Two major illegal sport streaming sites are taken down

Two sites offering illegal streams of live sporting events have been shut down in actions spearheaded by anti-piracy group the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE).

Last week, the organisation teamed up with police in Egypt to shutter Streameast, which it said was the world's largest live sports piracy outlet with more than 1.6bn visits in the last year through 80 associated domains.

Then – just today – it announced a successful operation to close down Moldova-based Calcio, with 123m visits in the last 12 months across 134 domains, in an operation carried out in collaboration with sports entertainment platform DAZN. Calcio was particularly popular in Italy, with 6m visits from users in the country each month, with traffic also coming from Spain, the US, Germany, and France.

Streameast and Calcio provided unauthorised access to matches from Europe’s top football leagues, including England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga, France’s Ligue 1 and Portugal’s Primeira Liga, as well as UEFA and FIFA fixtures and top-tier events in other sports, including basketball, motorsports, tennis, and more.

Earlier this year, a report by Enders Analysis suggested that "industrial scale theft" of video services, especially live sport, was in the ascendance, claiming that big tech companies were "clearly unwilling" to address the problem.

Digital rights management (DRM) systems from Google (WideVine) and Microsoft (PlayReady) were no longer effective, and the report singled out Amazon's Fire Stick device as an enabler for people seeking to access illegal streams.

The takedown of Streameast was welcomed by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) as a "resounding victory in [ACE's] fight to detect, deter, and dismantle criminal perpetrators of digital piracy" and had "put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide."

Meanwhile, DAZN chief operating officer Ed McCarthy said today that "shutting down illegal operations like Calcio is vital for protecting fans, safeguarding jobs, and preserving the value and integrity of live sports."

All Streameast and Calcio domains are now being redirected to ACE’s Watch Legally landing page.