Saudi Pro League: How to watch on TV or live stream

 After Cristiano Ronaldo previously made the switch to Al-Nassr, more and more players are packing their football bags to leave for the Saudi Pro League.

The previously relatively unknown football league in Saudi Arabia hopes to compete with European leagues such as La Liga, Premier League, and Bundesliga by bringing in big football stars.

Benzema, N’Golo Kante, and Ruben Neves also take the plunge and take the plane to the Middle East.

As a result, the Saudi Pro League continues to grow in popularity, which makes many punters wonder where they can bet on Saudi league matches as non GamStop sports betting sites and offshore bookmakers don’t cover the Saudi league deeply.

What is the Saudi Pro League?

The Saudi Pro League, also known as the Saudi Professional League, is the highest level of football in Saudi Arabia. Although many people have only recently discovered the competition at non GamStop bookmakers, it has been around since 1976.

From the first season until 1989/90, every team played against each other. However, the Saudi Federation decided to merge the football competition with the King’s Cup and also add the Golden Box.

The King’s Cup is a knockout competition played until 1990 and reintroduced in 2007 under the name King’s Cup of Champions. It is also known as The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques League Cup.

The battle for the cup was played only by the top 6 teams from the Saudi Pro League and the winners of the Crown Prince’s Cup and the Federation Cup. Seven years later, in 2014, the tournament returned to its old format.

A first place earned a club 5,500,000 Saudi Riyals, which is more than 1.3 million euros. Runner-ups were rewarded with almost one million euros.

The Golden Box was also added. This would also be a knockout competition played at the end of the season between the top four teams from the current Saudi Pro League. The teams would play each other in the semifinals to crown the champions of Saudi Arabia.

However, the old format as we know it now returned in the 2007/08 season. Just as teams in the Premier League can earn tickets for the Champions League, the national champions and runners-up qualify for the group stage of the AFC Champions League.

The third place has to make do with the preliminary rounds before they conquer a place in the international football tournament for clubs from Asia and Australia.

Teams of the Saudi Pro League

In previous seasons, 16 teams competed for the national title. However, on April 14, 2022, the organization announced that the number of clubs will be expanded by two teams next season (2023/24).

This means that there are now 18 teams in the running for the national championship. The change benefited the bottom clubs in the overall standings as it meant only two teams had to be relegated from the league instead of three.

The news also came at the right time for the teams from the lower football division, because now four teams could be promoted from the Saudi First Division League to the highest level of football.

For example, Al-Ahli, Al-Okhdood, Al-Riyadh, and Al-Hazem flow through and Al-Batin and Al-Adalah are relegated in the 2023/24 season. Al-Hilal is the club with the most national titles to its name.

Where Can I Watch All Saudi Pro League Matches on TV & Online?

The two major streaming services Viaplay and Ziggo Sport both own the rights to broadcast foreign football competitions in Europe. For example, since last year, fans can watch the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga, and the female Serie A live at Viaplay.

Viewers can, however, go to Ziggo Sport for, among other things, the Spanish La Liga and matches from the Champions League. The MLS can also be seen via the Apple TV app. Although these streaming giants broadcast many football leagues, the matches from the Saudi Pro League cannot be seen here.

Now we hear you thinking: “But where can I watch all matches from the Saudi Pro League?” Unfortunately, at the time of writing, no streaming service holds the broadcasting rights to the highest level of football in Saudi Arabia.

The rights of the Saudi Pro League are, among others, with ESPN in the United States, Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, SportItalia in Italy, Sport TV in Portugal, L’Equipe in France, and SSC in the Middle East.

But where there is a will, there is a way, because there is a solution that allows you to watch all matches from this football League.

This way you can watch all matches from the competition via a VPN. It is important to use a good VPN for this. It’s very simple: a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an anonymous internet connection that ensures that your privacy is guaranteed.

You can use this to set which location signal your device emits and thus set your VPN to a different country. The relevant website you visit will then think you are in that country and you can simply access streams that you may not be able to watch from abroad.

Players Who Also Made the Switch to the Saudi Pro League

But it doesn’t stop there, because after Ronaldo there were many players who decided to make the switch to the Saudi Pro League. For example, it was a big surprise when Karim Benzema, former striker of Real Madrid, packed his things this summer to leave for the Al-Ittihad club. Most people thought that the pro would stay with Los Blancos for another year. N’Golo Kante also made the switch to the same club as his teammate at Les Blues. In July he decided to leave Chelsea on a free transfer.

Ruben Neves decided to continue his football career at Al-Hilal. The Portuguese’s contract with the English club Wolverhampton ran until 2024 so many major European clubs have already shown interest in the midfielder. For example, FC Barcelona was often linked to the professional, but the club from Saudi Arabia ran off with the player. Kalidou Koulibaly also joins the same team. The footballer only played a year at Chelsea but did not have the best time of his career there due to injuries. The defender has received an amount of 23 million euros for his transfer.