Live Horse Racing Streaming Now On LiveSport.Center

This week we were delighted to release a new live streaming horse racing schedule on the LiveSport.Center website.

This had been in beta for a while as we were making sure the updates were working. As soon as we finished testing, it was published and now our visitors can enjoy a full list of UK & Irish horse races available on live streaming, updated every hour.

You can check it out here: https://livesport.center/live-horse-racing-streaming/

Horse racing fans don't have to worry about missing a race if they can't be near a TV any more. Now you can just whip out your phone or tablet, sign in and watch any race in glorious HD right in the palm of your hand.

And you can forget about paying a subscription fee as well. We've teamed up with bet365 to offer this service to anyone aged 18 and over who opens a bet365 account. Just make a deposit and keep your account in credit, and you can watch any live event without paying a penny. You don't even have to make a bet unless you feel like it.

Check it out now and never miss a live horse race again.

Where To Watch The 2019 Rugby World Cup

We had the Football World Cup in 2018, the Cricket World Cup just a couple of months back, now it is time for the Rugby World Cup and we can’t wait to watch it.

Whether you are a rugby fan or not, we believe all sporting World Cup tournaments are definitely worth watching in some capacity or another. Maybe you love rugby, maybe you don’t, maybe your children might get into it and start playing down their local club.

That is why it is definitely worth you taking some time out to watch what will surely be a brilliant spectacle.

When Does The Tournament Start?

The tournament starts with the hosts Japan taking on a Russian side that are appearing in just their second ever World Cup Finals. Kick off from the Tokyo Stadium is at 11.45am UK time and 7.45pm Japan local time.

The opening match will be the first of a total of forty eight matches, with ten games taking place per each of the four groups. Before the tournament goes into the knockout stages of Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, Third-Place Play-Off and then the World Cup Final itself.

The twenty teams taking part in the 9th Rugby World Cup are Ireland, Scotland, Japan, Russia and Samoa (Group A). New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Namibia and Canada (Group B). England, France, Argentina, USA and Tonga (Group C). With Australia, Wales, Georgia, Fiji and Uruguay (Group D).

Each team in each group will play each other once, so a total of four games each and these will be played at one of the twelve different venues around Japan over a four week period.

The top two from each of the four groups will then qualify for the Quarter-Finals and that is when the knockout stage of the competition begins. That will be followed by the Semi-Finals and the Third-Place Play-Off. With the Final itself taking place at the International Stadium Yokohama (Nissan Stadium) in Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama City on Saturday 2nd November.

Is The Rugby World Cup On TV?

It absolutely is and every single match of the tournament is to be broadcast live on domestic television throughout September, October and November. This includes all group matches as well as all the knockout stages and the main broadcaster in the UK will be ITV.

They will have the majority of the games and all the big games on their main ITV channel with other games being shown on their sister channel ITV2. With kick off times varying between the times of 6.15am and 11.45am. Wales’ matches will be also be shown on the Welsh channel S4C.

As always, we’ll keep you up to date with all the live rugby on TV every day of the tournament.

And just in case you’re overseas, ESPN will show the rugby in Uruguay and Argentina, whilst NBC Sports and Univision will show live matches in the United States.

France will have TF1 showing games in their country and Ireland will use both RTÉ and Eir Sport. Further afield in New Zealand the channels will TVNZ and Spark, with Fox Sports and Network 10 covering Australia. South Africa’s main sports channel SuperSport will then show the rugby there.

As for the hosts Japan if you’re lucky enough to be over there for any games, then you can watch live games and highlight shows on various channels like Nippon TV, NHK and J Sports.

Can I Still Get Tickets?

The coverage of the Rugby World Cup on TV will be superb as always, but if you get the chance to even get to a single match then it will be absolutely worth it.

If not, then yes you can definitely still buy tickets for certain games even though they have been on sale since the end of last summer. You can register right here: https://ift.tt/2w975TY and see what tickets might still be available. It is likely that the majority of the games will now be sold out.

However, with tickets going on sale over a year ago they may well have had some returns by now, unless there genuinely are some tickets left over for some of the less popular games.

Preview – Who Is Going To Win The 2019 Rugby World Cup?

As always, we’ll be backing England all the way and hopefully they can win a second World Cup after lifting the Webb Ellis Cup back in 2003. Thanks to that famous Jonny Wilkinson drop goal in Sydney against Australia in the dying moments of extra-time.

England are of course up there as one of the favourites to win it, but currently New Zealand who have won the last two tournaments in 2011 and 2015 are the bookies clear favourites. Which will come as no surprise.

What will come as a surprise to some though, is that neither England or New Zealand are currently ranked as the best team in the world. England are third, New Zealand second, but thanks to recent results Wales have now overtaken the Kiwis as the number one ranked team in the world.

Other than the three-time previous winners New Zealand, one-time winner England and the current number one ranked team in the world Wales. The other likely winners of the Rugby World Cup are the two teams that have also won it before, won it twice before in actual fact.

They are 1995 and 2007 winners South Africa, who are currently second favourites to lift the trophy under head coach Rassie Erasmus. Then sixth favourites to win it are the 1991 and 1999 winners Australia, who’ll be lead by the captain and forward Michael Hooper.

Outside of the five teams mentioned so far, you have three-time losing finalists France, who as we all know can be hit or miss. If they turn up though and play well, they can certainly cause many upsets. Then you have New Zealand born head coach Joe Schmidt in charge of an Ireland team that again, can easily beat anyone on their day.

Further afield but of course not likely to win the tournament are Argentina, Scotland and hosts Japan. That’s not to say they will not have a hand in determining who’ll win the trophy, as these three are certainly capable of upsetting one of the more favoured teams in the groups stages. Just like Japan did in 2015 when they caused probably the biggest upset in World Cup history when they beat South Africa 34-32 in Brighton.

Enjoy watching the tournament anyway, whether you’re planning on sitting down to view every single match or just an odd game here or there. It’s going to be a great six or seven weeks.

The post Where To Watch The 2019 Rugby World Cup appeared first on LiveSport Center.

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How And Where To Watch The Ashes 2019

The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup dominated the public’s attention in the early part of the summer, with both England and Australia looking to win the tournament. England were aiming to win for the first time ever, but the Australian team were looking for a sixth title having won it five times already.

It is not all about the World Cup this summer though is it? If you’re a fan of watching live cricket, you might well be looking forward to the 2019 Ashes even more!

When Does The 2019 Ashes Start?

The 71st Ashes Test series begins on Thursday August 1st at Edgbaston, Birmingham, where many an Ashes Test Match has been played before. The ground should be at a full capacity of around 25,000 from day one to day four and for the fifth day too if it gets to it.

That will be followed by the Second Test at the home of cricket Lord’s on Wednesday 14th August, before quickly moving north to Headingley, Leeds for the Third Test which could be a decisive one.

By the time the two teams reach Old Trafford for the Fourth Test the series could technically be all over if England (or Australia) have won the opening three tests. If not, then there will be all to play for in Manchester before heading back to London for the Fifth and Final test at The Kia Oval.

Full Match Schedule

• 1st Test: Thursday 1st – Monday 5th August 2019 at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
• 2nd Test: Wednesday 14th – Sunday 18th August 2019 at Lord’s, London.
• 3rd Test: Thursday 22nd – Monday 26th August 2019 at Headingley, Leeds.
• 4th Test: Wednesday 4th – Sunday 8th September 2019 at Old Trafford, Manchester.
• 5th Test: Thursday 12th – Monday 16th September 2019 at The Oval, London.

Is The Ashes on TV?

It sure is, Sky Sports have the exclusive rights to The Ashes with every ball bowled and every run scored being shown live for you to see. Sky’s dedicated cricket channel, which is currently showing the World Cup, will show all five tests live, plus highlights throughout August and September.

Click Here to Subscribe to Sky Sports…

If you don’t have Sky, then there is the option to watch it on NOW TV which has various subscriptions available to suit all your needs. You can buy a Sky Sports day pass, weekly pass or monthly pass to watch a live stream via your TV, computer or smart phone.

Free-to-air broadcaster Channel 5 will also be showing evening highlights every day of all five Test Matches.

Can I Still Get Tickets?

As usual, Sky Sports coverage of The Ashes will be excellent with all the in-depth analysis and live coverage. However being at an actual Ashes Test match cannot be beaten, so if you get the chance then it is a must.

Unfortunately most tickets for the five venues will now have been sold for days one, two, three, four and just in case, day five also. This is because most of the venues were selling tickets a good year in advance with priority going to club members and the regular goers to those grounds.

The remaining tickets went on general sale to the public with most getting picked up straight away. Which means current ticket availability will be very limited and they’ll be difficult to get hold of.

Do not give up though as there is always a chance of getting a ticket if you check out the host ground club’s website. If there is no availability of tickets on their websites then still do not give up.

The clubs do tend to get a limited number of returned tickets from fans that now cannot make it, these tickets however are not usually shown as available via the websites so it is definitely worth phoning the ticket office directly.

Good luck.

Ashes 2019 Preview: Cricket’s Ultimate Rivalry

For many purists, Test Match Cricket is still the ultimate form of the game. With all its history, England vs Australia is surely the ultimate cricketing rivalry of them all.

The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.

Source: https://www.lords.org/lords/our-history/the-ashes

English cricket fans grow up watching The Ashes and if you love the game then you certainly understand the enormity of what it means to win against the old enemy.

Who’s Going To Win?

Well, Australia are the current holders of The Ashes after beating England by four tests to nil over in Australia in their 2017/18 summer, but surely they won’t have it as easy as that this time around.

Home soil is a massive advantage and of the seventy series that have taken place over the last 130 years, Australia have won thirty three, England thirty two and there has been five draws. Can England draw level then and make it thirty three wins also?

They are favourites to do so having won all four of the previous series on home turf with Australia not having won in England for eighteen years now. Could that change this summer though?

The Ashes is like no other Test Series in World Cricket, it is the most watched and anticipated contest and that goes outside of both England and Australia too. Pakistan v India would potentially topple that (numbers wise), but due to political reasons those two have not met each other in a Test Match since 2007. When India won 1-0 in a three-match series in their own back yard.

Australia’s Form

The Aussies come into The Ashes with mixed form. In their last outing at the start of 2019 under the captaincy of Tim Paine, they won both Tests at home against Sri Lanka.

Before that though at the end of 2018, Paine captained the side against Pakistan in the UAE but lost the series 1-0. That was then followed by a disastrous 2-1 home Test Series defeat to India, the first team that has ever happened in Australia.

Form can easily go out of the window when it comes to the Ashes though. Literally anything can happen and with Steve Smith and David Warner now back after their bans, the Aussies definitely look a stronger outfit. Along with those two, the Australians have batsmen Finch, Khawaja and all rounder Glenn Maxwell to provide them with the runs required.

As for their bowling, well they have a few new names in their ranks like Jhye Richardson but it will be the experience of Pat Cummins and of course their man Mitchell Starc that they will be looking at to bring them most of their wickets.

England’s Form

England had been impressive in their recent Test outings, having convincingly beaten India by four tests to one last summer. With both new bowler Sam Curran and retiring ex-skipper Alastair Cook England’s best players of the series.

Another impressive Test series win followed in Sri Lanka at the start of their winter tour at the end of 2019. This time it was another new comer in Ben Foakes that stood out from the rest as he won Player of the Series, with Root and Bairstow also in good form.

Things then came unstuck for England when they travelled to the West Indies for the next winter tour at the start of 2019. They were the easy favourites to win the three test series but in the opening two tests they were blow away by the West Indies and lost by 381 runs in the First Test and by 10 wickets in the Second Test.

They did manage to avoid the white wash in the Third Test, but it was certainly a wake up call for quite a few of the newer players as well as some of the old guard.

England are still struggling to find a good and reliable opener partnership, but that is nothing new having tried numerous batsmen to play alongside Cook over the years. None have lasted too long but maybe with Cook now gone, a brand new partnership can with found with the likes of Burns and Jennings stepping up.

Thankfully England do have Root, Bairstow, Ali, Stoakes who can all score heavily once they get themselves in. Then the old bowling partnership of Anderson and Broad with Wood backing them up can help England take as many wickets as possible.

Lets just hope it’s going to be a superb series with some fabulous cricket played that we’ll all enjoy!

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Where Can I Watch The Cricket World Cup?

The football, rugby and other sports seasons may be all but over, despite there being some pretty big games coming up. But lets not forgot we have loads of cricket to look forward to this summer.

Some people might not have realised how much cricket has taken place already in the domestic season which began in April, but now we’re just days away from the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.

• See all Live Cricket on TV this week

Whether you are a cricket fan or not, this tournament will definitely be one you won’t want to miss. Maybe you’re new to cricket but want to see what all the hype is about. Perhaps your child has just started playing down their local club. Either way, you should take some time to watch what will surely be a fantastic occasion.

Where and when does the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup start?

The tournament starts with the hosts England playing South Africa on Saturday 30th May at The Oval Cricket Ground in London. The last match will be the final, which is at Lord’s on 14th July.

Tournament Format

The opening match will be the first of forty five Round Robin matches where all ten teams taking part will place each other once.

The ten teams taking part in the 12th Cricket World Cup are England, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. They will play each of their nine Round Robin matches at one of the eleven different venues around England & Wales over a six week period.

The Round Robin will be followed by two semi-finals for the four teams finishing top of the group, with the winners advancing to the final, which takes place at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Sunday 14th July.

Is the Cricket World Cup on TV?

It sure is! Every single match from the tournament is to be broadcast live on Sky Sports throughout May, June and July. This includes matches that are taking place at the same time as well as they will show matches on a different Sky Sports channels along with main Sky Sports Cricket channel.

If you don’t have Sky Sports but would still like to watch as much of the tournament as possible then there are rumours that UK free-to-air broadcaster Channel 4 will be showing highlights.

This hasn’t been confirmed as yet but the deal is expected to be announced very soon in a sub-licencing agreement with CWC international rights holder Star and UK rights-holder Sky.

Can I still get Tickets?

Sky Sports coverage of the Cricket World Cup will be absolutely fantastic so make sure you do not miss a single match with them. Unless of course you have already purchased tickets to watch one or more of the many matches.

If not, then yes you can definitely still buy tickets for certain games even though they have been on sale since the end of last summer. You’ll need to register here: https://tickets.cricketworldcup.com/ and then go through the various list of matches to see what the availability is.

The prices vary from game to game with the England and the more popular games costing a lot more than some, however you can definitely still pick up some tickets from as cheap as £18 or £20 per adult, with kids tickets from around £6.

Who Is Going To Win?

We are of course! Obviously all home fans will want England to win it, and this may come of a surprise to most but England are right up there as one of the favourites. Yes, the tournament is in this country so that definitely gives England an advantage going into the competition, but that is not the only reason.

England are currently ranked the number one side in the world and they probably have their best team since the 1992 tournament, but that was when the game was completely different.

Therefore this is easily the best chance of England winning this tournament for the very first time and the England board of selectors have certainly prepared England the best they could have done to give them every chance. As the depth of player selection is fantastic with all bases covered along with coming into it in so much form, with consistent and good confidence performances of late.

England biggest threat will be India, who are right up there as one of the tournament favourites too with their outstanding batsmen and captain Virat Kohli their main man. Australia have had their on and off field problems in the past year or so which has been well documented, but you can never write off the five times winners.

Both New Zealand and South Africa have been known as bottlers and chokers of this tournament down the years having always failed to deliver. They can of course produce sublime performances against anyone on their day but if I was to chose one to go further than the other this time around it would be New Zealand for sure. South Africa just aren’t the same team since AB de Villiers retired.

The outsiders or ones to watch are the West Indies and Pakistan, but if they were to turn up and win the tournament then it would not come as a major shock. Again, like Australia, both these sides have had on and off the field problems for quite a few years now, however on the field they can both produce explosive performances to beat anyone on any given day.

The remaining teams are Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and I don’t give any of these teams a chance of winning the World Cup itself, but they will certainly cause some upsets throughout the tournament I’m sure of that. If any of the bigger nations take these three teams lightly they will come unstuck for sure because all three teams have some excellent young and old players.

Whoever wins, it’s sure to be a great occasion and a fantastic advert for the game. So remember to tune in and enjoy the tournament!

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What’s The Best Channel To Watch Live Football?

Whether you’re married with kids, living with mates or just haven’t left home yet to venture into the big wide world, you’ll know the feeling. The moment you realise no one else is home and you have the television to yourself for a few hours in an evening or even a whole weekend.

There are of course plenty of other things you could be doing than just watching TV, but once you’ve decided not to do them, you can always find live football to watch if you look hard enough. All you need to know is what channels to look for and which ones are the best.

So below, we’ve compiled a list of the best channels for live football, what matches they show and our thoughts on how good their coverage is.

Sky Sports

I think we’re all aware of this channel aren’t we? They’ve dominated live football in the UK for nearly 30 years now and although they’ve lost the rights to show Champions League football in recent years, their coverage of live domestic football in the UK has to be the best around. Now Sky have changed their format and come up with dedicated channels for each sport, so it’s even easier to find what you want to watch.

Gone are the Sky Sports Channels 1, 2, 3, 4 etc, replaced by Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Premier League.

The Premier League channel does exactly what it says on the tin: it shows live Premier League Football over the weekend, including Friday and Monday nights. The main presenter is David Jones, who does an excellent job as he asks the various pundits on the show their opinions both pre-match and post-match.

Sky Sports Football covers the rest of the football action that Sky have the rights to, such as the EFL (which includes The Championship, League One and League Two). As well as extensive live rights to all of the England matches in the newly created UEFA Nations League, plus the 2019 and 2021 UEFA Nations League Final Four fixtures.

Unfortunately you can no longer watch Champions League football or La Liga on Sky Sports as they lost the rights to show those competitions. That is certainly a big loss, as these were extremely popular, but in terms of what they do show, the coverage is excellent.

BT Sport

BT do still feel like the new kids on the block, even though they have been showing Premier League football themselves since the 2013/14 season. To begin with their coverage was okay, but not brilliant. Also, the majority of people don’t like change and it took some time for the public to get on board with BT, especially with some of the pundits they had at the beginning.

Steadily over time they have improved dramatically and their pitch side coverage, as well as that in the studio with Jake Humphrey, is right up there now. Not only do they show the live match on Saturday evening with in-depth analysis, they also get into real discussions with the guests they have in the studio and the live show can go on for a good hour or so after the final whistle.

As mentioned, Sky Sports’ loss is BT Sport’s gain, because a few years back BT won the rights to show all the Champions League football.

BT spent big to get those rights, and they invested in their presenters too with their main host being Gary Lineker, as well as plenty of top pundits (mainly ex-players) in the studio and pitch-side across Europe. Lynsey Hipgrave is also one of the main presenters for Champions League, Europa League and a variety of other of other matches they cover like the FA Cup.

BT Sport are doing a good job with the channels they have and although there has been plenty of other companies in the past that have tried to compete with Sky. BT Sport looks to have made it work. They’ll be around for a long time to come, and their coverage is currently only going from strength to strength in our opinion.

Premier Sports

We’ll be honest here, we weren’t actually aware how long Premier Sports has been around until we looked it up. So like us, you might be surprised yourselves by how many years they have been showing live football.

Although they don’t show UK fixtures, they do have various live football from across Europe and around the world and have done since they were established.

Currently they show live Copa do Brasil, La Liga from Spain, China Super League, Coupe de France, the Dutch Eredivisie, Italy’s Serie A as well as Portugal’s Primeira Liga. Which means on any given night of the week, you can find live football to watch with them.

Like BT and Sky, Premier Sports is a subscription channel but they do have a sister channel called FreeSports which is available to watch for free on Freeview, Sky, Virgin, Freesat, TalkTalk and BT.

They do not show loads of live football matches for free like you get on their main channels, but at least a few times a week they show live games so it is definitely worth checking out. especially if you like continental football.

BBC

What can we say about the BBC these days, our first thought is always Match of the Day, but when it comes to live football, unless there is a major tournament like the World Cup on, the choice is limited.

Their main offering is the FA Cup, and presenter Dan Walker does a super job with this, especially in the early rounds of the cup where he visits and presents shows from some of the lower league and non league teams.

From getting inside the tiny dressing rooms, interviewing chairman in the bar or club house to walking around the ground before kick off chatting to the fans.

They don’t have much live coverage but what they do show is good in our opinion. Saying that, they do always seem to get first pick on the “bigger” match in the FA Cup over BT.

ITV

Football on ITV these days is limited when it comes to regular weekly live football, because they’ve struggled in the bidding process against both Sky and BT. However, they do currently have shared rights for four years with Sky Sports for England’s football matches until 2022.

ITV have retained exclusive live rights for England’s European Qualifiers games up until Euro 2020 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup. They don’t have any domestic football from the UK any more, it’s just World Cup and Euro Championship coverage.

However, we’ve always been a big admirer of ITV4 too, as it does have some really good live sport and documentaries on there. What’s more, if you were lamenting the loss of La Liga on Sky Sports, we have some great news for you!

Recently, ITV4 struck a deal to show weekly live La Liga matches featuring both Madrid teams and of course Barcelona and this will be the only weekly live free-to-air football shown in the UK.

How To Find Out What’s On

It’s definitely a great time to be an armchair football fan, with so much choice available and the ability to watch live matches from all over the world.

Here at Live Sport Center, we have listings for all of the channels mentioned above, which are updated daily.

So keep your eye on this site and you’ll find more than enough live football to keep you occupied whenever you have a few hours to spare, and can get your hands on the remote.

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Why Is There No Live Football At 3pm In The UK?

It’s no secret that there’s more and more live football being shown on TV these days, at all sorts of times. We now have Monday night and even Friday night matches being televised. But have you ever asked why Saturday 3pm kick offs are still not broadcast in the UK?

Isn’t it weird that people in other countries are allowed to watch 3pm Premier League matches live, but we can’t?

In this article, we’ll explain the reasons behind this. It’s called the blackout rule, and it’s been in place since before most of us were born…

What Is The TV Blackout Rule?

It all started way back in the 1960s when businessman and the then Burnley chairman Robert “Bob” Lord said that having televised games on Saturday afternoons could and would affect crowd attendances of other league games taking place at the same time.

Lord was a controversial character who had issues with both newspaper journalists and the television media people at times. However, he had his principles and the backing of the other league chairman that the traditions of football clubs should be maintained and therefore convinced the Football League Association to bring in a new ruling.

The rule or blackout period as it is now known is still in place in the UK to this day, which means both Premier League and Football League matches being played between 3pm and 5pm on Saturday afternoons are not allowed to be shown on TV. The actual official blocked broadcasting hours are between 2.45pm and 5.15pm, which is why early kick offs on Saturday have had to start at 12.30pm or 12.45pm and evening games not starting until 5.30pm.

Should The Rule Be Lifted?

There are arguments from both sides, but when you know that the other big leagues in Germany, Italy, France and of course Spain don’t have this type of ruling you have wonder why does the UK still have it in place?

Well, as we know, the ruling was originally put in place to protect mainly the smaller football teams across the UK, so fans would still attend their own teams games rather than just watching the “big” league or cup match on the box. For that reason alone, the Football Supporters Federation still supports the blackout and have said that when they asked 8000 fans last year on their opinion, over 70 per cent agreed that the blackout should stay.

Is that because of tradition and the way new and younger fans that are being introduced to the game should experience football? By actually getting out there and enjoying the match-day experience rather than watching it on a phone or TV screen.

We believe the majority of match day going fans will always continue to go to games, however the issue they have is that they have less and less 3pm games to go to because of the increase in matches shown outside the blackout period.

Who has the biggest say in the matter?

Sky Sports has spent millions on broadcasting rights for Premier League and English Football League matches and seem now to have the right to show more and more games at various times over the weekend. Including Sundays, Mondays and Fridays, along with the early, late and now even later Saturday night kick-off times.

The also have their Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday show which is and has been very successful over the years and is now a tradition for a lot of non-going match day fans who have it on at home or watch it down the pub.

Other TV companies like the BBC who show Match of the Day would certainly lose a lot of their viewers if goals and games were allowed to be shown at Saturday 3pm, so they’d be against it.

Do the fans have much say in the matter, not really. The Football Association Premier League (FAPL) sells the rights to broadcast live games to BT as well as Sky and they then sell their subscription and services to those who can afford to pay for it. For some of those who can’t, licensed premises like pubs and clubs pay a larger amount of money for the subscription.

How Come Some Pubs Still Show 3pm Matches?

They get around it because as we all know, boxes and equipment is purchased from across Europe and brought into this country for people to watch in their own homes as well as down the pub. These boxes are purchased for a one-off fee and provide foreign feeds of most 3pm matches via decoder cards, which allows encrypted feeds to be decoded.

This however is breaking the rules that are in place and there is a massive clampdown by the authorities to stop people doing this. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998, it’s a criminal offence for a person to make, import, distribute, sell or hire unauthorised decoder boxes or equipment.

As much as the clampdown is in place, 3pm kick offs are still shown in various places up and down the country but it is nowhere near as popular as it use to be. When local pubs would be mainly be crammed full of blokes for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon.

It seems less popular these days, but is that because fewer places are showing these games or it is because technology has moved on and people can now actually watch the stream they were watching down the pub on their phone now. We think it’s a bit of both but certainly if you’re a match-day going fan but for some reason can’t make a game because you cannot get an away ticket, then someone somewhere will be showing your match.

We certainly imagine the use of streaming will also be looked at again, but we can’t see the blackout period being removed or even changed at any point in the future.

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What Is The Kasabian Song On Sky Sports?

If you’ve been watching Sky Sports you’ve probably noticed that they regularly change their soundtrack when promoting upcoming sporting events, or the start of the new Premier League football season.

Quite often the tunes they use become popular just as a result of being used on the Sky Sports trailers. And that is certainly the case with this one.

The song they used at the start of the last football season was Kasabian’s Ill Ray (The King). It’s taken from their album For Crying Out Loud, and you can watch the official video below.

Of course this isn’t the first Kasabian song that Sky Sports have used. In the past, on several occasions they have also used Fire. This is one of the band’s biggest hits and has also become something of an anthem in the Premier League.

I’m On Fire!

If you don’t recognise the song from its title, then have a listen for a few seconds and you soon will be. If you’ve ever watched any live football at all over the last couple of years, we can guarantee you know this tune.

This song is also used by Leicester City and is played whenever they score a goal at home. It was actually credited with helping to inspire the Leicester players during their remarkable run to the Premier League title in 2015.

So there you have it. Kasabian have been pretty much synonymous with football soundtracks over recent years, and you definitely wouldn’t bet against more of their songs being used by the broadcasters in the future.

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What Is The Pint Glass Logo On Sky Sports?

If you’ve ever watched football or any other live Sky Sports event in a pub, you might have noticed a small pint glass logo displayed on the bottom right corner of the screen.

Some people find it annoying, others are curious about what it means. A few are too drunk to notice it at all. But if you’re one of those who want to know what it’s doing there, here’s the answer.

What Is The Logo For?

Pubs, clubs or any public venue needs a different license in order to legally show Sky Sports. It costs more than your home package, and some landlords don’t like that.

So to try to avoid paying extra, some venues were just getting a normal home subscription to Sky Sports instead. Which is very naughty.

Obviously Sky weren’t too happy with that, so they added the pint glass logo to the screen on Sky Business commercial pictures. Then they started to send inspectors out into the pubs to check.

If the inspectors saw that the venue was showing Sky Sports but didn’t have the logo on the screen, then it was obvious they weren’t licensed.

Why Does It Sometimes Change Size Or Colour?

Some pub owners and landlords got wind of what Sky inspectors were doing, but decided they still didn’t want to pay for their commercial licenses. So instead, they started putting stickers of the pint glass logos on their TV screens to try to trick the inspectors.

For a while, this worked. Because the inspectors weren’t exactly going to go up and start picking at the TV screen, otherwise it would be obvious what they were doing and they’d reveal their identity – and quickly get barred from the premises.

So instead, Sky decided to vary the colour or size of the logo, or make the glass half full (or half empty depending on your perspective) from time to time.

Only the inspectors would know for sure what the logo was meant to look like each day. So if a venue was using a sticker and it didn’t match, they got caught out.

So now you know what the pint glass logo is for and why Sky decided to introduce it.

The moral of the story is, if you’re showing live sport in a public place, make sure you buy a license! Because Sky Sports are pretty clever and if you don’t, they will do whatever it takes to catch you eventually…

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