Guide: What has replaced Hesgoal?

How to get free football live streams online after the demise of the former fan favourite

Hesgoal was once the main destination for people looking for illegal football live streams online. However, earlier this year the popular website released a statement promising to no longer provide links to live streams of Premier League or UEFA Champions League matches, out of respect for rights holders like BT Sport and beIN Sports.

This declaration left a huge vaccum in the illegal live streaming space online, with thousands of football fans clamouring to find alternatives. Many still search for Hesgoal every weekend, only to find a couple of hollow websites using the domain but not really providing live streams to the most elite competitions.

Sites using the Hesgoal moniker do still provide live streams of some sports and football content, but not the big competitions that people are looking for like the EPL and UCL. Therefore, people are looking for a replacement for Hesgoal.

There are several sites attempting to capitalise on its withdrawal and fill the gap in the space. Here are some of those sites:

Stream2watch

Stream2watch is one of the main sites attempting to fill the void. Stream2watch offers live streams of some of the biggest sporting events in the world, including all elite American sports like baseball, basketball, American football and more. They also provide football live streams, including the UEFA Champions League.

Crack Streams

Crackstreams is another website gaining ground in the absence of Hesgoal. Crackstreams focuses almost entirely on North American sports like the NFL, MLB and NHL, but also boxing and Formula 1 motor sport. The difference between Crackstreams and many of it competitors is that it doesn't provide football streams of any kind.

Sport Surge

Sportsurge is growing in popularity as a reliable place for people looking for illegal live streams. It provides links to a myriad of sports from combat sports to motor sports, American sports and even football, including the UEFA Champions League. It may be the best competition out there for Hesgoal at this time.

Dangers of using illegal football streams

However, we recommend you avoid using any of the above sites. They all have major drawbacks, just like Hesgoal. These websites are first and foremost illegal, which means you could face legal action for consuming their content. These domains do not own the rights to show the sports content they do, and you are not legally allowed to watch their streams.

Aside from the potential threat of police or legal action against you, there are also several other reasons to avoid Hesgoal and its competitors. These websites are often plagued by annoying and harmful pop-ups, viruses, malware and even hackers. Watching football live streams on sites like Stream2watch, Crackstreams and Sportsurge can be very dangerous for your device and for yourself given the legal implications.

The legal options

The good news is there are legal options out there for watching football live streams for free or at a very low price. It's clear that many people either can't afford or don't want to pay for very expensive subscription packages with major football rights holders like BT Sport and Sky Sports.

These people then subsequently break the law by watching illegal live streams because they see it as the only way to watch their favourite teams, but that isn't the case. There are plenty of ways to watch football online in a legal manner with reliable, high quality football live streams, for free or at a very low price.

Here are two of the best alternatives to Hesgoal, and how to use them:

bet365

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.

• Go to bet365 using our link.
• 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.

LiveScore via PureVPN

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:

• Join PureVPN with our link.
• 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.

We hope you will enjoy legally watching elite football competitions via live streaming, and avoid the illegal websites which we mentioned at the beginning of this article. Those sites are harmful, dangerous and illegal.

For more fantastic legal football live streams, come back to Sporticos - we provide links to reliable, high quality, legal and FREE football live streams from some of the world's most prestigious competitions.