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Using VPN to access NFL Gamepass in North America (alternative to DTV's $300 stream)

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hlhbk

Member
Disclaimer: I have debated for a long time about making this thread, but I have since got it cleared that I could go ahead with it by a mod so here it goes!

First of all for those who don't know the NFL Sunday Ticket online stream is no longer available for any gaming console and was only available for the PS3 for the last 2 years. Go here to read up on that.

Essentially this means that the only options moving forward for watching all NFL games online in the USA is through the NFL Sunday Ticket stream which you can get in the $100 Madden Anniversary edition, but normally its $300. There is another option, but before I get to that please click here to see how terrible the quality for the NFL Sunday ticket stream is compared to the offical NFL preseason stream.

Upon doing research I found that the offical NFL stream (which is called gamepass during the regular season) is available outside of North America and is cheaper than the Sunday ticket stream! Go here for a price comparison for last season.

To access Gamepass you will need to sign up for a VPN which will allow you to access it. There are many different options and prices for this but if you google VPN you will find a bunch of options for this. Once you sign up for the VPN and log into it the next time you open your browser you should be able to go to gamepass.nfl.com and sign up for it!
 

hlhbk

Member
The other really great feature of using the VPN is since its overseas there is no local blackouts. For instance say I live in Nashville and the Titans didn't sell out their home game. Due to NFL rules the game is not shown on the local affliate channel in the Nashville area, and Sunday ticket is now allowed to show local games even on the stream.

The VPN completely eliminates this, and it includes Sunday night, Monday night, and Thursday night football games since again they aren't carried on live TV on a lot of international markets. Sunday ticket only shows the games on Sunday afternoon. Also playoff games are available on Gamepass as well.
 

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
$300, that is insane. I love the sport, but would never shell out that kind of money. Even $129 is pushing it. But that is a crazy better price/deal. And VPN's are the shit. I love mine.
 

hlhbk

Member
$300, that is insane. I love the sport, but would never shell out that kind of money. Even $129 is pushing it. But that is a crazy better price/deal. And VPN's are the shit. I love mine.

If you factor how much money you would spend at a sports bar each week for 17 weeks to see all of the games it would well exceed $300 and $129 is a great deal compared to that!
 

gutshot

Member
NFL Gamepass is free in the Netherlands, so if your VPN is in the Netherlands you don't have to pay a thing to get full access.
 

Pacbois

Member
NFL Gamepass is free in the Netherlands, so if your VPN is in the Netherlands you don't have to pay a thing to get full access.

Still free this year ? Sweet, I used it last year and worked great. Get a cheap VPN, just put on to get on the page, turn it off and it's good.
 

Westonian

Member
Will Unblock-US work with this? It's not a VPN technically, but it does the job for Netflix and the BBC iPlayer well enough.
 

hlhbk

Member
Will Unblock-US work with this? It's not a VPN technically, but it does the job for Netflix and the BBC iPlayer well enough.

I have never heard of this. I use hide my ass vpn. BTW if you access Netflix on a VPN do you have to create a new account if you have one in the USA?
 

shinjijai

Member
I have never heard of this. I use hide my ass vpn. BTW if you access Netflix on a VPN do you have to create a new account if you have one in the USA?

Netflix accounts work in all regions (at least all the regions I've been), and it's based on the IP you're connecting from.
 
Gamepass is incredible when you're eligible to use it. Used it while I was overseas last year for a few weeks. Basically HD livestreams of all NFL games on my iPad.

You pretty much need the VPN though, so many terrible region restrictions otherwise...
 

Camwi

Member
$300, that is insane. I love the sport, but would never shell out that kind of money. Even $129 is pushing it. But that is a crazy better price/deal. And VPN's are the shit. I love mine.

The commercials are obnoxious as fuck, too.

"That's less than $2.00 a game!!"

Who the hell watches every single NFL game?
 

hlhbk

Member
The commercials are obnoxious as fuck, too.

"That's less than $2.00 a game!!"

Who the hell watches every single NFL game?

I do. BTW has anyone had any luck getting this to work on their mobile device (I have a touchpad running android) over a VPN connection?
 
A VPN is necessary to watch Fox Saturday baseball games that are not available on your local channel because of stupid regional restrictions. MLB.TV still streams the games to anyone outside of the US.

Don't forget to take into consideration the speed hit you'll take with the VPN. You're introducing another layer of servers you have to connect to if your going to use a foreign IP. It's no longer a direct connection to NFL.com, MLB.TV or whatever. It's through your ISP to the VPN to the foreign IP and then the information gets sent back to you.
 

Camwi

Member
I do. BTW has anyone had any luck getting this to work on their mobile device (I have a touchpad running android) over a VPN connection?

Well ok, and I can appreciate that and all, but I think most people are buying it to watch their favorite team(s) out of state. It'd be nice if they dropped the price and allowed people to watch all of a team or two's games.
 

hlhbk

Member
Well ok, and I can appreciate that and all, but I think most people are buying it to watch their favorite team(s) out of state. It'd be nice if they dropped the price and allowed people to watch all of a team or two's games.

Well you can do that too through Game pass :)
 

hlhbk

Member
Netflix accounts work in all regions (at least all the regions I've been), and it's based on the IP you're connecting from.

I used my vpn and logged into my netflix account. It says that I can only use that account in the USA, and I couldn't proceed. This sucks. No way am I signing up for 2 accounts from them.
 

hlhbk

Member
Here are some screenshots for some preseason games tonight. Thought I would throw them up to show the quality of the feed. Also note this year some games have added the ability to choose your home radio feed, which is awesome!

K8t.jpg


 
Living here in the US, I'm seriously considering going with the Gamepass+VPN option. Anybody have any recommendations for which VPN is good to use?
 

effzee

Member
Hold up. I preordered the $100 Madden just to get Sunday Ticket. Are you telling me the feed on it is terrible?

Should I cancel the order and try this? I'm not all familiar with vpn or how it works.
 

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
NFL Gamepass is free in the Netherlands, so if your VPN is in the Netherlands you don't have to pay a thing to get full access.

Someone explain how to do this. Do I google Netherlands VPN and download a client, then whenever I connect the client I'm good? We use a VPN for work and this is generally how it goes, never used one at home.
 

AColdDay

Member
I'm afraid of you guys talking about it, because if it gets too widespread about using VPNs, then the NFL might shut it down :(

Keep this secret in the shadows!
 

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
What about changing your DNS address? It's easier and free no?

I don't think the settings are guaranteed to last. The other thing is you would have to change between those settings and your own. Which I guess isn't a problem when you are talking about one set of settings and a game(s) once a week.

If you find the settings, go for it.

Someone explain how to do this. Do I google Netherlands VPN and download a client, then whenever I connect the client I'm good? We use a VPN for work and this is generally how it goes, never used one at home.

The VPN I use (won't work for this since it doesn't have Netherlands servers) is through a website. As I think the majority of them are. Just log-in, click two buttons and it connects to the country's server.
 

BigDug13

Member
I'm afraid of you guys talking about it, because if it gets too widespread about using VPNs, then the NFL might shut it down :(

Keep this secret in the shadows!

How would the NFL do that? The traffic looks like it's coming from another country.
 

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
The VPN I use (won't work for this since it doesn't have Netherlands servers) is through a website. As I think the majority of them are. Just log-in, click two buttons and it connects to the country's server.

Interesting. Anyone found a good Netherlands VPN site yet? Anyone test this out?
 

Mesoian

Member
I think this is the way I'm gonna go. Even with a more mainstream vpn service at 55/m, it's still cheaper and has less permanence than changing my cable package or buying Sunday Ticket.

I'm looking into this one right now: http://strongvpn.com/
 

Seanspeed

Banned
I signed up for GamePass last week on a free 7 day trial. Its been a great service so far. But before my trial is up and they charge me £130, I think I'm gonna do this instead and save a ton of cash. Thanks for this!

Is it complicated at all? I don't even really know what a VPN is or anything.
 

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
I signed up for GamePass last week on a free 7 day trial. Its been a great service so far. But before my trial is up and they charge me £130, I think I'm gonna do this instead and save a ton of cash. Thanks for this!

Is it complicated at all? I don't even really know what a VPN is or anything.

Here is my VPN experience in a nutshell:

1 -Signed up for the VPN.
2- Changed my DNS settings on my pc.
3- Logged into my VPN account.
4- Clicked a pull down menu option and click to configure country.
5- ???
6- Profit.

Ok, not profit but easy as pie.
 

Seanspeed

Banned
Here is my VPN experience in a nutshell:

1 -Signed up for the VPN.
2- Changed my DNS settings on my pc.
3- Logged into my VPN account.
4- Clicked a pull down menu option and click to configure country.
5- ???
6- Profit.

Ok, not profit but easy as pie.
Is changing my DNS settings going to affect anything, with like Netflix, Steam, Amazon, etc?
 

BigDug13

Member
So the audio when getting a VPN in the Netherlands and watching NFL Gamepass is in English right?

Pretty sure it's the same exact feed. NFL Gamepass has a feed on their website and they filter who can access it for free, who can access it through payment, and who has no access at all based on country you're accessing the website from. Try to connect in the US and you have no access to live games. Try to connect in the UK and you can sign up and pay for the package. Try to connect in the Netherlands and you have free access to the live streams.
 

BigDug13

Member
So without direct TV the only streaming option currently is your PC? That seems crazy to me.

No, if you want to pay for the gamepass, you can use "unblock us" to change your DNS on an ipad for example and use the gamepass app to stream games.

But you can't do full on VPN to the Netherlands for free Gamepass using a device other than computer.
 

Mesoian

Member
I'd just like to restate how crazy it is that we even have to entertain this idea. We have to use international web space in order to get access to Nfl games that we can't get in America because they refuse to take our money.
 

BigDug13

Member
I'd just like to restate how crazy it is that we even have to entertain this idea. We have to use international web space in order to get access to Nfl games that we can't get in America because they refuse to take our money.

Gotta love exclusive deals. Once they signed exclusivity with DirecTV it was probably part of the deal that they would deny the US from accessing Gamepass so that DirecTV can attempt to offer the only NFL package in the country.
 
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