How Can I Watch (Almost) Any Live Sports Game Online?

Dear Lifehacker,
I'm trying to ditch cable but the one thing holding me back is sports. If I want to watch live games my options seem pretty limited. Am I out of luck or am I missing something here? Where, or how, can I watch pretty much any sports game online?

Live Game Addict

Dear LGA,

Let's be honest: your options aren't great—but you're not totally screwed either. If you truly want to ditch cable without ditching sports, here's what you can do.

First things first, we've actually covered this a little bit. If you're a casual sports fan the information in this post should serve you well. If you're looking to go the extra mile, however, you have some additional options. In certain cases you may need to do a little extra work and you're not going to get everything for free, but you can get pretty decent online coverage for most of what you want.

First things first, check out First Row Sports (we'll talk more about it later) to watch practically anything. It's not official, but it's a really good place to start if you're looking for something specific.



Things are a little weird with the NFL Network, as you can really only listen to the audio of live games or watch games that already happened (with the NFL Game Rewind option, or by downloading games through iTunes). That said, points out that you can find live game streams on WiZiWiG. You just go to this forum, pick the stream you want, and follow the instructions to watch it live in a supported player (like VLC). This forum includes streams for NFL, CFL, and AFL games, so you get a pretty good selection.



NBA Unlimited Pass gives you access to all regular season games plus full season archives. You can watch online or on your mobile device. You get live DVR controls and can watch up to three games at once. If you don't need full access to every game, you can get a league pass to just follow seven teams.



If you're a baseball fan, you're pretty well-covered by MLB.TV. You get access to all regular season games, generally in HD, plus archives, alternate audio options, and more. MLB.TV is available in your web browser, but also on a ton of devices like the wonderful Roku box, many Apple devices, and even some televisions. If baseball is your thing, you're pretty much set.



NHL Game Center Live offers streaming video of live games, condensed versions of previous games, archives dating back to the 1960s, and—like most of these services—live DVR functionality. There's also an online chat function if that's something you want to do while you watch.

Where to Find More

When you can't get a full package directly, there are often other places you can go to find live streams and recorded games. WatchESPN is one way to find some live streams. Generally it will require that you have a subscription through your cable provider in order to use it—which is always the case if you're running the iOS or Android app—but they do offer some live streams for free. You can also check sites like UStream Sports, First Row Sports, and Stream2Watch for many more choices you probably won't find elsewhere.

Special events like the US Open and the Olympics, for example, often have live streams. We try to keep an eye out for free live sports streams for special events, so check our streaming sports tag page for new posts.

But there will simply be some games you're just not going to get online (much like you can't get everything through your cable provider). Rather than slinking back to your local cable provider, look at this as an opportnity. Most people aren't going to be as crazy as you and try get all of their entertainment online, so presumably you still have some friends with an enviable sports package. Mooch off of them like there's no tomorrow. And if you're kind of a loathsome human being, the bars will have you. You can solve two problems at once—watch the game, live, and drown your sorrows in alcohol. (You can, of course, still do this if you just like drinking—depression is not a requirement.)

While the online sports landscape still has some room to grow before it's going to beat what you can get with cable, if you're willing to make a few sacrifices you can get most of what you want on your computer while saving money at the same time.


Title photo remixed from an original by j9sk9s
