Why is Total Sportek so popular?
Much has been said about streaming sports in recent times. This debate has been especially relevant in Europe, where there is currently a crisis in energy prices and food prices. People are being more careful about where their money goes and a common sacrifice that is being made is that of streaming subscriptions.
In terms of football streaming in the UK, it is easy to see why people have been turning to sites such as Total Sportek in recent times. The Premier League is the most popular football league in the world, yet people in the UK have to pay large amounts of money to be able to watch this – and suffer the bad punditry of so-called experts! At present, Premier League coverage is split between Sky Sports, BT Sport, and Amazon Prime. Of the 380 Premier League games played each season, 200 are shown live. If you want to watch every live game, you have to have three separate subscriptions.
Total sportek is free https://t.co/wPuGR7Kuc5
— Laloyd (@Tw1ttersteven) January 23, 2023
In addition, coverage of the EFL, Carabao Cup, FA Cup, Vanarama National League, Champions League, Europa League and Conference League is all accessible in the UK but split across the three providers as well. To watch every single match, as each football fan would desire, can become a costly investment.
Sky Sports costs £33.99 a month, BT Sport costs £25 a month, and Amazon Prime costs £8.99 a month. This is, in total, £67.98 a month or £815.76 for the whole year. Who would want to pay that much to hear Steve McManaman witter on about how great Liverpool are?! When you look at it this way, it is easy to see why people are cancelling subscriptions and turning to Total Sportek for free, high quality streams. With the development of technology, it is now so much easier to find streams that are in high definition. The majority of streams on Total Sportek are HD, which is something that would have been deemed unthinkable a decade ago. The streaming site is easier to use, as the website is laid out in a user friendly manner split league-by-league. This means you don’t need to hunt for the game you want in a TV guide and it is right in front of you.
What is the UK broadcast ban?
In the UK, there is a media blackout on football games every Saturday between 2:45pm and 5:25pm. This came into place with the inception of The Premier League in 1992 and means that no Premier League, Football League (EFL) or FA Cup matches are to be broadcast live between those times. Games are still played however with a kick off time at 3pm.
The argument is that if football – especially fixtures such as Manchester United vs Liverpool - is on the television, then people will stay at home to watch rather than go to a game themselves. Non-league football especially suffers at times like this. This particularly is true in the winter months when it is colder and darker. This ban also stretches to matches overseas, so for example, La Liga games that kick off at 5pm on a Saturday will not start being broadcast until 5:25pm in the UK. The ban also extends to pubs and bars who cannot stream games on websites. Ironically, it is easier to watch a Premier League game at 3pm in Asia than it is in England!
"If Manchester United were to play against Liverpool on Saturday at 3pm, fans of lower division teams would instead opt to watch that than the team they actually supported" - Bob Lord
The UK is the only country to have this law, with Germany, Spain, Italy and France claiming that there is no evidence to suggest that having games live at that time affects attendances at other games.
More can be read about the broadcast blackout here: Why is there a Saturday 3pm football blackout in the UK for live streams & TV broadcasts? | Goal.com UK
For those who cannot afford to go to a game or support a Premier League team that plays at 3pm, the only option to watch their team is to go to a website like Total Sportek. There is a myth that streaming websites have lower quality but in recent times, there has been an improvement in streaming quality.
Total Sportek offers variety in coverage and language for those wanting to follow their team, without having to pay for broadcasters. Many would argue that risking a stream is better than the alternative in the UK – watching pundits watch the games in a studio. This, coupled with the rising cost of watching live football (both on TV or in a stadium) is a key reason why Total Sportek is so popular among sports fans.
Why is Total Sportek so easy to use?
As far as a streaming site goes, Total Sportek is one of, if not, the easiest to use and navigate for a casual fan. The home page has the biggest fixtures already linked on it so there is no need to search around for the game you wish to watch. There is a search bar which you can search for anything you want to watch, not just football games. The coverage available spans to rugby, tennis, cricket, Formula One, and golf to name but a few.
There is also a calendar system, which is unique for streaming websites. Users can create a free account and ‘favourite’ fixtures that are coming up. The website will then remind the user that their saved games are going live on stream which is convenient so you don’t need to go looking for league fixtures etc.
Each game has multiple links to various different broadcasts so there is a wide choice of languages for people to choose from. This favours people who may not like the coverage available in their countries, so if you are watching in the UK, you can choose to watch coverage from the USA for example.
There is also so much more to Total Sportek as a website too. They bill themselves as a ‘sports blog website providing, news, results and streams to live sports events.’ By having sports blogs on the website, fans can engage in discussions about games they have watched and will watch. Inciting debate is healthy especially in the sporting world, where like minded people can converse about topics and keep people connected. Who knows, you may even find friends on there, just for the shared connection of streaming and sport? Billing themselves as a sports news website is also beneficial as you don’t need to search across multiple platforms to find updates and news on your favourite team or sport. You could argue that Total Sportek could be the only website you need at all for sport!
Why should you be careful using it?
Naturally, as with any streaming website, there are risks to be considered when watching sport on them. Firstly, some links for games may not work so it could take some time to find a working, good quality stream. This may also extend to having to swap streams when servers or internet connection goes down. This is not a unique problem to Total Sportek as all streaming websites can have this issue.
Can anyone suggest a streaming site to watch the match? It's not being streamed anywhere in India, and totalsportek is being a nuisance.
— Abhinav Singh (@humoroushippie) January 25, 2023
Additionally, spending time searching for a stream may mean that you miss out on key moments of action and spoil what you are there for – to watch live sport. This can be a bit of a faff for someone who is wanting to access live coverage and not miss out on anything going on.
Due to the nature of streaming, there may also be the chance that the stream you are watching is slightly behind the live coverage. Be sure to turn off any live updates you may have on your phones as this will completely ruin your enjoyment!
Similarly, there is often a problem with Total Sportek that stream links cause pop ups to block the screen. This is inconvenient to get rid of and takes up time and effort to clear. No one wants to be constantly removing adverts while trying to watch live sport. Imagine missing a goal because your screen was blocked with a pop up advert for some hand cream!
Some people on Twitter have claimed that Total Sportek has been deactivated in some countries but this must depend on the area, as it is still very active in the UK at least. VPNs can be downloaded to get around this however.
Why should you take care in the UK?
Media in the UK have reported in recent times that police are starting a wide spread crackdown on people that stream football matches from their homes without holding sufficient licensing.
According to The Mirror (Police to visit 1,000 homes in crackdown on illegal Premier League streams and "fire sticks" - Mirror Online), up to 1,000 homes had been identified as serious offenders of watching Premier League games through streaming websites. These homes have been due to be visited by police officers but there are no reports that this has actually happened.
"There is a massive crackdown on illegal streaming with up to 1000 homes set to be hit." - John Cross
However, their main issue is not actually with the sports streaming websites, there seems to be more of an issue with people buying modified Fire Sticks and boxes – something described as a ‘jailbroken device’. These are modified devices, often through uses of VPNs, to be able to download software that is usually blocked by servers in the host country. It is far easier to access websites like Total Sportek on these. It is this practice that police are trying to clamp down on rather than the actual use of the websites on offer.
If you watch on your own laptop or device then you should be ok. If caught however, people can be warned, fined, or prosecuted. A high profile prosecution came of two men in 2016, where they were caught with these jailbroken devices to watch football and were sentenced to 16 months in prison. However, this was more to the fact that they had links to organised crime through the selling of the devices and not to do with streaming sport.
As previously mentioned, plenty of people are ditching paying subscriptions to traditional sports broadcasting services in favour of streaming for free. They are very vocal on social media about this (embed tweet) and certainly argue a strong case. It is not just regular people fighting this battle. High profile journalists and sports people also are weighing in that watching broadcasts are becoming too expensive, so the rise in usage of streaming websites is fair and justified.