Missing a Premier League match when your team is playing is an absolute non-negotiable. Birthday dinner? Keep one eye on your phone. Wedding day? Put it on during the ceremony. Holiday abroad? Well, that one’s not so easy.
If you’re always jetting away on holiday, you’ll be familiar with the struggle of trying desperately to find somewhere to watch your favourite team play. If you’re anything like me, you’ve gone so far as to cough up for an international streaming service or pay an exorbitant hotel fee. The worst is when you have to make do with commentary in a language you don’t understand.
But instead of enduring the pain, a couple of seasons ago I started using a VPN to help me keep up with the Premier League while travelling abroad. I now always use one when I want to access the streaming services I already pay for back home, including Sky Sports and TNT Sports.
The issue is that when you open the Sky Sports or TNT Sports app on your phone or iPad outside the UK, it just won’t work. Both services are geo-restricted, so once they detect that you’re abroad, you won’t be able to stream the match as you normally would at home.
That’s where a VPN comes in. It lets you connect to a server back in the UK, making it look as if you’re still connecting from home.
With the Premier League season back underway, and a trip abroad coming up very soon, this is the VPN I’ve come to rely on whenever I’m travelling abroad and want to continue
Read more: Best VPNs, reviewed
ExpressVPN
The one I choose for its sheer simplicity and no-nonsense user interface, ExpressVPN has been my go-to Premier League VPN over the years. I most recently used it on a trip to Japan, connecting back to a UK server whenever I wanted to watch a match on Sky Sports or TNT Sports.
It really is ridiculously easy to use. You just choose a UK server, hit the big round connect button and open the Sky Go or TNT Sports app as normal. On my trips abroad, I’ve been able to stream matches just as I would at home, without any annoying geographical restrictions that prevent the apps from working.
Best of all, despite being thousands of miles away from the UK, I’ve never faced any buffering issues or lag – crucial when it’s so easy to get spoilers from all the notifications on your phone. Streaming quality is just as good as when I’m watching on my iPhone at home.
ExpressVPN works on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Mac and Fire TV Stick, so I can use essentially any device I’ve brought away with me. Depending on the plan, ExpressVPN lets you connect up to 14 devices at the same time, which is handy if you’d prefer to switch from your phone to your laptop at halftime.
Buy now £2, Expressvpn.com
For more, I’ve found the best cheap VPNs
