Football fans all over the world have been waiting for four long years for the World Cup to return, and it’s finally here! The best footballing nations such as Argentina, Spain, and Brazil are going head to head for the golden trophy that every football player dreams of lifting one day. It’s going to be a fierce battle, but we’ve already seen some shocking twists and upsets from Qatar, such as Germany losing to Japan, and Argentina suffering defeat at the hands of Saudi Arabia.
If you’re not watching the World Cup this year then you’re missing out on some of the best sporting activities that we’ve had in a long time. Many football fans have been struggling to find reliable high-quality live streams, especially since they can’t access premium streaming services like ESPN and Sky Sports from their locations due to geo-blocking restrictions.
If you want to watch the World Cup from anywhere, all you need is a handy cybersecurity tool that will spoof your device’s location and trick websites into thinking that you’re accessing them from the correct region. If all of this sounds like gibberish to you, don’t worry, we’ll explain it all in detail down below. Keep reading to find out how you can watch the World Cup without being hassled by geo-blocking restrictions!
Geographically Restricted Live Streams
First of all, why is it so difficult to watch World Cup matches from different countries around the world? Media companies like ESPN and Sky Sports need to pay enormous amounts of money to secure the broadcasting rights that allow them to live stream World Cup matches to their customers’ devices. This is why their subscription fees can be so pricey in case you were wondering.
Once they secure the broadcasting rights for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, they are also subjected to strict rules and regulations that they need to follow. One of these rules prevents the broadcasting of matches outside of their approved countries or regions. For example, if you’re in the United States and try to access a Sky Sports live stream, you’ll be blocked from doing so as their approved broadcasting region is the UK. This is known as geo-blocking, and it’s been frustrating for football fans all over the world this year!
Luckily there is a way to get around these restrictions, but first, let’s look at how these websites can identify your location. Your device has a unique identifier known as an IP address. It’s a string of numbers that are used by websites to recognize your device on the internet, and this is what streaming websites will use to determine whether you are in their broadcasting region. If you’re not within the approved region, you’ll be met with an error message informing you that the content you are trying to access is not available in your region.
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How to Bypass Geo-blocking Restrictions
The cybersecurity tool that you need is a virtual private network, which you might know better thanas a VPN. The main purpose of a VPN is to encrypt your internet connection, which will allow you to browse the internet anonymously. As long as your VPN is active, no one can monitor your internet traffic or keep track of your internet history, which makes this the ultimate tool for privacy and security online.
However, VPNs also allow you to connect to secure global servers that are situated in countries and cities all over the world. When you connect to one of these servers, your real IP address will be hidden from any websites that you visit, and your device will adopt the IP address of the server that you have connected to instead. This is done by routing your internet traffic through the VPN server.
This will trick websites into thinking that you’re accessing them from the country where the server is based. For example, if you want to access Sky sports live stream, you can fire up your VPN and connect it to a server in the UK. This will give your device a UK IP address instead, and you’ll be able to bypass geo-blocking restrictions no matter where you are in the world.
Here’s How to Choose a VPN
Before you head over to install the first VPN you can find, there is one important rule that you need to keep in mind when choosing your VPN. Always make sure that you’re using a premium VPN! There are plenty of free VPNs available, but you’ll only be left disappointed and frustrated with your streaming experience.
If you’re using a free VPN you'll have slower connection speeds leading to a drop in image quality and buffering issues with your streams, a limited selection of global servers that will prevent you from connecting to the country you want to, and weak encryption technology that will leave you exposed to cybercriminals.
