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A live stream turns a Sunday club game into something the players' families can watch from another city, with a real scoreboard sitting in the corner of the screen. Skipper does the broadcast part for you. The score, the wickets, the over summaries, all of it appears on the video automatically, pulled straight from the match you are scoring.

Here is how to go live, who is allowed to, and what to do if the stream button is not yet yours to press.

Where the Stream Button Lives

Open the live match screen and look for the banner: "Roll camera. Stream this match live on YouTube." You can go live across the whole arc of a game now. From before the first ball, with the match still at the toss, through the innings, and for a short window after the result so you can carry the presentation and the trophy lift. A match that is about to start and one that wrapped up in the last few hours can both be put on air.

Who Can Stream

Streaming is open to the people running the match, not to anyone who happens to be watching. You can stream if you are:

• the person who created the match,
• the scorer, or anyone added to the scorer list,
• a tournament Owner, Admin, or Scorer (for tournament matches), or
• a Skipper admin.

Being a player in one of the teams does not, on its own, give you streaming access. That trips people up, so it is worth knowing in advance.

If You Don't Have Access Yet

Tap the banner without access and Skipper shows you the Stream Access screen, which lays out every way in and gives you a shortcut where one exists:

• Ask the scorer to add you. This opens the scorer list so you can message whoever is scoring and have them add you in seconds.
• Join one of the teams.
• Request Skipper Cricket access (more on this below).
• Ask a tournament admin, with their contact shown if it is a tournament match.

Once someone has sorted you out, tap Check access again at the bottom and the screen refreshes. No need to restart anything.

Ways to Stream

When you do have access, Skipper asks how you want to stream. There are three answers.

From this device. Your phone is the camera. It films, adds the overlay, and sends the broadcast to YouTube, all from the device in your hand. This is what most people use.

Record on device. The same camera and scoreboard, saved as a video on your phone instead of going out live. Handy when the signal at the ground will not hold a stream, or when you just want the recording to share afterwards.

Professional. For setups with a real camera and software like OBS, vMix, Wirecast, or Prism Live Studio. Skipper gives you a browser-source overlay URL to drop into that software, so the scoreboard rides on top of your own production. The overlay is always available, even if you never stream from the phone.

The rest of this guide follows the phone path, since that is the one most clubs reach for.

Setting Up a Phone Stream

The config screen asks for a few things:

• Stream title, which defaults to something sensible and is yours to change.
• Camera position, a short label like "Bowler's End" or "Square Leg" so viewers know the angle.
• Stream channel, the one real decision here, covered next.
• Network quality, set to match your connection. Better connections get lower latency.

Tap Start Preview and the camera opens in landscape. Nothing is live yet. The big red GO LIVE button is what actually starts the broadcast.

Choosing a Channel: Skipper's or Your Own

This is the part the question "request access or custom account" is really about. You can stream to two different places.

Your own YouTube channel

This is the custom-account route, and it is open to everyone. The first time, Skipper sends you to a quick connect step that signs you into YouTube and links your account. After that you control the lot, the title, whether the video is unlisted, public, or private, and whether it can be embedded so viewers watch right inside the Skipper app.

One YouTube requirement to know about: live streaming has to be switched on for your channel, which YouTube does after you verify your phone number, and it can take up to 24 hours the first time. Do this a day ahead if you can. If it is not ready, Skipper shows you the steps.

The Skipper Cricket channel

You can also stream onto Skipper's own YouTube channel, which puts your match alongside others under one banner. Because it is a shared, branded channel, it needs approval. Tap Request, tell us briefly what you are streaming, and the request goes to our team for review. Your status moves from requested to approved (or, occasionally, declined with a reason). Once you are approved, the Skipper Cricket option becomes selectable. Streams there always go out unlisted, and the title is branded automatically.

While You're Live

Once you tap GO LIVE, a small set of controls sits along the edge of the screen:

• Pause and resume for drinks breaks and rain.
• Zoom, focus, and exposure, pinch or tap the preview to adjust.
• Mute and front/back camera.
• Overlay theme and text size, so the scoreboard suits your screen.
• Share, which hands you the YouTube watch link to send to the group.
• Reset to nudge a stuttering connection back to life, and End to finish.

You can pick between 720p and 1080p. If your connection is shaky, 720p holds up better. A stable Wi-Fi connection is the difference between a smooth broadcast and a frozen one, especially at 1080p.

What the Overlay Shows

The scoreboard is not a static graphic, and it now carries the whole broadcast, from the build-up to the celebrations.

Before the first ball. The overlay opens with a proper pre-match show. A squad card runs through each side's eleven with the players' photos, the captain and the wicket-keeper marked, and a toss card flips the coin and tells viewers who chose to do what. Your team badges sit in the corners, and in a tournament the competition's logo rides alongside them, so the broadcast looks like it belongs to the event.

During play. Wickets, fours, and sixes pop up as cards, and the current batters and bowler keep their figures on screen. Between overs a fully redesigned end-of-over card drops in with the runs and wickets from the over across the top, then the whole picture underneath: the full batting card with the two not-out batters picked out, the extras and the fall of wickets, and every bowler's figures and economy. It is a proper scorecard on the broadcast, not just a line of numbers. You can also tap to bring up extras on demand, a scorecard snapshot, the partnership, the run rate, or the match info.

After the result. The broadcast no longer cuts out the moment the match ends. A result band holds the score and the winner on screen while you keep filming the presentation, the handshakes, and the trophy. You end it when you are ready, not the instant the last wicket falls. And if the overlay ever freezes mid-broadcast, it now rights itself instead of dropping the stream.

None of it needs a second operator. It all runs off the same scoring you are already doing.

Dressing It Up: Themes and Text Size

The Overlay theme and text size control, one of the buttons along the edge while you are live, is where you decide how the scoreboard looks. It works in two steps. First you pick a style:

• Showcase fills the screen with the cards, the squad sheet, the wicket, the end-of-over scorecard, given room to breathe. It is the default, and it suits a stream people are sitting down to watch.
• Broadcast tucks a compact block into the bottom corner and leaves the middle of the picture clear, closer to a television score bar. Handy when the cricket should stay front and centre.

Then you pick a colour scheme, from the Skipper charcoal and lime through to slate, midnight, carbon, and crimson, so it can carry your club's colours or just suit the light you are filming in. Text size has three steps, from large up to extra large, so the numbers stay readable whether people are watching on a phone or casting to a television.

If you are on the Professional path with OBS or vMix, there is a wider set of full-width, TV-style scorebars to choose from, and you can switch theme while you are on air without restarting the stream. The overlay updates itself live.

Before the Toss: A Quick Checklist

• Give Skipper camera and microphone permission.
• If you are using your own channel, confirm live streaming is enabled the day before.
• If you want the Skipper channel, send the access request early so approval has time to land.
• Find stable Wi-Fi or a strong signal, and prop the phone where it will not get bumped.

Get those sorted and going live is two taps: Start Preview, then GO LIVE. The first stream feels like a big deal. By the third, you will be setting it up during the warm-up without thinking about it.