Updated on: April 25, 2024
Short on time? Here’s the best free sports streaming site in 2024:
- BBC iPlayer. A safe site that provides coverage of a wide variety of sports and sporting events in high quality, both live and on-demand. I recommend using it with ExpressVPN, which has multiple server locations in the UK (where BBC iPlayer is only available), the fastest speeds in the industry, and strong privacy and security features.
You don’t have to choose between your wallet and keeping up with your favorite sports — some great sites on the internet stream everything from football to racing completely free of charge, depending on which country you’re in.
That said, it can be hard to navigate the maze of online streaming options. Some streaming sites are only available in certain countries, and the ones you have access to might not stream the sports events you’re most interested in.
That’s why I created a carefully curated list of the top free sports streaming sites. I had my international team of colleagues and some family and friends test each site that is available in their home country to confirm each site is free and offers a wide range of sports content. I also delve into other important topics whether or not free sports streaming sites are safe and provide in-depth reviews of the best VPNs for safely streaming sports online — my personal favorite is ExpressVPN.
Neither I nor anyone else at SafetyDetectives endorses or encourages any form of illegal streaming activity. While the VPNs I recommend in this article don’t monitor or track your online activities, we urge you to follow all applicable laws and regulations and to stream sports only through legal and officially sanctioned channels.
10 Best Free Sports Streaming Sites in 2024
1. BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer is the best overall free sports streaming site. It’s easy to use, it offers high-quality streams, and it provides comprehensive coverage of a ton of different sports and major sporting events, including badminton, boxing, figure skating, football, NBA, rugby, beach volleyball, and tennis. However, it’s only available to users in the UK.
You get both live and on-demand content, so you can quickly catch up on any matches you might have missed, too. Additionally, as an official free sports streaming platform, you won’t have to worry about broken links or malware.
2. Channel 4
Channel 4 is a good alternative to BBC iPlayer for people in the UK for niche sports. It offers both live streams and on-demand content for more mainstream sports like Formula 1, football, and rugby, as well as paralympic games, and less popular sporting events like fishing and World Chase Tag.
The site is easy to use and I particularly like the Live TV Guide that shows you what you can livestream on the site days in advance.
3. CBC Gem
CBC Gem is the free streaming site to use if you’re in Canada. You can watch tons of sports games and events in HD on it, including basketball, NHL hockey, rugby, football, figure skating, gymnastics, curling, cycling, sailing, skiing, snowboarding, squash, swimming, track and field, triathlons, and volleyball.
The site keeps a list of all upcoming sports events you can watch live and when each starts. Plus, you don’t have to create an account to watch your favorite sports on it.
4. ARD
ARD is a top free streaming site for watching sports like European football and handball. It’s only available in Germany and mainly covers popular sports in the country and almost always broadcasts events that Germany’s national team participates in. This includes football, handball, Winter sports, and the Summer and Winter Olympics, as well as some cycling events — in other words, this is the site to watch DFB Pokal, Women’s Bundesliga, and the FIFA World Cup.
5. ProSieben
ProSeiben is a great pick for streaming sports like American football, boxing, and NHL in HD. The site is only available in Germany. Although it’s mainly an entertainment site, it occasionally acquires broadcasting rights for specific sports events or competitions. These include events like the NFL’s Super Bowl, eSports competitions, as well as Formula E, ice hockey, Rugby Sevens, WWE, and darts.
6. 9Now
9Now is a top free sports live streaming option in Australia. You can watch the following Australian and other international sporting events on the site: golf, rugby (including the Wallabies, NRL, and World Cup), tennis (including the ATP Cup, David Cup, and all major grand slams), women’s basketball, and swimming. The site offers on-demand sports content, too, all of which is in HD quality.
7. 7plus
7plus is a great alternative free sports streaming site if you live in Australia. You’ll find the following sports being live streamed on the website: AFL, NFL, cricket, golf, horse racing, netball, dodgeball, ONE Championship, surfing, table tennis, and more.
All live streams are in HD and it’s very easy to see when each event starts. However, you’ll need to sign in to watch your favorite sports and sporting eventing — plus, you’ll get to use some of the site’s convenient features like adding certain sports shows to your watchlist.
8. France TV
France TV is the best source for free French sports coverage. You can watch a wide range of sports content, including football, rugby, tennis, swimming, and handball, as well as events like the FIFA Cup, Ligue 1, Champions Cup, Six Nations, and the rugby World Cup.
You’ll have to create an account to watch any live stream or on-demand sports content available on the site. Also, most of the content on the site is only available to people living in France.
9. RaiPlay
RaiPlay is the site to use for Italian sports coverage. It provides live and on-demand content for various sports, including basketball, football, tennis, volleyball, cycling, and horse racing. You can watch Serie A football, Giro d’Italia, and select international events, such as the FIFA World Cup, on this platform.
RaiPlay’s streams offer excellent quality and I like how the site is very responsive — the streams load almost instantly. However, a lot of the content on the site has limited availability outside of Italy.
10. RTÉ Player
RTÉ Player offers high quality coverage of Irish sports, including football, rugby, and track and field. You can watch the Champions League, UEFA Euro, FIFA World Cup, Champion’s Cup, Six Nations, Women’s Six Nations, and the rugby World Cup on this platform — but only if you live in the country due to geo-restrictions.
Are Free Sports Streaming Sites Safe?
Here’s a quick guide to streaming sports safely:
- Choose a trustworthy streaming site. My list of the 10 best free sports streaming sites is a good place to start.
- Download & install a VPN. ExpressVPN is my top pick for streaming sports. Install it on the device you’ll be streaming from, open the app, and then connect to an appropriate server. Now all of the traffic to and from your device is encrypted and your real IP address is hidden.
- Download & install an antivirus. Norton is the best antivirus for streaming sports. An antivirus will help protect you from malicious free sports streaming sites that try to infect your device with malware.
- Start streaming sports. That’s it! You can now watch sports on free streaming sites safely.
Any online activity, including streaming, may put your privacy at risk. Many websites keep logs of things like user activity and IP addresses and share this information with third-party advertisers, and less reputable free sports streaming sites may contain links to malicious sites that try to infect your device with malware.
Additionally, if you aren’t careful, you may inadvertently end up on a platform that broadcasts sports events for free without the license to legally stream the sport or event, landing you in legal trouble.
To keep yourself safe, it’s best to only use legal free streaming sites and connect to a VPN. The primary reason to use a VPN when streaming is to protect your privacy. A VPN does this by encrypting all of the data, which makes it impossible to read for any third party, including your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and your government. This essentially means that nobody will be able to tell what streaming site you’re on or what sports you’re watching and for how long.
VPNs hide your IP address, too, so nobody can see your location (your IP address reveals your general location). This also makes it very hard for bad actors to target your IP address — instead, you’ll attack the IP address of the VPN server you’re connected to.
Another reason to use a VPN is to prevent your Internet Service Provider (ISP) from throttling your internet connections. ISPs will sometimes do this when they detect heavy-bandwidth usage, which happens when you’re streaming in HD online. Since a VPN prevents anyone from seeing what you’re doing online, your ISP won’t be able to slow down your speeds based on your online activity.
While a VPN can hypothetically allow you to watch free sports content on platforms not available in your geographical location, it’s important to understand that this would violate the Terms of Service of the streaming platform and could be considered copyright infringement, which isn’t something that anyone at SafetyDetectives condones.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I stream safely on free sports streaming sites?
To stream safely on free sports streaming sites, I recommend only using legal and legitimate streaming sites, as well as getting a good VPN and antivirus software. A VPN hides your real IP address behind an IP address owned by your provider and encrypts your internet traffic so nobody else can read it. An antivirus software will intercept malicious websites that pose as real sports streaming sites and remove any malware that tries to infect your device.
What’s the best VPN for free sports streaming sites?
ExpressVPN is the #1 VPN for free sports streaming sites. My international colleagues tested it and confirmed that it works with most popular free sports streaming platforms. It also provides the fastest speeds in the industry, so you can enjoy your favorite sport in HD and never miss a play.
Is there a good free VPN for watching free sports live streams?
It’s generally not a good idea to use a free VPN to watch free sports live streams. Free VPNs rarely support streaming, and they often come with other big problems, such as data caps, slow speeds, and poor security.
Many free VPNs also offer a limited server selection, which means you may not be able to find a local server to connect to. I recommend choosing an affordable paid VPN instead.
Are free sports streaming sites legal?
There are plenty of legal free sports streaming sites, such as BBC iPlayer, ARD, and 9Now. However, some of these sites may not be legally available outside of specific countries. There are also some free sports streaming sites that may not have the proper licensing for the content they offer. For this reason, it’s essential to do your research on the streaming site you plan on using to ensure that you’re complying with all local laws and regulations.