00:00On the eve of the 2025 NFL season, StreamEast, the largest online sports piracy network in the world, has been shut down by law enforcement.
00:11Through its 80 associated domains on the Internet, the network logged more than 1.6 billion visits in the past year.
00:19The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, or ACE, a coalition of 50 media and entertainment companies, including Amazon, Apple TV, Netflix, and Paramount, along with Egyptian law enforcement officials, completed a year-long investigation Sunday, August 24th, with a raid to dismantle the illegal service.
00:44Ed McCarthy, the chief operating officer of DAZN, a member of ACE, applauded the takedown.
00:50Dismantling StreamEast is a major victory for everyone who invests in and relies on the live sports ecosystem.
00:58The criminal operation was siphoning value from sports at every level and putting fans across the world at risk.
01:05Two men were arrested in Egypt on suspicion of copyright infringement.
01:10Authorities confiscated laptops, smartphones, cash, and multiple credit cards suspected of being used to operate the various StreamEast sites.
01:20The platform offered users unauthorized access to soccer matches from Europe's top leagues, as well as pay-per-view boxing and MMA, F1, and all the major U.S. sports.
01:31Piracy and illegal sports streaming in general has skyrocketed over the last decade, with soccer and other sports leagues selling their content to pay-per-view and streaming services,
01:41sometimes requiring fans to purchase more than one subscription to see all their team's games.
01:47Streaming pirates cost the U.S. economy close to $30 billion annually and more than 230,000 jobs, according to ACE and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
01:57The group also says the global impact is over $70 billion annually.
02:03They work to take down more than 2,500 illegal sites daily.
02:07And they warn that the use of these illegal sites can have cybersecurity risks.
02:12When you pirate content, you're inviting in dangers you can't even see, like exposing your devices to malware, putting your personal information at risk, or surrendering your privacy.
02:23Often, it's even funding crime syndicates at the expense of innocent people.
02:27Site traffic to the various StreamEast domains originated primarily from the U.S., Canada, Britain, the Philippines, and Germany.
02:37StreamEast sites now redirect to the ACE Watch Legally page.
02:42ACE says it is aware of copycat sites that have popped up to take advantage of the void left by StreamEast.
02:49The group, as well as law enforcement, continue to investigate.
Be the first to comment