The English Premier League, also known as EPL, is England’s professional league of football clubs. It was founded in 1992 as a split-off of the Football League First Division which was founded in 1888. This 20 team league exemplifies the cream of the crop in England. The cup has been sponsored by Barclay’s Bank for a number of years and is known officially as Barclays Premier League. For the 2016-2017 season, the games start on August 13th, and a total of 38 matches are played by each team until May when the season comes to an end. Unblock EPL games with Smart DNS.
If you live in the UK, you can watch the Premier League games live on Sky Sports or BT Sport. With the growing number of UK ex-pats, and dawning interest in the league, enjoying the games outside of the UK can be troublesome. In the US, NBC Live Extra offers streaming coverage if you have a cable or satellite subscription. However, with a good SmartDNS service, you do not have to miss watching your favorite F.C. march onward toward victory.
Despite 20 teams and 24 years of games, there have only been five teams to win the Cup since the split. Here are the teams in order of number of wins, with the top three being the most followed teams.
- Manchester United – 13 wins
- Chelsea – 4 wins
- Arsenal – 3 wins
- Manchester City – 2 wins
- Blackburn Rovers – 1 win
- Leicester City – 1 win
Clearly, Manchester United has been and is still a force to be reckoned with, having won the cup eight of the first ten years and is also one of the oldest F.C.s. Though the club has been considered to have a premiership since the 75-76 season, they have won a majority of their titles since the split. The club has not gone more than three seasons without winning the cup afterwards. With a dynasty like that, it is not hard to see why Man U. is always a tough opponent. The team with the second number of wins is Chelsea.
The Chelsea Football Club is located in west London and has also been a dominant force, though their premiership did not start until the 89-90 season. The first Cup victory in the new league for Chelsea came in the 2004-2005 season, a season after being bought by a Russian billionaire. Detractors of the team nicknamed it “Chelski” because of their buyer. Say what you want about Chelsea, it is hard to argue with success. The team’s arch rival is Arsenel.
Arsenal is one of the most highly decorated F.C.s in English football. It has enjoyed the longest premiership status in history, 95 years. Arsenal boasts of the third most followers on Twitter, and the #2 highest earning stadium. Since the split, they have won three different times, with the first cup win coming in 1997. The F.C. is internationally followed and loved.
Almost since the beginning of the league, it has been investigated for the behavior of restrictive business practices in regards to the broadcasting rights. In 2002, there were accusations of Sky TV being a cartel. All charges were investigated and the league as well as Sky TV was cleared of any wrong doing. That said, there are other ways of watching. There was a website called PremierLeaguePass that would allow you to see the games for a subscription fee. Unfortunately the streaming service is no longer being offered. When it was active, the catch was that the site was geo-blocked. Geo-blocking is a way of detecting where the viewer is, based on IP address. If you were in New Zealand, Taiwan, or the Philippines, you were in luck. If you were outside of those locations, the best way to access the matches was with a good SmartDNS service. The same method that we suggest for the current channels that offer EPL coverage.
A SmartDNS is able to unblock content by making the website you are trying to access believe you are somewhere else. In this case, you would want to connect to a SmartDNS server in one of those countries. We have some great recommendations for you.
Best Smart DNS to Watch Premier League Matches
You have a few Smart DNS services to choose from. When it comes to streaming live sporting events you want to make sure the company is reliable and ready to unblock the channels you plan to watch on the device you plan to stream them on. The last thing you want to do is get ready to watch a Premier League match and be disappointed. Visiting a site only to be greeted by a restricted access message is never fun but it’s especially annoying when you’re trying to watch your favorite team compete. Here are some services that are up to the task.
| Rank | Provider | Price | Rating | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | $3.54 28% Off | 9.9 Read Review |  |
| 2 |  | $4.16 17% Off | 9.8 Read Review | |
| 3 |  | $3.12 37% Off | 9.6 Read Review | |
The Smart DNS providers listed above offer free trials. The trials are open to all new members and do not require any payment information. The companies understand you need time to test their services. Just enter your email address and test out the services free of charge. The free trial will give you plenty of time to watch the beginning of the Premier League season and test other channels.
I enjoy using Unblock-Us for live events. The service is easy to set up and is quite reliable. They have a full list of channels along with supported devices. You can use the service on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, game console, media player and more. Unblock-Us was one of the first Smart DNS services to launch and has built up a great reputation. Unblock-Us is my favorite because it’s always worked. I haven’t had any hassles or complications with the service.
For those who want to add privacy protection I suggest OverPlay. They offer VPN access in addition to Smart DNS. You don’t need a VPN to unblock geographic restrictions. A VPN will work for that purpose but it’s more expensive and overkill if you just want to unblock geo restrictions. Some content providers like Hulu try to block VPN’s from accessing their sites. A VPN is a good choice for those who want an encrypted connection.
Don’t miss a minute of the action. Watch your favorite team compete in the 2016-2017 Premier League with Smart DNS. Watch on your tv, phone, tablet, game console or media player. Please share our post with your friends so they can enjoy the matches as well. Follow us @SmartDNSFan for the latest Smart DNS guides and deals.
