It is a well-known solution for bettors to watch sports easily, without a subscription. And yet, this technique is still ignored by the general public. Major sports betting sites such as Unibet, Winamax or Betclic all offer legal streaming services to their users, at a lower cost. Explanations.
How to access it?
It is a legal streaming offer accessible to all or almost, almost for free. All you have to do is have an account in your name on a sports betting platform that offers this service (Winamax, Unibet, Betclic, PMU Sports ...) and be in a position to bet, that is to say to have money in your account. But nothing obliges the user to bet on the sporting event he is watching.
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Example on the Winamax website which states that "you must be logged in and have at least 1 euro in your account" without obligation to bet. Other sites claim to simply have a "positive balance", with no minimum, or, for example, to have bet in the last 48 or 24 hours. The solution to get around the problem seems easy: create an account, put a minimum of money on it without betting and enjoy all the content available!
What competitions are broadcast?
Football, tennis, basketball... There is something for everyone on these streaming services. Almost all competitions are available unless the TV rights have been negotiated exclusively by the broadcasters. It is therefore not possible to watch Ligue 1, the Premier League or the Top 14, blocked by Amazon and Canal +.
The rest of the world's most-watched competitions are available on almost every streaming service. We can therefore find for football, the Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga or the Portuguese, Turkish or Dutch championships. Basketball is not to be outdone with all NBA games. The sport most covered by these betting sites, tennis is broadcast all year round with all WTA and ATP tournaments but also the 4 Grand Slam tournaments.
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Finally, the Handball Champions League, the NHL, the NFL and the Volleyball World League are also broadcast. "Out of 100,000 or 120,000 events you can bet on, nearly 50,000 are available for streaming. But we must be honest, all betting operators are making this offer now, "says Yann Beneville, trading manager at Winamax.
A golden opportunity for bettors like Antoine, player on Betclic: "I take advantage of betting sites to watch competitions broadcast on channels where I do not have a subscription like BeIN Sports. Or for example, Eurosport can show a match that does not interest me and so I take advantage of the betting site to watch another match. »
How much do betting sites pay?
This is where the mystery thickens. How much do sports betting sites pay to stream so many competitions live? Sports betting sites leak as little information as possible. "It's not a significant investment," says a sports betting site, in amounts well below the hundreds of millions of euros for Ligue 1 or the Top 14. According to rumors, contracts and agreements often cover terms similar to negotiations with television channels, i.e. every 3 or 4 years.
"We don't deal with broadcasters directly but through intermediaries. TV rights and rights for streaming on sports betting are two different worlds. We are not at all in the same magnitude, "confirms the trading manager at Winamax who still evokes "a nice sum year-round".
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In addition, everything is done so that it costs them as little as possible. The sites only pay for a live broadcast, so it is not possible to watch these competitions on a delayed basis. Similarly, in most cases, they only retrieve the international signal, without any comment. You will have to be satisfied with the ambient sound of the stadiums.
It is mainly a kind of betting assistance, watch and bet, as it is called in the community, that is to say to push sports betting by watching the competition on this site. "It should not be seen as an alternative to video subscription platforms," confirms another betting site. This is why Winamax, Betclic, or others do not advertise it, and that full screen is generally impossible. But the service has the merit of existing, and at a lower cost...
