As a sports fan, you take your smartphone with you everywhere. You may have even streamed a game or two from your mobile device. After all, nothing beats the flexibility and convenience of watching your favorite teams play on the go.
Given advances in technology, it’s not surprising streaming has become so popular. However, you may have noticed that your phone doesn’t always work as well as it should when it’s time for the big game.
An unexpected delay can put your plans on hold, causing you to miss out on a big play. As we all know, watching replays isn’t as satisfying as watching the real thing live. With all that in mind, we’ve compiled this list of ways to optimize your smartphone for streaming sports.
Choose Your Streaming Service Carefully
From ESPN+ and Hulu + Live TV to Sling TV and FuboTV, there are a lot of options for streaming sports. If hockey is the sport you want to watch, you should ensure the service you choose streams the NHL.
Like other sports, betting has become a big part of the NHL fan experience. With the playoffs approaching, hockey enthusiasts can check the NHL odds on Bodog to see how their favorite teams stack up against the competition. As of now, Ottawa Senators are the favorites in the upcoming championship at -220; however, once you access this information, it’s crucial that you can stream the games on a dedicated sports streaming service. Most of these services have apps making it easy to stream them from your smartphone, as long as you’re connected to the internet.
Using the app is usually the best option for a high-quality experience. However, there are scenarios where that may not be the case. If lagging becomes a problem on the app you’re using, switching to a mobile browser and streaming from the app’s official site could help.
Make Sure Your Internet Connection is Working Properly
One of the best things about mobile technology is that it allows us to take our favorite things with us wherever we go. Whether you want to play Fortnite or watch the Superbowl, you can do it from your smartphone.
Mobile technology has advanced so much in the past decade; most agree that smartphones have changed our lives in many ways. One of those ways is the ability to stream TV shows, movies, and sports live.
However, that won’t work too well if your internet connection isn’t reliable. If you plan to do most of your streaming from home, make sure your internet connection is working correctly before tuning into the game.
If your internet connection is slow or unreliable, it can cause buffering or lag, disrupting the viewing experience.
Choose Your Data Plan Wisely
Chances are you’ll be using your smartphone’s data plan for most of your streaming, and getting a good plan can make all the difference in your streaming experience. When you stream sports live, you’re using a lot of data.
If you don’t have a good data plan, things could get expensive quickly. Luckily, many of the biggest cell phone companies offer plans with unlimited data, so you won’t have to keep an eye on how much data you’ve used throughout the month.
However, choosing an unlimited data plan isn’t always enough. Be sure to read the fine print before signing on the dotted line to ensure your company won’t slow down your connection speeds for data-intensive activities like streaming.
Adjust Your Screen Settings
We’ve talked about many of the technical aspects of streaming sports on your phone, but you may have questions about how to make your screen look its best. Tweaking your display settings can go a long way toward improving your visual experience on your smartphone.
Increasing the brightness and changing the contrast on your phone are two of the easiest ways to make the picture clearer and ensure the action pops while you’re streaming.
Experimenting with different viewing modes, like full-screen or landscape modes, to find out which you like best can also enhance the viewing experience.
Clean up Your Phone
You’ve probably downloaded quite a few apps since you bought your smartphone, and many you likely don’t use anymore. One of the best ways to speed up your phone and improve your streaming experience is to free up space by deleting unused apps.
Since it would be unreasonable to delete every app from your phone, what you can do with your remaining apps is ensure they’re closed while you’re streaming a sports match.
When you have multiple apps running simultaneously, it slows your phone and may cause buffering or lag during a game.
Closing the apps you aren’t using helps solve this problem by decreasing demands on your phone, ensuring your phone runs smoothly and you get the best streaming experience possible.
Invest in a Portable Power Bank
As you can imagine, streaming sports can quickly drain your battery. You can ensure you don’t run out of battery power in mid-game by investing in a power bank to use when you know you’ll be streaming for long periods.