The NFL season has kicked off and the action is well underway. So far, we’ve had a season that has been nothing short of thrilling! From upsets to comebacks and even some incredibly close games, the opening few weeks have been amazing. We’re set for one of the most competitive and exciting NFL seasons that we’ve had in a long time. You can’t miss any of the action this season!
The only thing standing in your way is either the expensive subscription fees for premium streaming services or those annoying geo-blocking restrictions that prevent you from live streaming NFL games when you’re outside US borders. But, did you know that you can live stream NFL for free and across different geographic locations outside of the United States?
All you need to do is install a clever cybersecurity tool on your device, and the world of NFL live streams becomes your oyster! If you want to know more about how you can tune into some of the best NFL live streams for free, and from anywhere in the world, make sure to keep reading to get all the details!
Best Free NFL Live Streams
You might be wondering why premium streaming services charge such expensive subscription fees. And, why can’t you watch NFL games when you go on holiday overseas even if you’re a paying subscriber?! Well, here’s how it all works.
Media companies like ESPN and ABC need to pay millions of dollars to secure the broadcasting rights to show NFL games on their platforms. This means that they need to charge their customers a fee so that they can make their money back. But, these broadcasting rights come with a strict set of rules — one of which determines where they can broadcast the NFL games (which is mostly inside the United States).
Streaming websites will use your device’s IP address to determine your physical location. An IP address is a unique string of numbers that is used to identify your device on the internet. If the website detects that your device is accessing it from outside of an approved region (in this case the approved region is the United States), then you’ll be blocked from accessing the live stream — even if you’re a paying customer! This is known as geo-blocking, and internet users all over the world have been left frustrated by it.
The other way that you can watch NFL games online is through free sports live streaming sites like 123 Sports and USTVGO. The only problem with these websites is that they do not host live streams. In other words, you don’t know the true source of the live stream that you’re watching — it could be an unsecured or unlicensed source that may put your device and your data at risk.
How to Access Free Live Streams
In both of these scenarios, our little cybersecurity tool will come in handy. The tool in question is a virtual private network or a VPN for short. VPNs may be cybersecurity tools first and foremost, but they have become popular as a way of bypassing geo-blocking, which is what we’ll be looking into shortly.
If you’re planning on venturing into the world of free NFL live streams, it’s probably a good idea to suit up with a VPN before you do! A VPN will encrypt your internet connection which will prevent anyone else from seeing what you are doing on your device. VPNs are so powerful that not even the government or your internet service provider can keep track of your internet history, or monitor your internet traffic. As long as your VPN is active, you can be assured that your device and your data are safe and secure while you’re enjoying the game.
If you’re already subscribed to a streaming service but need to watch the games from outside of the US, a VPN has still got you covered! VPNs allow you to connect to secure global servers in other countries and cities around the world. When you’re connected to these servers, your real IP address will be masked, and your internet traffic will be routed through the server. This will trick websites into thinking that you are accessing them from the location where the server is based. So, make sure to choose a US server to bypass geo-blocking and tune into your favorite live streaming service!
The Best VPNs to Choose From
It might sound simple enough to “just install a VPN on your device, but there’s much more to it than that. You need to make sure that you’re always using a premium VPN when live streaming NFL games. Unfortunately, free VPNs come with several different drawbacks that will affect your streaming experience on game day. If you’re using a free VPN, you can expect to have slower connection speeds, more ads, less security, fewer global servers to choose from, and daily data limits.