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The excitement of live sports isn't just in the action but also in how sporting events are presented. Professional-looking streams enhance the experience with engaging content that also creates a polished atmosphere. Sports overlays, in particular, play a key role in this. But how do you know which to choose?
In this article, we’ll cover the questions to ask and what to look for when you’re choosing sports overlays so you can create professional-quality streams for your viewers.
Before you choose an overlay provider for your sports streams, you’ll want to ask some questions.
Let’s look at each question in detail so you don’t start your next stream only to discover your overlays are missing a key feature.
The most important overlays in any sports streamer’s toolkit are scoreboards, or score bugs. They need to contain the scoring and timing rules for the sport you want to stream. For example, if you want to stream Gaelic games and an overlay provider doesn’t have any scoreboards for it, then their other overlays won’t matter much.
Of course, sports overlays aren’t limited to score bugs. To produce a quality stream, you’ll also need overlays for every stage of your stream, from countdown timers before the action starts to match stat overlays that reinforce highlights in your post-game wrap-up. Overlays to look for include:
Easy integration with OBSOn the technical side, you’ll want to make sure you can easily upload your overlays to streaming platforms like OBS (Open Broadcaster Software). Will you need to manually put each overlay into OBS, or can you drag over the URLs of a few overlay packs and be up and running in seconds? Look for how to add overlays to OBS on each overlay provider’s site and compare the process. If adding overlays to OBS is easy, you can concentrate more on customizing your overlays and updating content in real time during the game.
Customization is also important to help differentiate your sports streaming brand. You’ll want to make sure that you can customize:
Finally, you need to be able to update your overlays in real time. This includes everything from starting and stopping the clock and updating the score to lineup changes to displaying talking points during pre- or post-game discussions and even fixing typos.
After considering these questions, you'll be well-equipped to choose the perfect sports overlays and take your streams to professional heights. Want to check out what uno has to offer? Head over to our overlays library. You’ll find overlays for more than 30 sports from Australian football to wrestling.
