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The 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off tonight, with host nation Russia tackling Saudi Arabia. This is The Roar’s guide to live streaming the World Cup opener or watching it on TV.
Taking place at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, the first match of the tournament is scheduled to kick-off at 1am (AEST) (6:00pm local time) on the morning of Friday, June 15.
This will be the first instance in World Cup history that the host nation is the lowest ranked country at the tournament, while it will also be the first time that the tournament’s two lowest-ranked nations have clashed in the first game.
Unlike previous years, SBS no longer have the rights to broadcast all World Cup matches live. Instead, they now only broadcast a limited range.
Fortunately, however, this match is one of the 25 games they will be broadcasting.
Their World Cup coverage actually begins at 10:30pm (AEST) on Thursday, June 14, with a 90-minute long preview show of the tournament in general.
Their pre-game coverage of the actual Russia vs Saudi Arabia game begins at 12 midnight, before the match itself kicks off at 1am.
If you’d prefer to stream the match online, you’ll have two options available to you.
SBS will be streaming all of the matches they have the TV rights to on their The World Game website and app.
You can download the app via the official app store of your device’s operating system.
The only place to catch every World Cup match live, however, is the Optus Sport app.
If you’re an existing Optus mobile or broadband customer, you can access this app for free whereas non-Optus customers will need to pay a $15-per-month subscription fee.
Optus Sport will have their own pre-game and post-game coverage for every match on the app, while they will also have full match replays available on demand as well.
The Roar will, of course, be covering the match too with a live blog and highlights.
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