Top 5 Sports available only on streaming

IN THIS ISSUE:

  • You can’t watch these top 5 sports events & games on cable

  • Wimbledon is holding court on ESPN+, but they won’t say which matches

  • 🎵All the Small Things🎵 goes to the Stanley Cup Finals

The Main Event: Top 5 Sports available only on streaming

Streaming Sports news this week has been a mixed bag for fans who want to watch online. Bally's Sports Network is launching their local sports streamer in five markets this week, but F1 turned down Netflix and Amazon to stay with ESPN. There is a lot to digest, but it is clear that the shift to streaming is going to be slow and bumpy.

This got me thinking about the big wins that streaming sports has already had. There are so many major games and events that fans can only watch online, and not on cable or broadcast TV.

Here are the Top Five Sports events you can only watch on streaming.

  1. Thursday Night NFL Football — Amazon Prime has exclusive rights to weekly Thursday Night NFL football games all season long. Also there is an upcoming exclusive ESPN+ international NFL game.

  2. MLB Friday Night & Sunday Morning — Apple TV+ and Peacock have stepped up to the plate with three MLB games per week that are only available on streaming.

  3. 75 NHL games — ESPN+ and Hulu both have 75 exclusive streaming hockey games each season.

  4. The biggest Combat Sports — The UFC has all of their Pay-Per-View events streaming exclusively on ESPN+. Meanwhile, top boxing events from Matchroom and Golden Boy are usually streaming only on DAZN.

  5. So much International soccer — MLS may have grabbed headlines last week, but most soccer fans love international leagues the most. Many of the biggest games and tournaments are available only on streaming, including the FA Cup Finals on ESPN+ and tons of Premier League games on Peacock.

The Fast Break:

🎾 Game, Set, Match! 

The Championships, Wimbledon starts this week and there is going to be lots of tennis streaming on ESPN+.

The network says streaming Wimbledon match selections will be announced each day, so fans will have to check in to see if they can stream their favorite players. ESPN+ will have live coverage from 6 am to 3 pm every day plus on-demand replays of every match.

I’ll be really interested to see if this means that the semifinals and finals will be live on ESPN+ or not. They haven’t committed yet, but it seems obvious to me.

📺What channel is DAZN on? 

Streaming sports service DAZN has struck a deal to become a channel on pay TV service Orange TV in Spain. This deal is seen as a win-win for both companies.

  • Orange will gain soccer coverage from La Liga, Premier League and more along with boxing and racing.

  • DAZN will get a wider audience and likely some subscriber money too.

I’d expect to see more of this in the future, as there will be some customers who want streaming exclusive games without leaving the comfort of cable TV.

🤼‍♂️All Elite Streaming? 

Tony Khan, owner of pro wrestling league All Elite Wrestling, says that AEW is close to starting a streaming service. He plans to partner with Discovery Warner Brothers in some way on the service, expected to have live Wrestling coverage along with past fights from AEW and Ring of Honor.

Considering WWE’s deal to be a part of Peacock, I believe this AEW deal ends up fitting nicely inside of HBO Maxx.

Watch. Learn. Stream.

I Watched:

  • Beterbiev vs. Smith. A great fight where Beterbiev rolled over Smith in just two short rounds to become unified champion. Can we get Bivol vs. Beterbiev for the undisputed title? Pretty please?

  • Connecticut Sun vs. Washington Mystics & NJ Gotham vs. San Diego Wave. These back to back games were on Father’s Day. Both were fun to watch with the family.

I Learned:

🎵“All the small things

True care, truth brings.”🎵

 20,000 people singing pop-punk at a game can sound pretty solid. Singing the blink-182 hit song “All the Small Things” has become a 3rd period tradition at Colorado Avalanche games.

The tweet above lets you hear fans at the Stanley Cup Finals game sing the entire song while waiting for the action to resume. The Sporting News has the history behind how this song became an Avs fans anthem.

I'll Be Streaming: 

The Starting Lineup - June 24 - 30

Select key events shown. All dates and times are subject to change. (* if necessary)

NHL Stanley Cup Finals:

Colorado Avalanche vs Tampa Bay Lightning

All games available on ESPN+ and ABC

Game 5*: Friday June 24 at 8 pm

Game 6*: Sunday June 26 at 8 pm

Game 7*: Tuesday June 28 at 8 pm

Tennis:

Wimbledon

First Round Coverage

Monday, June 27 - Thursday, June 30 from 6 am - 4:30 pm on ESPN+ and ESPN

ESPN available on Sling TV Orange ($35 / month), YouTube TV ($65 / month), FuboTV ($70 / month), Hulu with Live TV ($70 / month) & DirecTV Stream ($75 / month)

WNBA:

Sunday June 26

Connecticut vs Atlanta 3 pm on Amazon

Wednesday June 29

Las Vegas vs Seattle 10 pm on Amazon

Thursday June 30

Atlanta vs New York 7 pm on Twitter

MLB:

Friday June 24

Chicago Cubs vs St. Louis Cardinals 8 pm on Apple TV+

Detroit Tigers vs Arizona Diamondbacks 9:30 pm on Apple TV+

Sunday June 26

N.Y. Mets vs Miami Marlins Noon on Peacock

Combat Sports:

June 25

Boxing: Jessie “Bam” Rodriguez vs Srisaket Sor Rungvisai for WBC junior bantamweight title on DAZN

Gratitude

Thank you for reading this week’s Streaming Sports Newsletter. It is wonderful to be able to welcome in new subscribers, and I hope everyone enjoys reading it. If you haven’t joined in yet, please subscribe so you won’t miss an issue. Also, take a moment to share this issue with anyone you think might enjoy it.

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