Two ways, both on the phone in your hand. Option A is free and already built into iOS. Option B is Paused, if you'd rather it happen automatically and be harder to tap past.
No download, no subscription. Apple's own App Limits can block Action Network specifically, and Downtime can switch it off by time of day.
Turn Screen Time on. Open Settings → Screen Time. First time? Tap Turn On Screen Time, choose "This is My iPhone", and set a Screen Time passcode — pick four digits you won't type on reflex at 11pm.
Add an App Limit. Still in Screen Time, tap App Limits → Add Limit.
Select Action Network. Apple sorts your apps into broad buckets and Action Network sits with the Entertainment apps. Tap the arrow beside Entertainment to expand it and tick Action Network only — or just type "Action Network" into the search field at the top, which is faster. Tap Next.
Set the allowance. Choose how long Action Network gets each day. 30 minutes is a soft cap; 1 minute is effectively off. Tap Customize Days if weekends should be different, then tap Add.
Turn on Block at End of Limit. Reopen the limit you just made and switch on Block at End of Limit. Without it, the "Ignore Limit" button hands the whole evening straight back to Action Network.
Add Downtime for a time-of-day block. A daily budget isn't the same as "off after 10pm". For that, go back to Screen Time → Downtime → Scheduled and set the window (10pm–7am is the classic), then check that Action Network is not listed under Always Allowed. During Downtime it's blocked outright — there's no allowance left to burn.
The honest catch: it works, but it's four screens deep in Settings, the limit resets its own way, and if you know the passcode you can undo it in about six seconds. That's why so many people set an App Limit once and never think about it again.
Automatic · one tap
Option B — block Action Network with Paused
Same Apple blocking engine underneath, built for the one job: getting Action Network out of your evening without you having to decide again every night.
Create a Block Schedule. Open Paused and create a Block Schedule — that's the recurring, automatic kind.
Pick Action Network. Choose Action Network from your installed apps. While you're in there, add the rest of your sports time-sinks too — 365Scores, talkSPORT, TNT Sports — because Action Network is almost never the only one.
Choose the window. Set the days and hours: 10pm–7am so the night is yours, 9–5 for work, or 7–9pm so dinner and the evening stay phone-free.
Save it and forget it. That's the whole setup. From then on Action Network turns itself off when the window starts and comes back on when it ends — no willpower, no remembering.
Use a Focus session when you need Action Network gone right now. One tap starts a Focus session: pick a length — 25 minutes, two hours, until dinner is over — and Action Network stays locked until the timer runs out.
Let the streak do the rest. Every day you keep the block stacks your streak. That's the part that keeps this working in week three, once the novelty of a fresh limit has worn off.
What it can see: nothing. Paused blocks through Apple's Screen Time (Family Controls) framework, so it can stop Action Network from opening without reading your messages, your browsing, or anything you do inside the app. Your usage stays on your device.
How to get Action Network off your Lock Screen or the top of your iPhone screen
A score, an order tracker or a countdown that stays pinned to your Lock Screen — or sits in the Dynamic Island at the top of the screen on newer iPhones — is a Live Activity. It's controlled by Apple's switches below, for free, and blocking Action Network is a different job.
Clear the one that's showing. On the Lock Screen, swipe left on the Action Network Live Activity and tap Clear. It stays gone until Action Network starts a new one (the next game, order or countdown).
Stop Action Network starting them. Open Settings → Action Network (on iOS 18 and later: Settings → Apps → Action Network) and turn off Live Activities. That also keeps it out of the Dynamic Island, which has no Clear button of its own.
Or keep every Live Activity off the Lock Screen. Settings → Face ID & Passcode → under Allow Access When Locked, turn off Live Activities.
No Live Activities switch? Then Action Network isn't using one. If it's a notification, go to Settings → Notifications → Action Network and untick Lock Screen or turn off Allow Notifications. If audio or video is still playing, it's the Now Playing player — stop playback in Action Network and it disappears.
Why Action Network is hard to put down
Live odds, picks and bet tracking during every game, so watching becomes refreshing numbers.
Which is the point worth sitting with: you're not weak, you're up against a team of people whose job is the next tap. That's also why "I'll just be more disciplined" keeps failing and a dumb, boring wall — Action Network simply doesn't open between 10pm and 7am — keeps working. Put the decision somewhere your 11pm self can't reach it.
And block the neighbours while you're there. Closing Action Network and landing on the next sports app in the same second is the most common way this falls apart — so block the cluster (365Scores, talkSPORT, TNT Sports), not the single worst offender.
