Are you excited about the NBA 2021–2022 season? So am I!
Unfortunately, if you were counting on watching your games on NBA League Pass, you may be out of luck.
You may not realize, but you will have to use a VPN to bypass NBA League Pass blackouts in order to access your favorite games from locations that are blocked.
When you use a VPN, you can connect to a server in a permitted location. When you do this, your traffic will then be sent through an encrypted VPN tunnel, spoofing your location so you can bypass geo–restrictions and access the Utah Jazz and other NBA Games from anywhere in the world.
Keep on reading to find out how to watch your favorite team using a VPN!
In a Hurry? Here How to Bypass NBA League Pass Blackouts with a VPN
What Is the NBA League Pass Blackout?
At the start of the exciting NBA season, broadcasting companies, both national and local, bid on rights to air live games on their networks. Since these streaming rights are sometimes exclusive, the NBA itself isn’t even able to broadcast live games until after they have already aired, which leads to these annoying blackouts of your favorite teams.
So, if you are in LA and the local TV network has acquired live broadcasting rights to the Lakers games, any of these games will be blocked from other broadcasters in LA, such as NBA League Pass.
If you want to watch a nationally broadcast game, the game will also be blacked out nationally.
So, how do NBA blackouts work? NBA League Pass can detect your location based on your IP address, which is how it can determine if it should block you or allow you access to its content.
Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), you can spoof your location and access the NBA League Pass apps from anywhere.
How Does the NBA League Pass Blackout Work & Why Is It Used?
When you try to Watch NBA League Pass Games, NBA League Pass can detect where you are located based on your IP address. If NBA League Pass detects that you are from a region where there’s any blackout, it will block you from being able to watch games.
If you are trying to watch NBA League Pass from a mobile device, the GPS and location data on your device will also give away your blocked region to NBA League Pass, alerting it to block you if you are not eligible to access its services.
Because the sports content on this platform is only licensed for distribution in certain regions, it is important that NBA League Pass works hard to block anyone from accessing content not licensed for viewing.
How to Bypass Blackout Restrictions with an NBA League Pass VPN
If you try to access NBA League Pass from a blacklisted location, you will get an error message like this:
“Based on your current location, you are unable to view LIVE Brooklyn Nets…”
When we tried to stream live coverage of the Brooklyn Nets from our NY location, this was the response got.
If you are experiencing a local blackout, you may only be allowed to watch your game days after the original broadcast.
If you are not willing to wait those few days until you can get access, a VPN will do the trick. When you connect to a reputable VPN, you can hide your IP address in your blocked location. Then, connecting to a VPN server, you can spoof your location so that it appears that you are in your server location instead of your real one.
Best VPNs for NBA League Pass
If you are looking for the best VPN to access NBA League Pass, bypassing these NBA League Pass blackouts, here are the top 3:
| No | Provider | Review | Price/Month | Visit Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | ExpressVPN Review | $6.67 | Visit Site |
| 2 |  | NordVPN Review | $3.71 | Visit Site |
| 3 |  | Surfshark Review | $2.49 | Visit Site |
Can I Use Free VPN Service Providers to Bypass NBA League Pass Blackouts?
While you are welcome to try to bypass NBA League blackouts using one of the free VPN services available, you are unlikely to be successful at accessing any of your favorite NBA games with any free VPN.
For starters, free VPN servers are often located in a very small range of locations and are often crowded with users, which causes very slow speeds and annoying buffering.
Free VPNs are also short on resources, so they are usually the first to be put on the IP blacklists.
Free VPNs are also, unfortunately, known for their limited (if any) privacy and security, and can even put users at risk of viruses and malware.
Instead of using one of the free VPNs, we recommend going with one of the reputable VPN services which offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. This is essentially like getting a free trial using a premium VPN for an entire month to watch each game.
How to Get Around NBA Blackout Restrictions on a PC
To get around NBA League Pass blackouts on a PC, all you have to do is connect to a VPN server in a region that permits access. For instance, if the blackout is local, connect to a VPN server in a different state in the US.
A national blackout is a bit different. In the cases of national blackouts, you will have to connect to a server in a different country. To ensure the least amount of speed loss when trying to avoid national blackouts, connect to a server in a country closest to your actual location. If you still can’t access these nationally broadcast games after connecting to a VPN server in the correct country, clear your cookies and cache and try again.
How to Get Around NBA Blackout Restrictions on Mobile
Getting around these blackout restrictions is a little bit trickier on mobile since your phone’s location and GPS will reveal your actual location. Because of this, many VPNs that work well on your browser won’t work well on your mobile device.
To get around this obstacle, you can use your phone’s Internet browser, foregoing the app, and turn off your location tracking on your device.
While there are other ways around this, like spoofing your mobile device’s GPS locations, this can be tricky and potentially be a security risk.
Currently, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Surfshark can all bypass the restrictions for League Pass on mobile apps.
Devices Compatible with League Pass
League Pass is currently compatible with:
Amazon Fire Stick and Fire TV
Apple TV
Android TV
Android tablets(5.0 and newer)/smartphones
iPad 10 or above
iPhone 10 or newer
Kindle Fire
PlayStation 3, 4, 5
Roku 3 or above
VR, like Oculus Go/Rift or Samsung Gear VR
Xbox series S/X or One
On top of these options, NBA League Pass (both live-streaming and on-demand) will also work on most devices that are connected to the Internet via a browser.
Can You Bypass NBA Blackout Restrictions without a VPN?
The only solution to bypassing NBA blackout restrictions without using a VPN is to access content with your active OTT or cable subscription.
Since these blacked-out games are exclusively aired by a regional or national TV network (like ABC, ESPN, or NBA TV) you will have to be a current subscriber to a service that provides access to one of these channels in order to gain entry without a VPN.
NBA Game Playoff Schedule for 2021-2022
The playoffs for the 2021-2022 season are due to commence on 4/16/22. The NBA Finals will commence before June 2, 2022, lasting no longer than June 19.
FAQs
You will be able to bypass any NBA League Pass blackouts by using a reputable VPN service, like ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN and the other top VPNs on our list refresh their IP addresses regularly, which lets them avoid these blacklists.
If you are using a mobile device for streaming, make sure to disable your phone’s location services so your GPS doesn’t give away your location. You can also use your browser extension to troubleshoot this issue and watch your game.
NordVPN will help NBA fans stream games with NBA League Pass. On top of helping fans access these streams, this VPN can also successfully unblock other blocked sites and services.
Africa — Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Libya
Asia — North Korea
Middle East — Iraq, Iran, Syria
North America — Cuba
Conclusion
If you are looking for the best NBA League Pass VPNs to help you bypass NBA blackouts any time, the VPNs on this list are the best out there.
Using our top choice, ExpressVPN, your traffic will be sent through an encrypted VPN tunnel, so you can watch your game anytime, anywhere, whether you are using NBA League Pass or NBA Team Pass.
While a free VPN is not a good choice, you can use ExpressVPN, or the other VPNs above, for 30 days with a money–back guarantee, so you can access your game for free for 30 days!
