Best apps to watch basketball on your phone
Tip-offs land late at night in Europe and mid-morning in Asia, which is exactly when people watch on a phone. Every service below has its own app; the plans differ more than the apps do.
Ways to pay for a single match
Read off each service's own published plans — a day pass, a prepaid card, a phone-only tier or a free-to-air channel. Everything else on this page is sold monthly.
Every app that carries basketball
- Fubo Live TV · Streaming from $9.99/mo
- Peacock Streaming $12.99/mo · $129.99/yr
- Sling TV Live TV · Streaming $19.99/mo
- ESPN TV · Streaming $13.99/mo · $139.99/yr
- ABC TV · Free Free
- Sportsnet TV · Streaming CA$29.99/mo · CA$249.99/yr
- ESPN on Disney+ Streaming priced per country
- DAZN Streaming CA$24.99/mo (12-month) · CA$34.99 monthly · CA$249.99/yr
- Sky Sport (Italy) TV · Streaming €24.99/mo
- Kayo Sports Streaming A$29.99/mo
On a phone, in practice
- Turn the quality down before kick-off, not during. Every app here has a quality or data-saver setting, and video is the heaviest thing a phone does. Switching mid-match usually costs you the restart.
- Live sport can't be downloaded. A live stream has to be streamed; the downloads Peacock publish cover replays and highlights, not the live feed.
- The subscription is locked to the country you bought it in. An app bought at home normally geo-blocks abroad, so check the "sold in" list before a trip rather than after.
Kit that helps on a phone
The small things that make 90 minutes on a phone comfortable — and the one adapter that puts the same app on a TV.
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USB-C to HDMI adapter
The cheapest way from phone to TV: one adapter, one HDMI cable, and the app you already pay for plays on the big screen. Needs a phone with video out over USB-C — check yours.
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Phone stand
Hands-free for 90 minutes: props the phone at eye level on a desk, a train table or the kitchen counter.
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Power bank
A live match in HD is the heaviest thing a phone does; extra time and penalties are where the battery goes.
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Wireless earbuds
Commentary on the commute or in a shared room without broadcasting it to everyone.
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Phone cooler
A long stream on a hot day throttles the phone and dims the screen; a clip-on cooler keeps it at full brightness.
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Common questions
Is there an app that shows basketball on a phone?
All 10 services that carry basketball stream in their own iOS and Android apps — there is no separate mobile product to buy. The subscription you hold is what decides what plays, and it is geo-locked to the country you bought it in.
Can I pay for just one match?
In some markets. ABC (free to air); DAZN (phone-only plan). Everywhere else the entry plan is monthly, and a monthly plan cancelled before it renews is the usual workaround.
Can I download basketball to watch offline?
Peacock publish downloads on the plans noted here, but live sport is the one thing downloads never cover — a live stream has to be streamed. Downloads apply to replays and highlights.
How much mobile data does a match use?
Enough to matter on a metered plan: video is the heaviest thing a phone does, and an hour of HD is a large multiple of an hour of audio. Every app here has a video-quality or data-saver setting — turning it down before kick-off is the single biggest saving, and Wi-Fi is cheaper than any of them.
Plans, prices and the day-pass and prepaid options above are the services' own published terms as of Sep 2026, and change by season and country. A service is listed because it publishes rights to competitions in basketball — never as a claim about one fixture. sports24 isn't affiliated with any of them.