Guide: Where can I watch live matches on my phone?

There are plenty of great mobile apps out there for watching live football on the go

The modern day football fan wants to enjoy the beautiful game whenever and wherever they please. Thanks to a myriad of mobile apps, you can watch live matches on your phone from a variety of the world's most exciting competitions.

We've put together a list of some of the best apps for watching live football on your phone, and a brief guide on how to go about it.

bet365 app

Our number one recommendation would be the bet365 app, for various reasons. Unlike some of the other options in this article, it doesn't require a huge financial investment or monthly subscription to access. Meanwhile, the football live streams hosted on the bet365 app are totally legal, reliable and of a high quality. The app works flawlessly on IOS and Android and very rarely encounters problems when live streaming. Not only that but fans can watch some of the biggest clubs in the world on the bet365 app, including Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and PSG as they battle to win their respective leagues.

Here's how to watch live matches on your phone with bet365:

• Download the app from the IOS or Android app store.
• Sign up for a bet365 account, and login to the app.
• Click on the "Soccer" icon from the row of sports at the top of the homepage.
• Scroll down and choose the competition you're looking for (e.g. La Liga).
• Then click on the match of your choosing from the list (e.g. Real Madrid vs Barcelona).
• On the match page, the live stream will begin shortly before kick off. Hit the play button to watch at this time.

It's that simple. All bet365 asks is that you have a funded account at the time you want to live stream, or have placed a bet within the previous 24 hours. It's an incredibly low bar to get access to every single match of the season from La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A and much more, on your phone.

You will notice that many fixtures, including all from La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1, have a small video icon next to them. This indicates that they are available for live streaming. Look out for this small video icon.

BT Sport app

The BT Sport app is also a great way to watch live football, but it does come at a cost. You must be a customer of BT Sport to watch live matches on your phone with their app. The good news is that new customers can bundle the BT Sport app with BT broadband, leaving them fully prepared to watch their favourite teams.

This app plays host to some of the most elite fixtures of the season from the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Premier League and much more. The selection is vast, but the price is by no means cheap.

If you do decide to join BT Sport, here's how you can go about watching live matches on your phone with their mobile app:

• Download the app from the IOS or Android app store.
• Sign up to BT Sport and select an appropriate package.
• Create an account on the BT Sport app.
• Login to the BT Sport app.
• Select "Live" from the options at the bottom of the app.
• Choose the TV channel you need (the one which is showing the match you want to watch).

And that's that. The hard part with BT Sport will be shelling out for the hefty monthly cost. If you can afford that, the app is very easy to use and gives you the chance to watch a tonne of live football on your phone, wherever you are, as long as you create an account for the app and have a stable internet connection.

Sky Go app

The Sky Go app is very similar to the BT Sports app, but the only difference is that it contains far more channels and on-demand content encompassing topics far afield from sports, including entertainment, news and movies.

Like the BT Sport app, it can only be used by paying customers, meaning you'll need to become a Sky customer in order to watch live matches from Sky Sports via the Sky Go app.

If you join Sky as a customer, here's how to watch live football matches on the Sky Go app:

• Download the app from the IOS or Android app store.
• Sign up to Sky and select an appropriate package (one which includes Sky Sports).
• Create an account on the Sky Go app.
• Login to the Sky Go app.
• Select Live TV, and not on-demand.
• Choose the TV channel you need (the one which is showing the match you want to watch).

Live Score Bet app

A more cost effective option for watching live football matches on your phone is certainly the Live Score Bet app. Live Score have launched their own betting company and, like bet365, they allow fans to watch football live streams on their dedicated app.

The Live Score Bet app does not have quite the same extensive lineup of football matches as bet365 but it does show selected fixtures from some very exciting competitions including Serie A, La Liga, the Danish SuperLiga, Major League Soccer and the DFB-Pokal.

One plus side for Live Score is that their betting app makes these football live streams available completely free of charge in most cases. Some particularly high profile fixtures may require that the user has placed a bet, but often they can be accessed at no extra cost.

There are pros and cons when comparing Live Score Bet and bet365 of course because while the former does make most live streams available without the user needing to place a bet, its competitor bet365 does provide coverage of every single match from four of the biggest leagues in the world in La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1. This means for a very small investment the fan can pick and choose from thousands of high profile fixtures across Europe.

Nonetheless, if you're looking to watch matches on your phone for free and aren't too picky, here's how you can use the Live Score Bet app to do just that:

• Download the app from the IOS or Android app store.
• Sign up for a Live Score Bet account, and login to the app.
• Choose the "Football" icon from the row of sports at the top of the app homepage.
• Click the "Streaming" icon under the "Quick Links" section, at the top of the "Football" page.
• You'll see a list of matches which are available for live streaming in the coming days.
• Choose the match you want to watch by clicking on it.
• On the match page, the live stream will begin shortly before kick off. Hit the play button to watch at this time.

All matches which are available via live streaming are marked out with a small play button icon below the team names.

Live Score represents a good option for someone looking to watch some quality football matches on their phone but not particularly interested in following a specific team. The Live Score Bet app is very straight forward to use and should provide a good destination for football fans who want to watch matches on the go.

We also have some honourable mentions.

The Premier Player, which is the live streaming app of Premier Sports is a good destination for watching some elite leagues including La Liga and the MLS. You must be a customer of Premier Sports, or Sky Sports in order to use the Premier Player on your phone or elsewhere.

On the other hand, the One Football app is a good place to watch free football live streams on your phone, but like similar services, it cannot offer the same library as its pay-TV customers. Nonetheless, fans can enjoy action from the Danish, Argentine, Belgian and Norwegian top flights, as well as others. It could be a good place to watch some of the teams you aren't as familiar with. The app itself is easy to use and the live streams are reliable and most importantly, legal.

We have a lot more information on legal football live streams, which we hope you will find useful.