Optus Sport review

When Optus Sport first launched, telco-turned-part-time-sports-streamer Optus was laying down the gauntlet for a potential contender against the sports dominance of Foxtel. Early on, it nabbed the English Premier League, then the FIFA World Cup, and eventually even bits of cricket. On paper, it was great start.

But there was plenty of controversy to curb the potential of Optus Sport. These days, Optus Sport is primarily focused on soccer and it added an OS Fitness (the “+ Fitness” part of the name) component in 2020 for at-home workouts, assumedly to maintain interest in the service while real-world sports weren’t really a thing.

Let’s take a closer look at how Optus Sport fares in 2021.

The Optus Sport price is $24.99 a month, but there’s a free trial of sorts via the ‘Free Seat’ option for non-Optus customers (you still have to create an account). That said, Optus customers with the right mobile, NBN or data SIM plan get Optus Sport included as part of the price.

For Optus mobile customers, every plan above the $39-per-month Small Optus Choice plan includes Optus Sport + Fitness. Prepaid plans don’t include the service, but you can pay $5 to nab it per 28-day recharge. You can see the four Optus SIM Only plans that include Optus Sport + Fitness below.

While the name may be different, all forms of Optus Sport are technically “+Fitness” as they include the OS Fitness, whether you pay for it outright, add it as a Prepaid bolt-on, or have a relevant Optus SIM Only, data SIM or Optus NBN plan. You can see a round-up of these Optus NBN plans below.

If you want to pay for it as a standalone subscription, follow this Optus Sport link.

While both Optus Sport and Kayo are sports-streaming services, there’s not really much of a comparison here. Optus Sport is more like a Foxtel channel bolt-on than a dedicated sports streaming service because of its focus on soccer. Meanwhile, Kayo offers around 30 sports, including soccer (albeit not the leagues that Optus Sport has).

Without an eligible Optus plan that bundles Optus Sport, you’re looking at paying $24.99 per month for a single-stream service. Kayo Basic costs $27.50 a month for two simultaneous streams or you can pay $35 a month for three simultaneous streams. Kayo also has a 7-day trial (if you’re willing to put down a credit card) for either of those options whereas Optus Sport does not.

There’s only one sport you can stream on Optus Sport, and that sport is soccer, or football if that’s more your vernacular. Admittedly, if you’re a soccer fiend, there’s a lot to work with here, and the value is even better if you have an Optus plan that includes Optus Sport.

Here are the soccer leagues available on Optus Sport:

If this content is your jam, simply head to the category of interest and get going either with the carousel up the top or scroll for subcategories of content. Mercifully, content is categorised in meaningful ways: live and upcoming, full match replays, mini matches and highlights. For more content, keep scrolling to discover shows, shorts, mini classics, news, interviews, press conferences and other inclusions like Fantasy Premier League.

For those who prefer a more traditional TV viewing experience, there’s a running schedule of content on Optus Sport 1 and Optus Sport 2 channels under the Optus Sport TV section.

OS Fitness, or “+Fitness” as it’s referred to in the perks for Optus mobile plans, is a fitness addition for those with the space and interest in home workouts. New workouts are added regularly to keep things fresh (there were hundreds at the time of writing), and there’s a practical emphasis on zero-equipment cardio and bodyweight training. You may want to use an exercise mat, though, as these workouts range from around 10 minutes to upwards of 40 minutes, so things will get sweaty.

You can check out the latest content, or dive into any of the 13 content categories for OS Fitness:

There are dozens of hours of a variety of fitness exercises, which range from beginner-friendly to legitimately taxing workouts.

Optus Sport is supported on the following platforms:

• Mobile and tablet (iOS and Android)
• TV (Fetch box, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Chromecast)
• Computer (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge browsers)
• Gaming consoles (Xbox One S, Xbox One X)

While the browser experience is a bit overwhelming in how its wall of content is presented, the mobile apps are a better way to use Optus Sport. Just enter your Optus Sport login details and you’re ready to go.

There are simple fast-forward and rewind options via typical double-tap gestures, there’s a smattering of selected content, and you can explore or search for the rest of it if required. You can also cast from your phone or tablet to a compatible device. Tap a video then hit the settings cog to control playback speed (50%, normal, 150% or 200%).

While there’s no straightforward option for offline viewing of on-demand content, Fetch box owners can record Optus Sport + Fitness content for later viewing.

Quality of streams does vary between certain videos on the mobile app, but if you tap on the video, you can see the quality options (it tends to default to Auto) as well as the bandwidth that they use. The resolution maxes out at 720p, which tends to stream at 5.7Mbps. This means every hour of content streamed at 720p uses around 2.5GB of data.

Optus Sport isn’t unmetered, though, so you may want to adjust quality settings depending on how big your data cap is. If you’re worried you don’t have enough monthly data to take full advantage of Optus Sport, the SIM Only plans below have at least 100GB of data and are organised by popularity.

If you’re an international soccer aficionado and not an Optus customer, you will likely find value in the subscription cost, even if it feels steep stacked next to other streaming services. For existing Optus customers, soccer fans should absolutely install the app and it’s worth a look for the home fitness videos if you’re keen to avoid going outside or the gym. For everyone else, though, Optus Sport is a pricey streaming service that’s incredibly niche and, therefore, tricky to recommend to anyone other than those who already have access to it or those who are soccer mad.