonder how you ever put up with blackouts and geo-blocks in the first place.