Guide: Cheapest ways to watch football on TV in the UK in 2022

We bring to you some of the best options for following the beautiful game without breaking the bank

With a cost of living crisis forcing consumers to contemplate what luxuries they can and can't afford, and the price of sports TV higher than ever, many football fans are looking for ways to follow the sport they love while saving a bit of money.

Fortunately, this is totally possible. UK-based football fans can spend a lot less and get most of the same high quality content they get through traditional broadcasters. Here are some of the cheapest ways to watch football on TV in the UK in 2022.

Watch La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A & more for £5 with bet365

Instead of paying for lengthy and expensive contracts with linear TV broadcasters, you can watch some of the world's most elite football competitions at a fraction of the price via live streaming with bet365.

Make a simple £5 deposit, get £50 worth of free bets, and become eligible to watch some of the biggest stars in world football, including Lionel Messi, Karim Benzema, Robert Lewandowski, Sadio Mane and many more, via live streaming.

With bet365 you can watch some of the biggest football matches in the world with reliable, quality, and most importantly legal live streams on their website or via their mobile app. They hold the UK live streaming rights to competitions like La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A and more. Here's how to get started live streaming with bet365:

*You can follow these steps on desktop via the website or on your mobile device via the bet365 app.
*If you already have an account, you skip the registration process and simply login.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN BET365 AND START LIVE STREAMING

• Click "Join Now" at the top of the page.

• Enter your details into the next page to register for an account.
• Once registered, return to the homepage and login.
• When logged in, we recommend you make a deposit and a £5 qualifying bet in order to receive up to £50 in free bets.
• Then, navigate to the "Soccer" section from the menu on the left.
• Scroll down and find the league for the match you want to watch under "Competitions".
• All matches with a small video icon next to them are available for live streaming (including some of the biggest football leagues in the world).

• Click the match of your choice.
• Be sure you have already placed your qualifying bet.
• Wait until kick off, then click the play button to start watching the live stream.
• The live stream will start close to kick off so if you don't see a video box come back later.

*You can repeat this process for several matches. The only condition is that you place a bet within 24 hours of watching a match.  This includes the free bets you will get when signing up, meaning you'll gain access to many matches for free. Then if you run out of free bets, you can decide to make another deposit and place a bet to access more live streams at your own discretion. While this isn't technically free, it's a vastly cheaper offer than going direct to broadcasters. Most importantly, it's legal and it's safe.

Watch the UEFA Champions League for less than £2 a month with LiveScore x PureVPN

That's right. You don't need to pay upwards of £60 a month for a huge TV and broadband package with BT to watch the UEFA Champions League in the UK. You can watch every game via live streaming for the equivalent of less than £2 a month.

LiveScore is a website and app dedicated to football scores, stats, news and live streams, fronted by its global brand ambassador Cristiano Ronaldo. LiveScore represents a completely legitimate way of watching elite football via live streaming. Most impressively of all, it provides completely FREE football live streams, with no catch.

In various countries, LiveScore holds the live streaming rights to a variety of top competitons. In the UK you can download its LiveScore Bet app to watch plenty of action. The same applies in other countries.

Perhaps the best thing about LiveScore is that it holds the rights to show the UEFA Champions League via live streaming in the Republic of Ireland, completely free. With the help of our VPN partner, you can legally change the location of your desktop or mobile device to Ireland and watch UCL matches in flawless quality without pop-ups or malware for FREE. Here's how:

CLICK HERE TO JOIN PUREVPN (YOU NEED THIS TO LIVE STREAM FOR FREE)

• Add the PureVPN extension to your browser (desktop) or download the PureVPN mobile app (mobile).

• When you have registered a PureVPN account and installed PureVPN on your device, go ahead and login.
• After logging in using your details, choose the option to "Select Country", type "Ireland" in the search bar and hit "Connect".
• For all intents and purposes, you are now in Ireland and entitled to watch UCL matches for free with LiveScore.
   

• Head to the LiveScore website or download the LiveScore mobile app.
• Register for an account by entering a few details (after you have connected to Ireland via VPN).
• No banking details will be necessary as LiveScore is free to use.
• Login to the website or app.
• Scroll through the available matches for that day and click on the one you want to watch.
• All UCL matches will have a small play button icon next to them, indiciating that they are available for live streaming.
• When the match page opens, click the play button in the box at the top to start streaming.
• If nothing happens, you are too early. Come back a little closer to kick off.

Now you're all set to enjoy every UEFA Champions League match of the season with LiveScore. Just follow the same steps next time, login to PureVPN, change location, login to LiveScore, find your match and enjoy! It really is that simple. Now you don't need those dodgy illegal sites to watch top quality football matches on the intenet.

Best deal for watching the Premier League in the UK

Unfortunately, there are no short cuts with the Premier League. If you want to watch any EPL games, you will need to sign up for one of the big broadcasters. If you want to watch every game, you'll need subscriptions to them all. Here's the cheapest deal for watching the Premier League in the UK:

According to Uswitch, the cheapest way to get the three networks you'll need in order to watch the Premier League - BT Sport, Sky Sports & Amazon Prime Video, is to get a 12 month contract bundle with British internet provider Plusnet. At £62.63 a month, this is the best possible deal to get access to all three, while the same content via Sky can cost 50% more.

The above chart is provided by Uswitch, and made with the hel of infogram*

If you're okay with only getting some Premier League games, but also get a lot of other great sports content, a £25 monthly pass for BT Sport could be a good option. The broadcasting giant tends to show one EPL match per gameweek, but does also hold the rights to several other top European leagues, all three UEFA competitions, and other sport including the UFC.

So for £25 a month, with no contract, you can watch every UCL game of the season, one Premier League game a week, every UFC event and much more via live streaming on the BT Sport website or app.

Its not quite the same as paying less than £2 a month for every Champions League game, but it's something. It's not the cheapest option but it's your best bet if you want to go the traditional route.

However, you're much better off using your desktop, laptop or other mobile device to make the most of services like bet365 and LiveScore to watch the UEFA Champions League, La Liga, the Bundesliga and more, at a fraction of the cost.

It's totally legal to do so, there are no long-term contracts, and the quality is just as high as on linear television. Live streaming is certainly the future of football broadcasting, and there's absolutely no reason why consumers shouldn't be making the most of it right now, instead of spending huge amounts on subscriptions to the traditional big boys.

We hope you found this guide useful, and that you enjoy your journey into football live streaming. Don't forget to check out our very own dedicated legal football live streams page, where you'll find info and links to high quality, trustworthy, legal football live streams.