5 Best VPNs for Streaming Sports from Anywhere in 2026

Streaming sports is meant to be simple. But fans still face two major roadblocks: geo-blocking and ISP throttling. Whether you’re trying to watch the NFL, Champions League, or any major sporting event, you can suddenly get hit with the frustrating “Content Not Available in Your Region” message due to strict licensing rules tied to your IP address.

The problem doesn’t end there. Many ISPs also slow down high-bandwidth sports streams, causing buffering, lag, and reduced video quality—spoiling the excitement of watching live matches.

A reliable VPN solves both issues. It masks your real IP to bypass geo-blocks and encrypts your traffic to prevent throttling, helping you enjoy smooth HD sports streaming from anywhere. Our experts tested numerous options before picking the 5 best VPNs for all your lag-free TV and sports-streaming needs.

Best VPNs for sports streaming – Quick list

Selecting the right VPN is vital because the performance criteria for live sports—primarily speed retention and unblocking—are much stricter than for regular browsing.

The following five VPNs were extensively evaluated and ranked in terms of their general ability to consistently provide buffer-free, geo-unlocked access to the major sports streaming services.

VPN NAME	WHAT MAKES IT SO AMAZING?
	NordVPN Overall champion: The fastest protocol (NordLynx) and best unblocking record in 2026. Try it
	Surfshark Best Value: Wallet-friendly option offering unlimited device connections and exceptional speeds. Try it
	ExpressVPN Premium Reliability: Top-tier unblocking, excellent proprietary speed protocol, and MediaStreamer Smart DNS. Try it
	Proton VPN Blackout Buster: Possesses a massive 15,300+ server fleet crucial for regional bypass. Try it
	Total VPN Streamer Focus: Offers specialized servers meticulously optimized for various sports platforms. Try it

Why do you need a VPN for streaming sports events?

The benefits of a premium VPN (compared to a free option), however, are well beyond changing your virtual location. For sports fans, the technology eliminates three unique, but ultimately interrelated, challenges of the current digital viewing paradigm.

Bypassing global licensing walls

The first hurdle to watching sports in the world lies in complicated and constricting international licensing agreements. The possible streams of watching sporting events could differ widely from region to region because of these agreements. Take MLB.tv, a service that (when working properly) has great coverage of major league baseball events. This service is often only licensed to be shown in the U.S.

For viewers outside the US, accessing these services requires a VPN with reliable US servers. Our dedicated guide to the best US VPNs evaluates providers specifically on their ability to maintain fast, stable connections to American streaming platforms.

Thus, international viewers literally cannot see the service unless they are smart enough to find a method to virtually change where they are located. A VPN accomplishes this task by connecting the user to its remote servers in the desired country.

When users connect to a server in a permitted country, the streaming provider merely looks at the inferred IP address, believing that the subscriber has established their location in that country, and then permits access. It is a simple but effective method for loyal subscribers to view their subscriptions from anywhere in the world while traveling or living abroad, such as ESPN+, Sky Sports, or Fubo TV.

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Breaking local blackouts

There is a very frustrating paradox in domestic sports markets called “local blackout.” Even viewers inside the home country, sometimes even inside the same state or location, are not able to view certain matches because the broadcasters have reserved the rights to their local cable affiliate. Many broadcasters enact the restrictions due to complex contractual obligations, and cannot allow the reach within the viewer’s home location.

Using a premium VPN is the only way to get around this hyper-local restriction. A quality VPN allows the user to ultimately pick a server within a different city or state (that is not blacked out) within the same country to use the VPN to change the user’s virtual IP location just enough to pass the services’ geo-political check, and allow the fan to view “local sports without restrictions”.

To execute the process, you will need a VPN that maintains server diversity, like Proton VPN, which has a massive number of servers ensuring that you will always find a working connection.

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Stopping ISP throttling and ensuring performance

Live sports streaming requires a reliable, high-bandwidth internet connection, and any disruptions in the service mean buffering and low video quality. As it has been shown, ISPs will throttle user speeds at peak viewing times, known as bandwidth throttling, when there is evidence of high data use, for example, when users are watching a live event.

A key feature of the premium VPN service is the encryption layer it puts on all outbound data as the first security layer; the data is “unreadable” and undecipherable as it leaves the web browser and travels through the ISP. The ISP cannot identify the encrypted traffic as a high-bandwidth, live sports stream, so it cannot throttle the connection.

This basic security feature provides a concrete performance benefit to the user. This means users will enjoy consistent, “excellent speeds for streaming sports,” while buffering or throttling a connection, and without any moments where speeds slow down, without interruptions, or drops, and the excellent live sports streaming experience from the opening kick-off to the final whistle.

This means that the act of prioritizing privacy through encryption automatically results in guaranteed performance for high-demand activities.

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Best VPN services for streaming – Detailed list

When utilizing VPNs to access live sports available in your streaming region, the top consideration you should factor in is speed retention (the percentage of your original connection speed that the VPN can achieve).

Streaming HD (high definition) or 4K sports takes a lot of data, and if there is a large speed reduction, you are going to notice buffering.

All of the best providers below passed speed tests that maintained 83%–93% of the base connection speed, which is necessary in order to achieve true, buffer-free viewing.

1. NordVPN

NordVPN remains a top overall VPN solution largely due to advanced security features and exceptional speed performance. The NordLynx tunneling protocol is responsible for this speed.

This protocol is based on the modern, lean WireGuard architecture but incorporates a Double NAT (Network Address Translation) system to resolve WireGuard’s potential privacy issues. This configuration enables NordVPN to deliver lightning-fast speeds and critical user privacy.

Tests revealed NordVPN lost only 17% of the original connection speed, which ranks it among the fastest providers. Not only us, in testing by other mega publishers, NordVPN has also been determined to be “head and shoulders faster than nearly every service we tested.” Such is the case with other providers like ExpressVPN and Surfshark, just to be clear.

NordVPN’s capacity to unblock is excellent due to their SmartPlay feature, a technology purpose-built to combine standard VPN functionality with Smart DNS functionality. This combination allows you to effortlessly unblock nearly every streaming service. The provider has an established, confirmed track record of overcoming geo-restrictions, as well as local blackouts for sporting events.

As an example, during the NFL season, we tried NordVPN, and even the SmartPlay function worked well enough to bypass blackouts on ESPN+ and allow fans to watch, in Full 1080 HD, without buffering great games and matchups such as the Minnesota Vikings vs. Pittsburgh Steelers.

NordVPN’s coverage and service come from more than 8,000 servers in 120+ countries. VPN’s smaller server network in the US (over 2800 servers at 16 locations in the US) is particularly beneficial for fans who want to get around domestic sports blackouts.

It allows access for up to 10 simultaneous devices connected, and Smart DNS for any devices or services that do not allow a native VPN service on their platform. When connected, it has us covered to get around all Major sports platforms, including ESPN+, Sling TV, Fubo TV, and even MLB.tv.

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2. Surfshark

Surfshark is the definitive winner for users looking for value and coverage of multiple devices in their home. At an extremely affordable introductory offer of only $1.99 per month, it offers the cheapest top-tier VPN option available. What sets Surfshark apart from other VPNs is its unlimited device limit. So whether you have a large family or are just sharing with friends, any device, from your phone to your gaming console, can run the VPN service at the same time.

While it is the cheapest option, our performance testing on Surfshark proved to us that this VPN performs incredibly well. The VPN employs WireGuard protocol, and it maintained the VPN product performance we tested, and we only lost around 93% of the speed from the original connection. This improved performance provides high-end and smooth streaming for streaming platforms like UFC, ESPN+, and Sky Sports.

Much like NordVPN, Surfshark has a Smart DNS feature and a usable kill switch for optimal flexibility and security on its unlimited connections. Their service consists of 3200 servers in 100 countries.

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3. ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is typically seen as the best premium service in the VPN market, and with good reason; it is consistently rated as the best for ease, dependability, and reliability, even at a high price. The VPN also comes equipped with its own Lightway protocol designed for speed (91% speed retained) and stability, allowing for no-buffer live streaming.

For sporty streamers, the main advantage is the ExpressVPN MediaStreamer service. MediaStreamer is a dedicated Smart DNS service designed for devices that do not support a real VPN application (such as PS5, Xbox, and Apple TV).

MediaStreamer makes it quick and easy to spoof your location on devices like that, allowing you access to geo-blocked content, and without the processing overhead of encryption (however, you’ll miss out on the anti-throttling speeds offered with a “real” VPN app).

ExpressVPN has servers in about 105 countries, and is known for successfully unblocking difficult streaming platforms, such as NBC Sports and FuboTV.

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4. Proton VPN

Proton VPN is also special as it offers an amazing blend of top-tier privacy based in Switzerland, and a huge redundancy-based infrastructure. What makes Proton VPN unique is that its server count is enormous, with over 15,000 servers.

This scale will benefit you while defeating global geo-blocks and hyper-local sports blackouts. With so many servers available, you have access to diverse IPs, meaning that even if a streaming service identifies and blocks one server IP, you would still have plenty of other successful options for IPs to connect with.

Proton VPN offers good streaming speeds too, maintaining 86% of the initial connection speed while using the WireGuard protocol. Proton VPN supports 10 simultaneous connections and offers extensive security features, including Secure Core servers and NetShield for ad-blocking features.

It worked well with international sports content like Eurosport Player, Kayo Sports, and F1 TV. (Kayo Sports is a major Australian service. For more on optimizing your setup for Australian streaming, check out our dedicated list of the best VPNs for Australia. However, there is an important limitation we should note regarding Proton VPN, which is that there’s no Smart DNS option.

Which means that, while it works with having native applications on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, it could be much more difficult to use on the non-native devices, (including older Smart TVs, dedicated streaming sticks like Apple TV, and gaming consoles that do not come with a standard VPN app), thus limiting its overall value for sport viewing on a big screen.

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5. Total VPN

Total VPN focuses on the speed of streaming as its main differentiator. It does not disclose its total server count, but its core feature is the offering of dedicated, niche streaming servers. Instead of just connecting to the most generic location, users are given the choice to connect to a specifically labeled server for streaming services such as ESPN, NBA League Pass, or Netflix. This ensures users don’t have to guess which servers work for particular platforms.

Total VPN maintains excellent overall speed retention, achieving about 91% speed retention during testing by utilizing protocols such as WireGuard to keep the connection stable. Total VPN supports 5 simultaneous connections and is a high-quality, entry-level VPN designed more for users who want to bypass geo-blocked media rather than for malicious purposes.

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Comparison table: Best VPNs for streaming sports

VPN provider	Streaming channels tested	Speed retention (average)	Key protocol for speed	Smart DNS / MediaStreamer	Price (Approx lowest monthly)
NordVPN	ESPN+, Sling TV, FuboTV, MLB.tv	83%	NordLynx	Yes (SmartPlay)	$2.99/monthly
Surfshark	ESPN+, Sky Sports, UFC, MLB.tv	93%	WireGuard	Yes	$1.99/monthly
ExpressVPN	DAZN, FuboTV, NBC Sports	91%	Lightway	Yes (MediaStreamer)	$3.49/monthly
Proton VPN	Kayo Sports, Eurosport, F1 TV	86%	WireGuard	No (Limitation)	Free plan ($0) Paid plan starting $3.39/month
Total VPN	ESPN, NBA League Pass, UFC	91%	WireGuard	Yes	$99/year

Is it illegal to use a VPN while streaming?

There is a difference between legality as far as a country’s laws are concerned, and a list of terms and conditions that agreements imposed by a private company may have.  In almost every place in the world, it is completely legal to use and connect to a Virtual Private Network.

In democratic nations such as the USA, Canada, Japan, the UK, and most of Europe and Latin America, VPNs are widely accepted tools for enhancing digital privacy and securing data. Their legality stems from their fundamental function as a security and privacy enhancement utility.

Legal vs. contractual engagement (terms of service) 

The necessary ambiguity comes from the situation wherein an individual uses a VPN strictly to overcome geo-bounds to a streaming service. The act of using the VPN is legal; yet, the very use of the device, service, or VPN to circumvent geographic content controls violates the agreement with the streaming service’s terms of service (ToS).

This is an important distinction; violation of ToS is considered a civil process of breach of contract, rather than a crime with criminal enforcement. Streaming services are beholden to strict licensing agreements and will be obligated to take action to maintain those geographic bounds (See DAZN and its license enforcement as an example).

If a streaming provider catches a user violating the ToS by employing a VPN to spoof their location, the typical penalty is account suspension or termination.

However, the analysis shows that termination “never happens” in practice for occasional use, though services like DAZN are “notoriously tough on VPNs” and frequently block known VPN IP addresses.

Even sophisticated services like ESPN+ have put in place firewalls to block encrypted VPN traffic, but ExpressVPN and NordVPN are among the VPNs that worked for me to bypass ESPN+’s defenses.

Geopolitical restrictions and the legal line

You must understand that VPNs are often restricted or banned in countries located in certain areas of the geopolitical world, such as China, Russia, Belarus, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, etc. In these countries, their government internet censorship/laws give them the ability to limit your ability to use a VPN.

The governments in these geopolitical contexts, as indicated, can impose significant fines or potentially imprison people for unauthorized use of VPNs, especially when the use has the potential to allow individuals to get around censorship or other government monitoring capabilities.

These bans also matter because they are significant to comprehend how the VPN is fundamentally a device that enables users to privately access the internet and claim uniqueness in freedom to express oneself, which is typically why authoritarian state agencies consider VPNs as real threats.

Regardless of where you live, one thing that is absolutely and unequivocally true is that a VPN will not and cannot make illegal acts legal. If the action is already illegal in the user’s territory (i.e., if the user is downloading copyrighted material (pirating a movie or game), committing cyber fraud, or gambling on sports betting in an area where it is illegal, then a VPN does NOT magically protect or otherwise change the illegal activity.

The VPN is a present or armor in which your privacy and security are protected, but this does not mean that a VPN is a loophole for crime. Users must remain informed of local regulations, particularly concerning gambling and content piracy.

Free agents: The peril and potential of no-cost VPNs

When seeking a seamless, buffer-free sports streaming experience, users must exercise extreme caution regarding services offered at zero cost. The consensus among security experts is a strong advisory against using typical free VPNs for live sports streaming.

These services inevitably fail in the three critical areas required for live event viewing: reliability, speed, and security.99

The performance catastrophe

True free VPNs deliver “poor results” concerning geo-block bypassing, server variety, and connection quality. This failure is rooted in economics and infrastructure. Free services operate on highly congested, limited server fleets because they lack the revenue stream required to invest in global, high-performance infrastructure.

When thousands of users flood a handful of free servers, the resulting slowdowns lead directly to the lagging and buffering issues that viewers are attempting to escape. A live event requires speed retention rates of 80% or higher, a metric that free services simply cannot sustain.

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The unseen expense: Security and privacy risks

The saying that “if the product is free, you are the product” rings heavily true for free VPNs. Because the product has to be profitable somehow, they must engage in ethically gray practices that pose a significant risk to user security.

The most egregious abusers are utterly useless at guaranteeing practice, instead depending on collecting and selling users’ personal data and browsing history to third parties such as advertisers or data brokers.

Additionally, some free VPN applications that may appear benign are actually “malware in disguise” and present a real risk to users’ device security and data.

When engaging in something of high risk, such as obtaining access to live sports or protecting yourself from ISP throttling, a compromised free tool is counterproductive to achieving any potential security from a VPN.

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Smart alternatives (no risk access)

Luckily, there are trustworthy alternatives that allow users to evaluate the service without risk:

• Freemium types: Freemium Types are low-risk, actual free versions from legitimate premium service providers, many of which provide comprehensive premium security benefits while restricting usage through limitations such as data capacity or limited server size. They are generally not capable of streaming an entire sports season, but they provide basic security and protection. For viewers whose primary goal is simply to find a working stream without investment, our article on the best free sports streaming sites details legitimate, low-risk platforms. However, for reliable, high-quality access to major services like ESPN+ or DAZN, a premium VPN remains essential.
• Premium free trials and money-back guarantees (the recommended approach): This is the best option for testing a live sports solution. For example, NordVPN and Surfshark offer full-featured temporary access (many have 7-day free trial offers for mobile devices or generally a 30-day money-back guarantee).

Thus, the user can consume the premium VPN full speed, unblocking and security for a full month, guaranteeing it works with their personal streaming needs, prior to paying for services.

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Implementation: Creating your streaming champion

To get the most from your sports experience, it’s not enough to sign up for a premium VPN; you will also need to properly set it up on whichever device you use to stream.

Desktop and mobiles (the simple version)

To set up a VPN on your computer or smartphone:

1. Create an account. Fill in your personal credentials: username, email, and password of your choice. 
2. Choose your preferred premium plan and complete the payment. This gives you premium features, including unblocking geo-blocked content. 
3. Download the client app. Log in using your credentials: username or email and password. Here, you can connect to any server location from anywhere.
4. Connect to a server in the country of your choice. However, it must be a country that supports the sport you want to stream.

Clear cookies – The importance

Once you’re connected to the VPN, users will often see yet another geo-block error. This is generally because the tracking files (cookies) have been placed in the user’s browser in prior visits without the VPN on during a previous connection.

Cookies show the actual location of the user and don’t pay attention to the new IP address that the VPN gives your computer device. So, it’s important to head over to the web browser and delete all cookies and cache before opening and launching your VPN to surf the internet. By doing this, you will delete the tracker that lets platforms track your original location.

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The big screen challenge: Smart TVs, Firestick and consoles

Watching sports on a large screen usually brings about configuration complexity, as many dedicated streaming devices (such as Apple TV and old Smart TVs) do not inherently support VPN software.

But here’s a workaround to get this technology on your smart TVs:

1. Open the app store of your Smart TV. For TVs running on Android OS, go to Gthe oogle Play Store. If your TV runs on iOS, visit the App Store. 
2. Search for your preferred VPN. To save your time, just work with NordVPN or SurfShark
3. With the remote control, select “Install” and press “OK” to run the process.
4. Upon completion, navigate to your app drawer and launch the VPN. Choose a server, select “Connect” and press “Ok”

Smart DNS for consoles and non-native devices

Gaming consoles and devices such as PlayStation, Xbox, or Apple TV are designed for media consumption, but often do not have the functionality of an operating system that runs an actual VPN client. For those devices, Smart DNS services (sold as MediaStreamer by ExpressVPN or SmartPlay by NordVPN) are the solution.

Smart DNS works by routing the device’s DNS requests through a proxy server in the desired location, thus spoofing the location without applying full encryption.

This is highly desirable for consoles because it avoids any speed degradation often associated with encryption and is easily configured by changing the device’s network settings to the VPN provider’s DNS server IP addresses.

This way, you can switch between locations to stream geo-blocked content without any setup headache.

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Install a VPN at router-level – The holy grail?

If you want protection and unblocking at your home just for you, the ultimate solution is to install a premium VPN directly on your home router.

Why router installation is essential

The VPN configured on the router covers each device that connects to your home Wi-Fi network, including Smart TVs, gaming consoles, set-top boxes, and any other device that may lack built-in support for VPNs—all at once.

The VPN secures all your streaming, provides location spoofing, and protects every device on the network from ISP throttling.

Configuration

If you want to use a VPN on your router device, you need a trusted firmware from a reliable third-party. We’ve outlined the steps for you to do so using OpenVPN below:

• Open your router settings: Get the IP address of your router. It looks like this: 192.168.1.2. Next, type it into your browser and hit “Enter” to open the router’s settings.
• Download required .ovpn files: You will find these on your VPN’s official website. This usually comes in .ovpn format and contains the IP, port number, and protocol used (e.g,. UDP).
• Type in credentials: If you are using OpenVPN, then you will need to type the authentication details (port number, server IP address) by yourself. After that, copy and paste the information (TLS key or CA cert) into the fields. Then, copy and paste details of cryptographic keys (CA cert or TLS auth key) and certificates, as provided by the VPN service provider.
• Configure the DNS security: Your final step to avoid DNS leaks, which could disclose your device’s real location even if you spoof its IP address. Therefore, navigate the router’s network settings, then provide the Static DNS 1 and Static DNS 2 details in the required fields. The VPN service directs all DNS requests and traffic through its dedicated servers, securely funneling them via an encrypted tunnel.

Troubleshooting tips: Fixing common VPN issues

Without a doubt, VPNs can unblock geo-blocks on your preferred sports content. Yet, they can be torn in the flesh at some point, especially during installation and configuration. To save you time and effort, we’ve curated repeated VPN issues and how to fix them if you face any.

The dreaded buffer and lag

When streaming content live, and you experience buffering, this happens because of bandwidth restrictions, most likely because of throttling from the internet service provider.

1. Assess your network speed: With that in mind, do a quick Internet speed test on the network to determine the network speed. Can HD videos work on the network? If not, find an alternative. Try a wired Ethernet connection as it usually enhances speed and reliability.
2. Server optimization: Sometimes, your VPN server could be the reason why, rather than ISP-based restrictions. The user should immediately switch to a different VPN server location – ideally, a server that is closer to the user’s actual physical location, or a server that the VPN provider has tagged as being less busy.
3. Choose a VPN tunneling protocol: The VPN client should be configured to use the fastest tunneling protocol that is available—NordLynx, Lightway, or WireGuard. These more recent tunneling protocols are created to be far more efficient and faster than older protocols, especially OpenVPN (TCP mode), which gets bogged down significantly by its outdated protocols.
4. Overloading your device: The last possibility for this issue could be due to your device itself. If your CPU can handle high-resolution videos, that’s an overload. So, try reducing the frame rates or resolution of the video to prevent overload or lagging.

Advanced Geo-block Bypass Techniques

Sometimes, you might experience restrictions on a website or streaming platform, even after using a strong VPN. Some platforms use advanced security measures to prevent users from accessing their platforms or content from specific blocked locations. That said, how can we solve this:

1. Cookie leakage solution:  The main reason this happens is that your browser has stored some cookies in your history. Cookies and cache give websites information about you without you knowing, and if they find out you’re accessing from a blocked location, you’ll be restricted. So, delete the cookies and cache of your browser.
2. The GPS snitch (mobile applications): Sophisticated sports apps, particularly those associated with regulated activities like betting or certain regional sports networks, rarely rely solely on the IP address provided by the VPN. These apps utilize advanced anti-spoofing technology, retrieving location information directly from the device’s GPS, Wi-Fi trilateration data, and performing device integrity checks (SDK analysis). In such situations, the IP address of the VPN isn’t relevant. To solve this, switch off your smartphone’s location services by yourself or use a desktop website browser, which detects geolocation using only IP addresses.
3. dTime zone synchronization: Advanced browser fingerprinting techniques, often employed by services like DAZN, check if the device’s system time matches the time zone of the connected VPN server location. In some cases, your device connects to a UK server while your smartphone’s clock runs on a different time zone, such as US Pacific Time. This difference can cause the platform to block your access. To solve this, adjust the clock of your device to the VPN server’s timezone.
4. Firewall evasion (obfuscation): The platform might block your access, displaying an error such as “DAZN not available in this country.” The service tracks your connection, spots your IP address, and blocks it once it realizes you’re using a VPN. DAZN is particularly tough to evade based on the stringent enforcement of its licensing agreements. The solution is to activate the VPN’s obfuscation feature (often labeled Stealth Mode or provided via specialized obfuscated servers, common on NordVPN). Obfuscation masks the encrypted VPN traffic, making it appear as normal HTTPS traffic, thus evading deep packet inspection (DPI) firewalls used by the streaming service.

If obfuscation is not available, switching servers repeatedly or switching to a VPN provider with a larger fleet (like Proton VPN) is the only remaining option.

Conclusion

Dedicated sports fans require a premium VPN to get past crippling regional blackouts and constant ISP throttling that ruins live sports streams. With a premium VPN, you encrypt your traffic and spoof your location so you can watch sports without buffering and in high definition around the world.

Our analysis highlights NordVPN as the best overall for speed and unblocking, while Surfshark offers the best value with unlimited device connections. Furthermore, Proton VPN is the champion for defeating hyper-local blackouts due to its massive server diversity. Choosing a reliable, no-logs solution ensures you maintain performance and secure your right to watch every game, live and uninterrupted.

FAQs