Although most of the world’s major sporting events and leagues can be streamed legally in the UK, the associated subscriptions usually come at a high cost to the customer. Therefore it’s no surprise that illegal sports streaming is incredibly popular, particularly through sites that offer free access to the Premier League and other sports that require a Sky Sports subscription to watch legally in the UK.
That’s why international authorities and broadcasters are fighting back against illegal streaming. On Wednesday, one of the most popular free streaming services in the world, Streameast, was shut down. It’s a service so popular that even NBA star LeBron James was once snapped watching a Streameast stream courtside.
The action was announced by the antipiracy group Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which said it had successfully helped to close down 80 Streameast domains that drove 1.6 billion visits in the last year. This made it “the largest illicit live sports streaming operation in the world”, according to ACE, with 136 million average monthly visitors.
“Today, ACE scored a resounding victory in its fight to detect, deter, and dismantle criminal perpetrators of digital piracy: by taking down the largest illegal live sports platform anywhere,” said Charles Rivkin, Chairman of ACE and Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association (MPA).
“With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide—and our global alliance will stay on the field as long as it takes to identify and target the biggest piracy rings across the globe.”
ACE said most of Streameast’s traffic came from users in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Philippines and Germany. The shutdown was achieved in collaboration with Egyptian authorities.
The New York Times reported two men were arrested on suspicion of copyright infringement in Egypt and have been detained. It also said authorities seized laptops and smartphones “suspected of operating the sites”.
Reportedly investigators also “uncovered links to a shell company in the UAE allegedly used to launder advertising revenue totalling £4.9million ($6.2m) since 2010”.
Executives involved have warned that illegal streaming remains risky for users as well as the organisers.
“Dismantling Streameast is a major victory for everyone who invests in and relies on the live sports ecosystem,” said Ed McCarthy, COO of DAZN Group. “This criminal operation was siphoning value from sports at every level and putting fans across the world at risk. We commend the Egyptian authorities and ACE for their action in bringing down the world’s largest illegal sports streaming operation.”
Streameast was popularly used to stream third-party feeds of the Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, Seri A, the Bundesliga and more, plus MLS, NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB.