The Indian Super League has been a TV success ever since its inception in 2013 accompanied by a catchy slogan “Let’s football.” It’s been going from strength to strength ever since has expanded the number of participating clubs from eight to ten and earned the recognition of the Asian Football Confederation.
Where to stream the Indian Super League online
The league has a massive following in India that’s bigger than that of FIFA and the Premier League, with the previous ISL season reaching 215 million viewers. The league boasts pretty decent media coverage, too.
Star Sports is the main broadcast rights holder for the ISL (and one of its organizers, too). It airs the Indian Super League across eight of its channels in five languages, meaning you can stream the entirety of all the matches in India for free. Also, tune in Jalsha Movies and Suvarna Plus for the ISL live streams.
Also, the league has quite a few broadcast partners across the world:
Bet365 streams the Indian Super League internationally. As always, blackouts apply if some local channel airs the league matches. In case you’ve been wondering, sports streaming with Bet365 is free as such, but you have to be a registered user and fund your account for circa $10.
Why use a VPN to stream the Indian Super League
The Hero ISL aficionados are a lucky lot, with plenty of ways to stream the matches in and outside of India. Still, if you want a free stream in your preferred language and with the extravaganza of all the ISL accompanying shows, my guess is you want to stream with Star Sports. Why not? Every Bollywood and TV star in India wants to show their face at one of the ISL events and take advantage of the prime time. So watching ISL is not only about sports but also about quality entertainment that’s surrounding it.
If my guess is correct – and if you’re traveling overseas – you are going to need a VPN to stream with Star Sports because it’s licensed to stream in India only. If you try to access your Star Sports live videos from abroad, you’re going to bump into a geo-wall – “this video is unavailable in your region.” That’s when a VPN comes in handy – let me explain how it works.
In layman’s terms, a Virtual Private Network is a web of servers across the globe. When you connect to a server in India, three things happen:
- You get an Indian IP address
- Your traffic is routed through the Indian server (until you disconnect)
- Your data gets encrypted
With an Indian IP address and your traffic routed through the server in India, you anchor your connection to the country and appear as if you were there in reality. As a result, Star Sports identifies you as a regular customer connecting from India and doesn’t mount its geo-wall.
In fact, you can spoof into pretty much any country with a VPN – the UK, US, Canada, China, you name it. And with robust encryption, you also get a double layer of protection for all your online activities:
- Hackers can’t decipher and steal your sensitive information
- You can browse safely when using public Wi-Fi hot-spots
- Your Internet Service Provider can’t see what you’re up to online
- Your ISP can’t throttle your bandwidth when you stream or play online games
- You can access geo-blocked gaming servers and repositories (Steam, iTunes, Kodi, etc.)
- You can unlock Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO, Sling TV, BBC iPlayer, ITV, and more
- You can easily bypass any school or office firewall and protect your privacy from the prying eyes of your IT admins
How to stream the Indian Super League with a VPN
- Pick a VPN provider from the list below (tested and scrutinized by me personally).
- Buy a VPN subscription and install the VPN client on your device.
- Connect to a server in India.
- Clear your browser’s cache and cookies.
- Go to your streaming site and enjoy the Indian Super League from anywhere in the world as if you were home in India.
Best VPNs to stream the ISL from anywhere
My top VPN picks have speedy streaming-optimized servers in India and across the globe, and rock-solid security specs. So you should have no problem watching your ISL live no matter where you are in the world.
I would caution you against using free VPNs because they log everything you do online and sell your information to data brokers, ads, and spy agencies. I find it obnoxious, but ultimately, it’s up to you to decide if the trade-off is worth it (it never is). Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions.
IPVanish
- No limit on the number of devices you can connect at the same time
- SOCKS5 proxy, which its main rivals don’t have
- More VPN servers in more US cities to dodge blackouts
PureVPN
- Excellent client with pre-configured modes for streaming, P2P, privacy
- Kill switch
- Support for wide range of protocols, including OpenVPN