How to watch 2026 Betfred Super League: TV channel & more

Jonathan Victoria • 10 Feb 2026 Guides

A competitive start to the new campaign.

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How to watch 2026 Betfred Super League: TV channel & more

Five weeks down and the newly-expanded Betfred Super League is proving to be rather competitive for the 2025/26 season.

With the reigning champions trundling out the gates and the two new sides settling in firmly, there's plenty to enjoy at the moment.

There's still lots of rugby to be played, though, so you won't want to miss a moment of the action.

How to watch the 2026 Betfred Super League on TV

While you can watch the Betfred Super League via their own dedicated streaming platform, known as SuperLeague+, there are other avenues which you can use to catch the regular season, playoffs and Grand Final live.

Sky Sports and BBC Sport both announced deals this year to share broadcasting rights for this year, with the former in particular representing a major deal for the league.

Betfred Super League on Sky Sports

Sky Sports and the Super League agreed to a new deal prior to the 2024 campaign, extending their partnership beyond 30 years.

However, this new deal represented Sky’s ongoing passion for showcasing the top rugby league in England by showing all six matches of each round during the regular season live - totalling 170 games each year across Sky Sports channels and platforms.

This also extended to all special event rounds, such as Magic WKND fixtures, as well as the playoffs and all three Grand Finals (Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair).

In addition to live action, Betfred Super League fans can also tune into Sky Sports’ range of supporting programming, such as interviews and features with players and coaches and the latest news around the league. This can be found on the Sky Sports channels on TV, on social media or on SkySports.com.

If you’re a rugby league fan interested in watching the remainder of this year’s playoffs as well as as much action as you’d like for next season, be sure to get yourself sorted with a Sky Sports deal now.

If you’re already a Sky TV customer, you can get Sky Sports added to your existing package, with options of a 31-day rolling contract or a standard 24-month contract available to you.

Betfred Super League on BBC Sport

Shortly before the start of the 2024 season, BBC Sport announced a three-year deal that saw them supplant Channel 4 as the league’s free-to-air partner.

The broadcaster committed to showing several games of the regular season plus playoff matches during their initial three year deal. These games will be free to watch live on one of BBC’s TV channels (likely BBC Two), as well as on BBC iPlayer.

2026 Betfred Super League: Teams

Credit: League Hits Different | 2026 Betfred Super League (Super League, YouTube)

2026 will see a big change in the number of teams competing. A league expansion has come about, bringing in two new sides to take the total number of teams in the league to 14.

The two new teams that have entered the Super League for the 2026 season are York Knights and Toulouse Olympique, the latter of which being based in Toulouse, France, making them the second team in the league not based in the UK.

It wasn’t a random choice to include these two as part of the expansion. Both finished first and second in the RFL Championship, with York coming out on top and thus winning the League Leaders’ Shield. However, Toulouse got revenge by beating York in the RFL Championship Grand Final.

There is one other change in teams as Salford Red Devils have dropped down into the RFL Championship, following a disappointing 2025 campaign that saw them finish last in the table, although they had faced financial difficulties throughout.

The Red Devils ultimately didn’t apply to join the Super League once more, and are instead replaced by RFL Championship semi-finalists Bradford Bulls.

Here is the full team list for the 2026 Super League season:

Bradford Bulls
Castleford Tigers
Catalans Dragons (Perpignan, France)
Huddersfield Giants
Hull FC
Hull Kingston Rovers/Hull KR
Leeds Rhinos
Leigh Leopards
St Helens
Toulouse Olympique (Toulouse, France)
Wakefield Trinity
Warrington Wolves
Wigan Warriors
York Knights

2026 Betfred Super League: Dates

The 2026 Betfred Super League season began on Thursday 12th February, with the first game of the new season being contested between the defending champions Hull KR visiting the newly promoted York Knights.

Along with the expansion of the league, talks of a shorter 26 round regular season and four weeks of playoffs were proposed. In the end, the original system was retained, with 27 rounds of the regular season followed by the three weeks of playoffs.

Round 27 will see all matches played simultaneously. This will conclude the regular season on Friday 11th September.

In between that time, there will be several ‘special’ rounds. Fan favourites Magic WKND and Rivals Round both will be making their returns, as will a trip to Las Vegas for two lucky sides.

Super League in Las Vegas (Round Three)

Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas will once again play host to one regular season game, with the reigning treble-winning Hull KR taking on Leeds Rhinos on Saturday 28th February.

30th Birthday Foundation Fixtures (Round Six)

In Round 6, the league will celebrate its 30th birthday, commemorating the occasion in style with two foundation fixtures that first featured during the opening round of the first Super League season back in 1996.

The first fixture will see Castleford Tigers facing Bradford Bulls on Thursday 26th March. The second will come on Sunday 29th March, with Leeds Rhinos taking on Warrington Wolves.

Rivals Round (Round Seven)

As per usual, the most competitive weekend of the season, Rivals Round, will be coming during the Easter Weekend (3rd-5th April), which will be Round 8 of the season.

The matchups for Rivals Round are as followed:

Friday 3rd April

Hull KR vs Hull FC
St Helens vs Wigan Warriors
Bradford Bulls vs Leeds Rhinos

Saturday 4th April

Huddersfield Giants vs York Knights
Warrington Wolves vs Leigh Leopards
Toulouse Olympique vs Catalans Dragons

Sunday 5th April

Castleford Tigers vs Wakefield Trinity

Magic WKND (Round 17)

Credit: Magic WKND at Everton (Super League, YouTube)

Magic WKND returns to its spot around the middle of the season, coming during Round 17 on 4th & 5th July.

What won’t be returning, though, is a trip to Newcastle’s St James’ Park, as this year’s Magic WKND will be hosted at the new world-class home of Everton FC, Hill Dickinson Stadium.

As usual, there will be three games played on both days of the weekend. However, with seven games played during each round now, the fixture of Catalans Dragons vs Toulouse Olympique is TBC.

Here are the matchups for Magic WKND:

Saturday 4th July

Game 1 - Huddersfield Giants vs York Knights
Game 2 - Hull KR vs Hull FC
Game 3 - Leigh Leopards vs Warrington Wolves

Sunday 5th July

Game 1 - Wakefield Trinity vs Castleford Tigers
Game 2 - Leeds Rhinos vs Bradford Bulls
Game 3 - Wigan Warriors vs St Helens

Rivals Round Returns (Round 20)

Rivals Round part two for Round 20 as the fixtures are reversed. The same matchups, only with the away teams in Round Seven now getting the pleasure of hosting their biggest foe.

Thursday 23rd July

Hull FC vs Hull KR

Friday 24th July

Wigan Warriors vs St Helens
Wakefield Trinity vs Castleford Tigers

Saturday 25th July

York Knights vs Huddersfield Giants
Leigh Leopards vs Warrington Wolves
Toulouse Olympique vs Catalans Dragons

Sunday 26th July

Leeds Rhinos vs Bradford Bulls

Regular Season finale

The final round of the regular season will come on Friday 11th September, with all games kicking off at the same time of 8pm.

The matches for the regular season-ending Round 27 are:

Huddersfield Giants vs Castleford Tigers
Leeds Rhinos vs Hull FC
Leigh Leopards vs Wakefield Trinity
Warrington Wolves vs Toulouse Olympique
York Knights vs Bradford Bulls
St Helens vs Hull KR
Wigan Warriors vs Catalans Dragons

Challenge Cup Final

The 2026 Challenge Cup is underway, having started with the first round in January. 13 of the 14 Super League teams got their campaign underway during the third round, with them all coming away still in the competition.

The Challenge Cup Final will take place at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 30th May.

2026 Betfred Super League: Table

Place	Team	Wins	Draws	Losses	Points Difference (score)	Points
1	Leeds Rhinos	9	0	3	224	18
2	Warrington Wolves*	9	0	2	180	18
3	St Helens	9	0	3	38	18
4	Hull KR*	8	0	3	215	16
5	Wakefield Trinity	8	0	4	111	16
6	Wigan Warriors	7	0	5	44	14
7	Leigh Leopards	6	0	6	-16	12
8	Catalans Dragons	6	0	6	-94	12
9	Castleford Tigers	5	0	7	-150	10
10	Hull FC	4	0	8	-48	8
11	Bradford Bulls	4	0	8	-105	8
12	York Knights	3	0	9	-103	6
13	Toulouse Olympique	3	0	9	-114	6
14	Huddersfield Giants	2	0	10	-182	4

*Hull KR and Warrington Wolves have played one game less due to their week 2 matchup being postponed.

We will attempt to keep this table updated after each matchweek throughout the season.

2026 Betfred Super League: Playoffs

As always, the regular season will be followed by the playoffs, where the top six sides in the table will go through to the post-season and battle it out to be crowned champion in the Grand Final.

The format remains the same, with the top two teams in the league receiving a bye week in the first weekend of the playoffs, while the remaining four teams will play in the Eliminators.

The playoffs are a single-tie elimination game, so every team will want to be at their best on their day.

Eliminators

The Eliminators is the first round of the playoffs, where the teams who finish 3rd-6th will get the chance to advance to the semi-finals. The games will be decided with third place playing sixth place, and fourth playing fifth.

For the 2026 season, the Eliminators will take place on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th September.

Semi-finals

The winners of the two Eliminators games will go through to the semi-finals, where they will meet the two teams who finished first and second in the league. First will play the lowest-placed Eliminator winner, while second will play the highest-placed Eliminator winner.

The semi-finals will take place on the Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th September.

2026 Betfred Super League: Grand Final

After 27 rounds plus two rounds of the playoffs, two teams will be left to battle it out in the Grand Final.

Taking place at Old Trafford in Manchester on Saturday 3rd October, the Grand Final will crown the champion of the 2026 season.

2026 Betfred Super League: Rule changes

There are several new rules changes being introduced for the 2026 season, including systems that some feel are long overdue for the league.

Shot clock for kicks

A 60-second shot clock will be used for conversion and penalty kicks, starting when a try is confirmed. If the kicking process is disrupted (e.g., ball falls off the tee), the clock stops and isn’t restarted.

Overseas quotas & dual registration

The overseas player quota increases from 7 to 10 players per club. The previous dual-registration system is scrapped and replaced with one-week loans to partner clubs to give reserve players more match time.

Video referee/live review

Traditional stop-the-clock video referee try referrals are replaced with a ‘live review’ system (like the NRL): reviews must be completed within 80 seconds before the game clock is stopped, and if a try is overturned the clock resets to when the whistle was blown.