The same app can cost wildly different money depending on which country your account thinks you live in: full price in one place, a fraction of it in another. That quirk is what makes the basketball subscription NBA League Pass one of the more rewarding buys for fans who pay attention. Watching the service from anywhere has a second twist, too: inside North America your home team gets blacked out, but step outside the US and Canada and those blackouts vanish, unlocking close to every regular-season game live.
The catch is that the NBA reads the country you connect from and tailors both the catalog and the price to match. When you travel, or simply want the rate from a cheaper region, ExpressVPN does the heavy lifting: pick a server in the target country, open the app, and the service behaves as if you never left. You still pay for the plan yourself; the VPN only shifts your virtual location. Streams run up to 1080p across web, mobile, and smart TVs.
NBA League Pass actively blocks VPNs. Only certain providers reliably bypass the detection.
| VPN Service | Price | NBA League Pass | Tested | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 ExpressVPNBEST | From $2.79/mo | ✓ Works | July 5 | Try it |
 NordVPN | From $2.99/mo | ✓ Works | July 4 | Open |
 Surfshark | From $1.78/mo | ✓ Works | July 6 | Open |
 ProtonVPN | From $3.59/mo | ~ Partial | July 2 | Open |
 Private Internet Access | From $1.79/mo | ~ Partial | July 5 | Open |
 CyberGhost | From $1.75/mo | ~ Partial | July 3 | Open |
 IPVanish | From $2.19/mo | ~ Partial | July 2 | Open |
✓ Works✓ Works✓ Works~ Partial~ Partial~ Partial~ PartialTakes about 2 minutes. Works on your phone, tablet, TV, PC, or laptop.
NBA League Pass is available in 182 countries, including in the United Kingdom, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Ireland and in Germany. It is blocked in only 9 countries.
NBA League Pass works without a VPN in the United Kingdom, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Ireland, in Germany, in France and in Japan, plus in 175 more countries.
NBA League Pass also works in the United States, in Canada and in China, but with limited content compared to fully available countries. ExpressVPN unlocks full access.
NBA League Pass is blocked in Afghanistan, in Belarus, in the British Virgin Islands, in Cuba and in Iran, plus in 4 more countries. To access it, use a premium VPN like ExpressVPN.
NBA League Pass is the league’s official streaming bundle. It carries live out-of-market regular-season games, condensed and full replays, a Playoffs archive and the NBA TV channel. Available in 182 countries, it comes in two tiers: Standard and Premium, the latter ad-free with up to three simultaneous streams. Nationally televised US games are subject to local blackouts, so not every matchup is watchable from every region.
5 tips from our NBA League Pass testing team · Updated June 22, 2026
Not the right fit? Here are services in the same category you can compare.
Everything you need to know before subscribing to NBA League Pass.
ExpressVPN lets you switch country and stream the live broadcasts NBA League Pass carries in other regions. Risk-free 30-day money-back.
Part of the National Basketball Association family.
Try ExpressVPN
