- Amazon cracking down on illegal streaming on Fire Sticks
- Where you can find legit free streams
- How to watch your regular streams from abroad with a VPN
Watching live sports – such as football, F1, UFC and boxing – on illegal IPTV streaming apps has been rife for years but Amazon is cracking down on piracy with its Fire Stick sideloading ban.
But, there are plenty of legal free sports streams showing all the Premier League football games, Ashes cricket, and combat sports too. Here's what you need to know...
The end of streaming on "dodgy" Fire Sticks?
Amazon is blocking apps it labels as "piracy" at the device level. That means certain third-party sideloaded IPTV apps will soon be disabled – and a VPN won't magically hide any IPTV apps.
Expect to receive a warning; if you don't act Amazon will delete the "dodgy" app.
Which sticks aren't affected by the IPTV crackdown?
Likely not affected (for now): If you still want full sideloading and VPN compatibility for legit purposes, try an Android-based device such as the Chromecast with Google TV, or an NVIDIA Shield. These let you install APKs and run VPN apps today.
Piracy is illegal: Sideloading apps is not illegal, but piracy is. Using sideloaded apps to access copyrighted content without permission could land you with a fine or worse.
How to watch free streams (legally)
You can still watch legit free sports streams. It all depends where you live.
Broadcasters around the world hold various rights packages, meaning streaming services offer free sports streams to local fans. Here's just a few we uncovered:
- 🏏 The Ashes 2025 – free on 7Plus in Australia
- 🏉 Autumn Nations rugby – free the BBC in UK
- 🏎️ Motorsport – free on RTBF in Belgium
- 🎾 Grand Slam tennis – free on 9Now in Australia
- 🥊 Boxing pay-per-views – often free on TV Azteca in Mexico
- 🏆 Champions League - free on RTE/Virgin in Ireland
- ⚽ Premier League – free trial offers in US
- ⛳ Golf majors – free Fubo trial in US
- 🏈 NFL – Sunday games free on C5 in UK
How to watch your streams from anywhere with a VPN
A good streaming VPN will unblock services and allow you to watch your local, legitimate free stream when traveling abroad (provided it does not infringe any terms and conditions.). No IPTV apps, no "dodgy" sticks, no fraud risks, and no hefty monthly fee.
It's easy to use a VPN for streaming:
- Sign up to a streaming VPN. We rate NordVPN as the best streaming VPN.
- Open up the VPN app on the device you want to view on.
- Connect to a server based in the country of your usual streaming service.
- Head to your usual streaming service and start watching as normal!
As we say, we rate NordVPN as the best VPN we've tested but take a look at Surfshark too, which is our #2 choice. It's the best cheap VPN and, like NordVPN, has excellent live customer service and is easy to use.
Both NordVPN and Surfshark come with a 30-day moneyback guarantee and limited-time Black Friday VPN deals...
- How to watch UK TV abroad
- I spoke to Amazon, Roku, and Google about Amazon's latest Fire Stick crackdown
- Best Amazon Fire Stick VPN
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
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