Long gone are the days of having to go down to the betting shop or to the pub so that you could watch live racing or football matches. With many betting sites now streaming top level live sport and racing you can now watch and bet on almost anything from anywhere you like.
With more choice of online bookmakers where you can stream and watch sports live how do you decided between them. Like most things in life there is a range in depth and quality and it helps to know who has the best services available and at what costs, for example, some betting sites have minimum bets to watch, especially for racing.
If you like streaming it is good to open a few online betting accounts, allowing you to take advantage of a wider range of broadcasts and odds prices available. You also don’t necessarily have to bet with the bookie you stream through.
Whatever you want to get out of you live streaming in this guide article we will help you find the right online bookmaker and streaming service for you. We also discus common issues such as time delays, betting strategies with streaming and more.
Best Live Streaming Betting Sites
To add to the In-Play excitement, bet365 stream over 200,000 events live to your PC every year – so you can bet as the action unfolds. Highlights include Masters Series Tennis tournaments and matches from some of the top domestic Soccer leagues in the world.
To use the Live Streaming service you will need to be logged in and have a funded account or to have placed a bet in the last 24 hours. Any fixture/event on our website which has the Play or Video icon next to it is scheduled to be shown via Live Streaming.
Also watch EVERY race in the UK and Ireland, live at bet365. We stream all races shown on At The Races and Racing TV so you’ll never miss a second of the action!
Only available to eligible customers. To watch a UK race streamed on At The Races you must have a funded account or have placed a bet in the last 24 hours. To watch any other racing that is not provided by At The Races from a UK track, you must place a qualifying bet of at least £0.50 win or £0.25 Each-Way (or currency equivalent) on your selection(s).
You can also watch replays of all UK and Irish races covered by Racing TV and At The Races for free using our Horse Racing Archive. Registration required.<./p>
Many people don’t know much about Unibet but in fact this is one of Europe’s biggest betting sites and they stream over 40,000 events a year. With a more continental outlook there are many events streamed by these guys that are not streamed by UK focused bookies. If you want to get a thorough range of sports such as football from less common European and world leagues but you still want to have access to events like snooker, major tennis, FA cup football and darts then this is a great site.
Unibet TV is the streaming section of the site and it has one of the best streaming calendars I have ever seen, being honest even better than any other. Like all the others here you can watch on mobile, pop out the window or leave it integrated and even watch horse racing with a £1 minimum bet.
You may not get the offers and UK focused markets with Unibet that you get with the others so I would recommend having this as an additional site, but for streaming alone they are well worth it.
This is your horse racing and greyhound racing streaming bookie. I know many operators now stream racing but few have an overall racing package to match Betfred. Watch all UK and Irish racing if you bet £1 and all greyhound races live on Racing Post Greyhound TV or Sky for free as well as tons of other events including tennis, basketball, snooker and more.
It’s not the fact that Betfred stream races that make then the best but the other features that come with it including some of the best racing markets. As owner of the tote Betfred can also provide punters with promotions and lines simply not available elsewhere.
One of the most prevalent features on the Coral site is their live streaming service, you can see what event is on as soon as you login as the streaming window is displayed prominently on the home page. You can tell they take their streaming seriously at Coral, you can access it from pretty much wherever you are on the site.
Coral stream up to around 100,000 live events a year, or 2,000 a week, most are free as long as you have funds in your account. Horse racing can be watched if you’ve staked £1 on the race. Streaming is again integrated with live betting or can be popped out and is also available on mobile.
The Coral guide to live streaming is better than any other, they also have probably the easiest to use interface so if you are not familiar with live streaming this is the best place to start. Coral also have a pioneering multi view feature that lets you watch several events at once, great for things like tennis where there are lots of breaks in and between sets.
The colossus of modern bookmaking lives up to its name when it comes to streaming. Unlike say Coral they don’t state exactly how many events they stream but I would say it is in the same ball park, up to 2,000 a week. All events are free to stream except racing (£1 min) and all you need is a positive balance to watch.
There is not much in it between Ladbrokes and Coral with very similar streaming profiles and depth of live betting markets. Ladbrokes make it a little harder to find out what streaming is coming up in the future but then on the other hand they have a slightly faster interface that is more useful if you are using a slower connection. You can stream on mobile and choose to have your streaming window integrated or pop out.
Other Online Bookmakers With Live Streaming
Most bookies now offer some level of streaming, even if it is just the typical UK and Irish horse racing. There are also some other sports that are very widely streamed such as major tennis and basketball. If however you want choice, especially of smaller sports, the best thing to do is sign up with several of these operators.
Generally betting sites will let you stream by simply having a positive account balance, or if you’ve placed a bet on anything in the previous 24 hours, so it doesn’t have to cost you much to use streaming services. Remember there is nothing to stop you betting with one bookie and streaming with another so long as you have multiple accounts.
Other operators that stream a lot of events include:
- 10bet – Good for football streaming, in fact with more leagues covered than any other site. Also stream NBA, tennis, ice hockey and more.
- Betfair – Lots of streaming available daily, although they make it a little difficult to find out what’s coming up.
- Paddy Power – Another giant with the financial muscle to offer a lot of live sport. Not my favourite interface personally but easy enough to use and you will happily put up with it if they have something you want to watch.
Live Sport Streaming Requirements
Not a lot really.
On desktop and through mobile sites most live streaming is through flash or HTML5 based systems, you may need to have a flash plugin installed in your browser, apart from this there is no special requirements. If you don’t have flash you should be prompted to download the relevant plug-in. Progressively all sites are moving towards HTML5 as flash is phased out, right now sites provide both in parallel depending on what device you are using.
Another option is to steam through the bookmakers mobile/tablet app. Download the relevant app and you can stream straight away. The app comes with all the software you need to stream and with the latest devices you can even cast your stream onto other devices such as your TV. If your device supports it you may even be able to stream directly through the mobile website.
You will need a broadband or 3G / 4G internet connection to stream effectively. The minimum bandwidth required is around 512kb/s. Some operators have low resolution streams that can run as low as 128kb/s but on the whole the picture is not going to be good enough for a rewarding experience.
What Sports are Available with Live Streaming
These days pretty much all sports are available across the various online bookmakers.
Within sports there are some events that you will never be able to stream. Premier League football, for example, has exclusive TV rights in the UK and therefore no website can legally broadcast these matches, betting sites included. Even if they could I doubt they could afford the rights.
Below is a list of commonly streamed sports and what events you can expect to find (from within the UK):
- Football – These days you can stream top European football including the likes of the Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A. Most European football can be found from the likes of Unibet and other more European bookies. Football from the rest of the world is also available including Australian and American leagues. In the UK Championship football is often broadcast as is some FA cup and League Cup footy.
- Horse and Greyhound Racing – You will not struggle to find live horse races. There are many bookies who provide just horse racing and no other sports. You will generally need to bet to watch, usually £1 min, £0.50 with Betfair. You can watch greyhound racing broadcast on Racing Post Greyhound TV or Sky for free with many operators, Betfred being the best.
- Tennis – This is the sport where you can basically watch any match from the smallest tournament to biggest major final. You will not struggle to find tennis streaming from any of our recommended streaming sites. This is possibly the reason why tennis has a higher proportion of in play bets compared with any other sport.
- Snooker and Darts – Major events from both of these sports are now widely streamed with many bookies. You may have noticed most snooker and darts events are sponsored by bookmakers, the sponsoring site is a good place to start to look for a stream.
- Cricket – I am not sure anyone would want to stream a whole test match but with the shorter forms of the game now more popular than ever you will find streaming of T20 and ODI matches around. It is also possible to stream most county championship and some international test matches.
- Rugby – Not so popular right now for live streaming although as it’s sport widely available on TV there is possibly less pressure on bookies to do so. During major events such as the six nations and world cup you may find some occasional streaming.
- Golf – Not really a streaming sport, it is difficult enough to see the ball on a 50inch TV screen let alone a streaming window. Golf is also a fairly long game that doesn’t massively lend itself to live broadcast. Similar to Rugby most major golf is available on TV too.
- Basketball – There is a huge amount of basketball available through live streaming including American, European and world leagues.
- Ice Hockey – Again you will find nearly every major ice hockey match available through the various streaming bookies. This is a great low scoring sport suited perfectly for live betting and I think this is why it is so widely streamed.
- American Football – This is becoming more and more common and with more world wide leagues now to bet on you can find a fair bit of live streaming. Select NFL and American college games are also streamed and you can usually stream the superbowl.
- Baseball – Another sport increasing in streaming popularity, some MLB games are available as well as the majority of leagues from around the world.
- Boxing, UFC and MMA – Most high level boxing and UFC fights are worth tons of money, most of which is drawn in through pay per view TV revenues. Therefore do not expect your bookie to stream this as standard, although for smaller fights there is a possibility. One exception can occur around the biggest fights where some bookies will let you stream, paying your pay-per-view charge, if you bet a certain amount on the bout.
- eSports – The nature of eSports means it really isn’t worth betting on if you can’t watch the action. There are plenty of non-gambling sites that stream eSports and as it becomes more popular expect some betting sites to stream the bigger tournaments.
- Other Sports – Basically if it’s a sport someone will stream it somewhere. On a daily basis you will find live broadcasts of volleyball, beach volleyball, table tennis, handball, futsal, badminton, bowls, squash, etc.
Streaming Time Delay
Online streaming by betting sites is generally delayed up to around 30 seconds.
This has little to do with the technical side of streaming content, it is almost solely in place to prevent punters getting on up on the bookie.
When you try to place any wager through in play betting there is also an additional time delay, usually 10 or so seconds. This means if you want to place a bet on what you are watching the total delay can be up to around 45 seconds. Some bookies are better than others for this.
It is a good idea to turn off any other sports notifications you have while you are streaming. There is nothing more frustrating than watching a live stream only to find out there will be a goal in the next 20 seconds.
Integrated Streaming
Our recommended streaming betting sites give you the option to watch our live stream either embedded in the main window (integrated) or as a pop out window. This is the best of both worlds as it suits your viewing habits whatever they are.
Integrated windows tend to be smaller (simply to fit it on the page) so for the best viewing use a pop out window. Of course if you are live betting it is much easier to keep this integrated.
Some operators, especially those that only provide horse racing, will do so in a pop out window only. I suppose this is not such a problem with racing as it is difficult to bet in play anyway but it is mind boggling why operators who stream a range of sports do this.
If you have to flick between the streaming window and live betting panel it is frustrating and I would suggest if this is happening to you that you switch to one of the recommended sites. One way to get around this is to use a mobile app to stream through.
Bookmakers such as Coral will allow you to watch the live stream whatever page you are on, many have it only on the live betting page. For size, William Hill have the biggest integrated streaming window I have seen.
Streaming Strategy
There are some tips to help you utilise live streaming to get the most out of it:
- Sit back and enjoy the service – Watching a live stream in a pop out window is more rewarding due to the bigger picture. If you know what bets you want to place, then just sit back and enjoy the action without the stress of wondering when is the best time to bet. Most bookies let you stream free as long as your account balance is positive (and/or if you’ve placed a bet in the previous 24 hours) therefore you don’t even need to place a wager on the actual event to watch. It is a perk of having an account. If you open multiple accounts with several sites then you can have a choice of what to watch too.
- Don’t wait until the last second to place your bet – If you wait too long to place your in play wager you may miss out. First of all, your streaming is delayed and on top of this during a dangerous attack or play markets will be suspended.
- Look for the overall trend – The great aspect of streaming is getting a feel for how the game or event is going. For example, in a football game it is easy to see when you watch if one team is on the ascendancy over the other. This is when you should place your bets.
- Get your bet slip ready – If you want to bet in play on a specific line but you are trying to wait for the perfect moment then get your wager ready. Place the line you want into the bet slip with your wager amount and then when ready all you need to do is click bet, accept any odds changes, and you are away.
- Cash out – This function is particularly useful when combined with live streaming. You have a wager on a team to win 2-0, there are 5 minutes to go and you are watching the game through a live stream. It looks like your team are really under pressure and are going to concede and now your best defender just got injured, now is the time to cash in your bets. Punters have a far better appreciation of the game when watching live.
Rules and Regulations
Even though an online bookmaker may give you free streaming it is not free for them. The operator needs to pay for a licence to stream sports and this means all live streaming will fall under the usual copyright and duplication laws. You are not allowed to record or redistribute any live broadcasts. If you do you may not just have your betting account closed you may also be in trouble with the licensing agent who can quite easily take legal action against you.
You must be over 18 to have an account and bet with a bookmaker in the UK, therefore to steam from them you also must be of legal age and status.