Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve placed a bet on the J2 League and you’re eagerly waiting for the match to start, only to realise that there’s no other way to watch the game besides some shady illegal streams? Or worse, it’s the last leg on your acca, and you must watch the game live so you can react quickly and hedge your bet if necessary. Well, we might just have the solution for you: bookies offering live streaming.
That’s right: many bookmakers have a built-in live streaming feature that allows you to live stream sports in real-time, and some even let you place live bets while the game is on. The best live streaming bookies will provide a high quality stream so you can sit back and watch the action to see if your bets come in. We’ve compared and tested a plethora of UK bookies to prepare this guide, in which we’ll list the best bookmakers for live streaming. Stay tuned.
Top 7 Live Streaming Bookies in the UK
A bookie should fulfil several important criteria to be even considered by our team to make it to our list. From the range of sports you can live stream to all the simple, yet important sub-features, there are some major points that differentiate operators. The best betting sites will ensure they give their customers a well-rounded experience and sites with live streaming are now very common.
The availability to watch the game on full screen, the video wall, and in-play betting, are just some of the details that determine whether the live streaming feature is actually useful or it’s just a gimmick. Based on this, our expert team has compiled a list of the best bookmakers for live streaming and their highlight features.
#1 bet365 – Unrivaled Live Streaming on sports
bet365 is the undisputed king of bookie live streams. It was among the first bookies to offer the feature, and it offers the largest selection of sports
A few years ago, you could watch all types of sports and competitions live, such as the EPL, La Liga, Bundes Liga, and dozens of football leagues. The choice is more limited now, but you can still live stream many popular sports like basketball, ice hockey, lesser football leagues, baseball, and many others. Like most other bookies, you can also watch horse and greyhound racing live.
bet365’s Live Streaming section has several features that make it stand out. Note that not all events are available in full screen, but you can zoom in on your browser if you want to avoid watching the game on a little screen. Other features include the Floating Window, Video Wall, Bet In-Play, and Highlights. To be eligible for the Live Streaming feature at bet365, you need to have placed a bet within the last 24 hours and have a funded account.
#2 Paddy Power – Best For In-Play Betting During Live Streaming
Paddy Power is a major UK bookie that also offers the Live Streaming feature. Here, you can watch many different sports, including football, tennis, golf, as well as horse and greyhound racing. The live streams have a delay, so be prepared when betting live. As with bet365, not all streams are available in full screen, but you can zoom in. The feature is also available on mobile.
#3 betway – Best For eSports Live Streams
Betway is another operator that offers live streaming. The feature is only available to account holders who have placed a bet of at least £2 on an event. This is the case for horse races, but note that you’ll need to place an additional bet with a stake of at least £2 for each additional race you’ll want to watch.
Besides horse racing, you can watch other sporting events live, like eSports. Many punters prefer watching eSports on Betway instead of other platforms because the streams are free to watch and you can place in-play bets while you’re at it, which makes it even more convenient.
#4 Betfred – Best For Sport Choice
Betfred has an excellent Watch Live section that offers live streams of different sports. You can watch tennis, football, basketball, and other sports, but like most UK bookies, the main focus is horse racing. The Watch Live feature covers many major UK and US horse races, which are free to watch to any Betfred account holder with a balance of £1 or higher.
This means that you don’t have to place a bet on any of the races – you just need to fund your account. The feature is available on both desktop and mobile, and you can use it on your mobile phone browser.
#5 BetVictor – Best Live Stream Quality
Like most UK bookmakers, BetVictor specializes in horse racing live streams. You can find many different horse and greyhound racing streams from over a dozen UK and US racecourses. To watch a race, you need to have placed a bet of at least £1 on the given race.
However, BetVictor’s live streaming service has now expanded to several sports, including football, basketball, and eSports. You need to have a funded BetVictor account to watch a live stream, and our expert team was impressed by the quality of the streams and the lag-free experience – which is not the case with every operator.
#6 William Hill – Best For Horse Racing Live Streams
William Hill specializes in racing live streams, particularly horse and greyhound racing. You can watch the action live from 24 UK racecourses, and all you need to do is click on the William Hill Betting TV link and click the Play button. The feature is only available for account holders who have already funded their accounts.
The operator even has its own Racing Radio, where you can listen to the commentary directly from the racecourse. The feature is also exclusively available to William Hill account holders.
#7 Unibet – Best For Niche Sports Live Streams
The live streaming feature at Unibet is called Watch and Bet Feature, and, as the name suggests, it allows you to watch sports live and place bets in real time. The operator claims that you can enjoy ‘the smoothest streams’, but in reality, it’s on par with the other top bookies.
What we really like is the selection of sports. Besides horse racing, which is a must in every top UK bookmaker, you can watch live streams of other sports such as football, basketball, American football, and even snooker.
The feature is available to all account holders who have funded their account and have a net positive amount (excluding funds from bonuses and promotions), or have placed a bet in the last 24 hours. The streams are of good quality, but like with bet365, you need to zoom in if you want to watch at a larger scale, as full-screen mode is usually not available.
Top Live Streaming Bookmakers by Sport
The list of the best UK bookmakers that have the live streaming feature that our team compiled includes operators that cater to all types of punters. However, not all operators offer the same streaming services, with some offering more sports betting markets than others.
Some of them are focused on horse racing, while others focus on other sports. Also, some of the unique features make some operators a better fit for some sport, while others for other sports. Check out our suggestions on which bookie to choose for different sports.
Football Live Streams – bet365
Many UK bookies offer football streaming. However, you should be aware that the broadcasting rights for the biggest European leagues, such as the English Premier League or the UEFA Champions League have been bought out by major TV networks, so don’t expect to find EPL live streams on bookmaker sites.
Don’t let this discourage you, though. You can watch thousands of football matches live, including the second and third divisions of most European leagues, and many top domestic leagues from South American and Asian countries. Many of the top European leagues, such as La Liga and Serie A, are already in talks about online livestream broadcasts of their matches, but an official deal hasn’t been signed yet.
bet365, being among the front runners in the live streaming department, is the best bookie for football streams. It offers unmatched event variety, good-quality football streams, and you only need a bet within the last 24 hours to watch the live streams.
Horse Racing Live Streams – William Hill
Horse racing is the number 1 most streamed sport on betting site platforms in the UK. Most of the operators that offer this feature primarily focus on horse racing. The majority of UK, US, and Ireland racecourses are covered, so if you’re into horse racing online betting, it’s good to know that you’ll be able to watch the race live on the platform you placed your bet on.
All of the bookies on our list offer live streaming for horse racing, but our team has selected William Hill to be the best option. Besides video streams, you can opt to hear a live racing radio, so you don’t even have to watch the screen to know what’s happening in the race. On top of that, the video stream quality is excellent, and the choice is more than satisfactory, with loads of UK and Irish horse racing meetings available.
Tennis Live Streams – Paddy Power
The choice for tennis live streams is limited, but several bookies offer tennis streams on major and minor tournaments. You should keep in mind that you likely won’t find streams of events such as Wimbledon, Rolland Garros, or other Grand Slam tournaments, but many Masters 1000 and 500 events are covered.
Overall, the best bookie for tennis streams is Paddy Power. The streams are lag-free, and there are plenty of matches you can watch live. Tennis live streaming is still a fair bit behind other sports such as football, but there are more tournaments being made for available for stream all the time.
Snooker Live Streams – Unibet
Watching Ronnie O’Sullivan dominate the snooker table is always fun, and some bookies offer free live streams of the World Championship. If you’re a fan of snooker betting, this can be a major selling point, and our team concluded that the best bookie for snooker live streaming is Unibet. It offers plenty of choice when it comes to snooker tournaments and excellent video stream quality.
Esports Live Streams – Betway
Many bookmakers offer eSports streams, and eSport punters often prefer to follow the match on their favourite bookie rather than other platforms. When it comes to eSports live streams, Betway leads the way with massive coverage of the most popular eSports competitions like The International in Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2 tournaments, League of Legends World Championship, and much more.
How We Ranked UK Live Streaming Betting Sites
Live streaming is a feature that’s only offered by some bookmakers, so we only took legal bookies that have this feature into consideration. Besides the live streaming feature itself, however, we took other important factors into consideration when compiling this list.
- Safety & Security: We only included fully licenced operators with an active licence issued by the UK Gambling Commission. You can rest assured that all of them operate legally in the UK and provide a safe and reliable online betting experience.
- Number of Sports you can Live Stream: Different bookies offer different live streaming options, so the more sports it covers, the higher we rank an operator.
- Sporting Event Coverage: Let’s say that a certain bookie offers live streaming for over 20 sports. It’s a nice perk to have, but we also look into the depth of tournaments and leagues that the bookie covers. Operators with more in-depth coverage score higher in our books.
- Live Stream Speed & Quality: We’re looking for live streams with a high resolution (ideally 720p, 1080p or higher) and lag-free experience. This largely depends on the servers the operator uses, so the overall stream quality largely affects our rating.
- Bookie Requirements for Live Streaming: Every bookmaker imposes some requirements for their users to be able to live stream sporting events. Some ask for a bet to be made on the specific event, while others just need you to have a funded account. The lower the requirements, the higher our score is.
- Extra Features: In-play betting, Window-in-Window streaming, Full Screen streaming, Video Wall, Floating Window – these are all extra features that some bookies offer besides the standard live streaming option. The most important one is in-play betting, which allows you to place bets while watching the game live on the platform.
- Betting Market Availability: Besides the live streaming feature, we’re looking for good all-around platforms that offer plenty of betting markets and odds for multiple leagues and tournaments, including minor competitions.
Tips & Tricks for the Best Experience
The live stream feature is not new, being around for over a decade. However, the perks of the feature have been changing over the years, and, unfortunately, some leagues and tournaments are unavailable at the moment due to expensive TV rights. Regardless, we’ll present you with some useful tips and tricks on how to make the most of this feature:
- Look for ‘cheap’ live streams: If you want to watch a match for free (or almost free) and don’t want to pay expensive Pay Per View fees, you can look for a free live stream at some of the bookies on our list. Although it’s not technically free, as most of them require you to either have a funded account or wager a minimum wager of £1 on the event to watch the match, it’s still cheaper than paying expensive PPV streaming rights at dedicated streaming platforms.
- You can still watch major events: Although live streaming EPL and UEFA Champions League football matches at bookies is a thing of the past, you can still watch some A-list teams on bookmaker platforms. Some of the operators will let you live stream NBA, MLB, NHL, La Liga, and other major league matches.
- Zoom in if the full-screen option is unavailable: More often than not, the bookie live stream won’t be available in full-screen. There’s an easy solution to this: regardless if you’re on mobile or desktop, all you need to do is zoom in on your screen until the stream fills the screen. The best live streaming betting sites will often point out how you can view the stream in full-screen mode if they have it available.
Pros & Cons of using Bookies with Live Streaming
Choosing a bookie with live streaming means that you get to watch your favourite sporting events in high definition on the go on your phone, but it also means you can take advantage of live betting markets. Also known as in-play betting, it has grown to be hugely popular among punters. Let’s take a look at some pros & cons of this betting feature.
Pros
Change to make more informed decision: Live sports betting gives customers the opportunity to make more informed decisions before submitting their bets. As the game unfolds, you can assess the performances of the teams or individual players, the flow of the game and the current score. Making judgements in real time by watching a live stream can lead to more accurate predictions and thus, higher profits.
Excitement: Put simply, in-play betting offers a huge amount of excitement and engagement. Unlike other bet types where you bet before the game begins, live betting allows you to bet as the action is happening. This provides you with another layer of immersion, and makes watching the live steam more exciting. For example, if a big favourite is losing a football game 2-0 at half-time, their odds on coming back and winning will shoot up. That is the perfect chance to be opportunistic and try and cash in.
More variety: Another plus point with live betting is the sheer amount of betting options available. Players can place bets on several different aspects of the game, such as next player to be booked, next goal scorer, next player to hit an Ace and the final result.
Cons
Limited time to make a judgement: You must be quick of the mark in live betting. Due to the nature of it, you don’t have a huge amount of time to analyse the action and then make a judgement. This could lead to you making snap-decisions without thinking things through which then could lead to poor bets. In pre-match bets you have loads of time to carefully consider everything, live betting offers no such luxuries.
Higher risk of losses: As the odds change so quickly because of the unpredictable nature of live sporting events, there is the potential for higher losses in live sports betting. The odds can change in seconds, and it can be difficult to keep up. This volatility could lead to large losses if you are not careful.
Technical issues & delayed streams: Although live streams are great, some bookies are prone to their streams suffering a few glitches or delays. This is especially true at peak times. There is nothing more frustrating then trying to look at stats or place a bet and your stream is buffering. That is why you must make sure you choose a bookie with an excellent live streaming service, such as the one’s we have listed on this page.
Is Live Streaming on Bookies Sites Free?
Generally there are some rules that you must consider about live streams on online bookmakers regarding the cost of accessing the live streams. If you are looking for horse racing live streaming you will typically need to place a minimum bet of around 50p on a race to be able to watch it. The price will vary depending on which live streaming betting site you are using but the price shouldn’t be above £1.
You may find that Greyhound racing is a little more pricey with some bookmakers. The price for these usually start at £1 to get access to the live stream although you can then watch all of the races scheduled for the entire day, rather than just a single race.
With all of the other sports where an operator is offering live streaming you will usually just have to have placed a bet with that same operator in the past 24 hours or have some funds sitting in your account. Bookmakers don’t charge for most sports as they generate huge amounts of traffic so it is seen as a win-win for them.
Summary
If you’ve been wondering whether it’s possible to watch sport live streams on bookmaker websites, we’re happy to tell you that not only is it possible, but there are now more streams than ever. We presented you with several bookmaker options that provide excellent streams with great video quality, no lag, and an easy-to-use platform. The feature can be very helpful if you don’t have other options to watch a certain game, or you’re on the go and want to watch the match you’ve placed a bet on live.
All the bookmakers that made our list offer the live streaming feature, so all you need to do is select the one you prefer, make sure it offers live streams of the sport you prefer, and register an account.
FAQs
-
Are bookie live streams free to watch?Every bookie has different requirements when it comes to watching live streams. Although the streams are generally free to watch, most bookmakers require you to have a funded account or have made a real money wager on the event.
-
Will I get in trouble if I watch free live streams on legal bookmakers?No. All the streams you will find at legal bookmakers, such as the ones you can find on our list, are completely legal. You won’t get in any trouble if you watch a sport being streamed live at one of those bookies.
-
Is there a delay on the live streams?Yes. Most bookie live streams come with a slight delay of around 5 seconds. Don’t worry, though, as most TV broadcasts come with a slight delay anyway, so you won’t even notice this short delay.
-
Which sports are live streamed at UK online bookies?You can find live streams of many different sports, but the most common are horse racing, greyhound racing, football, snooker, eSports, tennis, basketball, and golf.
-
Can I watch English Premier League games live for free on UK bookmakers?
Unfortunately, no. Sky and TNT have exclusive broadcasting rights for all the EPL matches, which means that you won’t be able to watch the games live on bookie platforms. Some bookmakers, however, do offer live streams of FA Cup matches.
