Home VPN The best VPNs for Kayo Sports (May 2023)

The best VPNs for Kayo Sports (May 2023)

May 5, 2023

If you’re trying to watch Kayo Sports outside Australia, you’ll need a VPN. But not every VPN will work with the streaming service.

Recently Kayo has implemented stringent VPN blocking technology that can be very hard for most VPNs to get around.

It does this because someone using a VPN to access Kayo outside its broadcast zone – Australia – could result in the streaming service facing severe financial punishments for breaching copyright and licensing legislation.

Fortunately, there are some VPNs that manage to work reliably with Kayo Sports, so you can watch Kayo outside Australia.

We’ve tried and tested a number of VPNs with Kayo Sports and have come up with an expert list of what we think are the best VPNs for watching the streaming service outside Australia.

You can read below to see our list of the best VPNs for Kayo Sports.

How do we test VPNs?

We test VPNs over multiple criteria:

We test how secure the VPN is: We do this by running it through DNS leak tests. If the VPN has a DNS leak issue, it has an issue with its security, as internet service providers (ISPs) can still potentially see your online data. The best VPNs don’t come across these sorts of issues.
The number of servers: The best VPNs have thousands of servers around the world. The more servers, the better. Lesser VPNs, especially free VPNs, don’t have many servers meaning there’s less opportunity for you to surf the web anonymously.
Speed: We measure the speed of a VPN by doing speed tests for multiple servers worldwide. We then compare this to our base internet speed with a VPN turned off.
Compatibility with streaming services: A critical use case for VPNs is the ability to access geo-blocked streaming services. Unfortunately, these services try and prevent VPNs from accessing their platforms. The best VPNs have measures in place to get around these blocks. When testing a VPN, we try it with several geo-blocked streaming services. The best VPNs will allow you to watch all the leading streaming services worldwide.
Price: Based on our research, the average cost of the top 20 VPNs is $4.33/month. We use this as a comparison when looking for the best-value VPNs.
Devices: VPNs are usually compatible with more than one device simultaneously. Obviously, the more, the better.

What makes a good VPN for Kayo Sports?

The best VPNs for Kayo Sports need to meet four key criteria:

Speed: In order to watch Kayo Sports reliably with a VPN, the VPN needs to be fast. This means, ideally, it will have physical servers in Australia that produce faster speeds. If the VPN isn’t fast when you access Kayo Sports abroad, the streaming service will be slow, and you’ll come across buffering and stuttering issues.
Servers: The VPN needs to have servers all over the world. This ensures you can watch other streaming services, as well as Kayo Sports, no matter where you’re located. This adds a significant amount of value to your VPN. For Kayo Sports, the VPN needs to have multiple Australian servers that are reliable and accessible.
Security: The best VPNs for Kayo Sports need to be able to guarantee a 100% secure connection. This will make it more difficult for Kayo to figure out you’re using a VPN and block the connection. And as an added bonus, it will allow you to surf the internet completely anonymously.
Reliability: The most important feature the best VPNs for Kayo Sports need to have is they need to have measures in place to ensure they will work with the streaming service reliably. This means if an IP address provided by the VPN gets blocked by Kayo, they have measures in place to close that IP address and open a new unblocked one for you to use. If the VPN doesn’t do this, eventually, it will have all of its IP addresses blocked by Kayo, and it won’t work. This means you could waste money on a VPN that won’t allow you to watch all your favourite sports reliably.

The best VPNs for Kayo Sports

1. ExpressVPN 🥇

Why You Should Use ExpressVPN? It’s the fastest and MOST reliable VPN of 2022

Pros

✅ Fast servers
✅ Thousands of IP addresses
✅ 10-simultaneous connections
✅ 24/7 Live Chat
✅ Easy-to-use app
✅ 30-day money-back guarantee

Cons

❌ Expensive

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$6.66/month for 15 months
$9.99/month for 6 months
$12.95/month for 1 month

ExpressVPN ($6.66/month) is still the best VPN. And importantly, it ALWAYS has servers that are open with major streaming sites such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, etc.

ExpressVPN is usually very good at playing Cat and Mouse with online streaming sites. Meaning, whenever one of its servers is blacklisted it creates a new one – giving its users a constant stream of servers that aren’t blocked. Needless to say, this is a valuable attribute if you’re looking for a VPN to unblock streaming sites.

Its app is easy-to-use and free to download on pretty much any device you can think of. Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, FireStick, Android TV, Roku, PS4, Xbox, Linux, even Apple TV (with a workaround). It’s got it all covered.

The app is another main reason this VPN is so good at unblocking TV streaming sites (that claim they block VPNs) is that its software takes a pragmatic approach to user management. While other VPNs tempt customers by promising them access to hundreds/thousands of servers in multiple countries, ExpressVPN does things differently.

With ExpressVPN you only have a handful of server locations to choose from. Once you select your location the app takes care of the rest. Assigning you to the fastest available server that’s not oversubscribed. This simple technique is so important, as it keeps ExpressVPN’s servers operating at lightning-fast speeds and prevents its IPs from getting blacklisted for “abnormal” usage in the first place.

Check out our full ExpressVPN review.

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2. Private Internet Access 🥈

The BEST low-cost VPN for streaming!

Pros

✅ Fast and reliable servers
✅ Thousands of IP addresses
✅ 10-simultaneous connections
✅ 24/7 Live Chat
✅ 30-day money-back guarantee

Cons

❌ Only 48 server locations

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$2.03/month for 3 years
$7.50/month for 6 months
$11.99/month for 1 month

Private Internet Access is one of the leading no-log VPN services with over 1-million paying customers.

This VPN is one of the best in the industry at beating streaming sites’ VPN bans. It provides reliable connections with US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+ Amazon Prime Video, etc. It also allows 10 simultaneous devices to be connected to its servers at the same time, so you can share the account with your close friends.

If – for whatever reason – you’re not happy with Private Internet Access, there’s a 24/7 live chat support available to assist you with your problem. PIA also offers the industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee.

From my tests (from New Zealand) I was able to get download speeds of 70 Mbps while connected to a UK server using the Private Internet Access VPN (my non-VPN speed is 100 Mbps).

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3. NordVPN 🥉

A very quick and trustworthy VPN

Pros

✅ Fast servers
✅ No logs
✅ Thousands of IP addresses
✅ 6-simultaneous connections
✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
✅ Easy-to-use app

Cons

❌ No refunds for purchases from iTunes/App store

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$3.49/month for 2 years
$6.99/month for 1 year
$11.95/month for 1 month

NordVPN is the most widely-used VPN in the world. And it’s easy to see why. It’s a polished app that delivers fast connections (more on this later) to a massive network of VPN servers.

It’s the most reliable at unblocking popular streaming services too – US Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, etc. This is because NordVPN hired a full-time technical team (that’s responsible for monitoring its servers’ connections with popular TV streaming services) and has been aggressively investing in its network of IP addresses in key locations.

Another interesting thing to note is that NordVPN is an industry leader in its development of Nordlynx technology. Nordlynx is built using the WireGuard, a new VPN tunneling protocol designed to outperform current standards (OpenVPN and IPSec). The benefits, according to NordVPN, are dramatically faster transfer speeds while connected to a VPN. My tests – New Zealand to London – confirm that Nordlynx is currently the fastest VPN on the market. However, the difference isn’t dramatic, a few Mbps is all.

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4. Ivacy

A very quick and trustworthy VPN

Pros

✅ Fast servers
✅ Thousands of IP addresses
✅ Dedicated streaming servers
✅ 5-simultaneous connections
✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
✅ 24/7 Live Chat

Cons

❌ Only 5 devices
❌ Sometimes runs slow
❌ Occasionally block by streaming sites for several days

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$1.16/month for 5 years
$3.50/month for 1 year
$9.99/month for 1 month

If you’re looking for an excellent VPN, with an even better price tag, Ivacy ($1.16/month) is a great option.

This VPN has all the features you need to stream BBC iPlayer, in HD, from any country in the world. I’ve been testing the app recently on Mac, PC, Android, iOS and FireStick and the results have been impressive – unlocking BBC iPlayer, US Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, etc. with ease.

The Ivacy app is a little different in regards to its UX (user experience). Instead of just selecting a UK server, you need to select the specific BBC iPlayer server. Don’t worry, this isn’t a bad thing – by connecting to a dedicated BBC iPlayer server, it simply means that you’re connecting to an IP address that Ivacy knows works with BBC iPlayer.

For an extra $1.99/month (£1.74) you can add-on a dedicated IP. This will buy you sole access to an IP address in a country of your choice, meaning you won’t have to share your IP (and speeds) with any other use. I don’t recommend this though, using the regular Ivacy servers is enough 95 per cent of the time.

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5. CyberGhost

A very quick and trustworthy VPN

Pros

✅ 1-day free trial
✅ Reliable servers
✅ Thousands of IP addresses
✅ 7-simultaneous connections
✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
✅ Easy-to-use app

Cons

❌ Expensive
❌ Average speed scores

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$2.75/month for 3 years
$3.69/month for 2 years
$5.99/month for 1 year
$12.99/month for 1 month

CyberGhost is one of the more established VPNs on the market. It has a well-established, and well-tested global network of servers that perform well.

From my tests over the past several months, CyberGhost has no trouble at unblocking major streaming services – US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max etc. This VPN performed well at maintaining download speeds, well above 65 per cent of my regular (non VPN) ISP speed.

That said, there’s nothing really unique about the service. Which forces you to look at its price-point. And there’s nothing special here. Its short-term $12.99/month price tag puts is well above the industry average of $10.10/month. Similarly, its long-term $2.75/month for 3 years deal isn’t much of a “deal” either.

Oddly, CyberGhost’s most unique feature is its a 1-day, no obligations, free trial. This is an appealing offer to customers who are new to VPNs. However, it’s important to remember that most reputable VPNs will offer customers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so try not to be too seduced by the offer.

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Does Kayo Sports block VPNs?

Yes, Kayo Sports tries to block VPNs. The good news is it can’t block a VPN entirely. However, it can block the IP addresses a VPN provides.

It does this because if someone was able to watch Kayo Sports outside Australia with a VPN, it could result in the streaming service being in breach of the copyright and licensing agreements it has in place with its content partners. These sorts of breaches are often very serious and result in huge fines.

The way Kayo Sports blocks VPNs is all to do with the IP addresses the VPN provides. Usually, only a household of devices will connect to Kayo Sports via the same IP address. This is around 8 to 10 devices. But because VPNs have large numbers of customers, they often have to share IP addresses between them. Now there could be hundreds or even thousands of customers connecting to Kayo Sports via the same IP address.

Kayo Sports can see this and will deem it as an abnormal amount. It will then block that IP address and blacklist it so it can’t connect to Kayo Sports. Over time, if the VPN doesn’t have measures in place to prevent this from happening, all of its IP addresses will be blocked, and the VPN will no longer work with the streaming service.

Free VPNs are especially susceptible to these blocking techniques as they don’t have the finances to ensure they constantly refresh and update their available IP addresses.

Why do I need a VPN for Kayo Sports?

The main reason you need a VPN for Kayo Sports is so you can watch the streaming service anywhere in the world.

If you’re paying for Kayo Sports and you go outside of Australia, you won’t be able to access the streaming service. This means you’d be wasting money on a subscription that you can’t access.

The reason this is happening is because Kayo Sports only has the rights to broadcast its content in Australia. As soon as you leave the country, Kayo Sports can figure out you’re not in Australia and will block the connection.

A VPN allows you to watch Kayo Sports anywhere in the world by tricking the streaming service into thinking you’re still located in Australia. It does this by providing you with an Australian IP address.

Now when you’re outside Australia, and you connect to Kayo Sports, the streaming service will scan your IP address, think you’re in Australia, and you’ll be able to access all of its content.