World's largest illegal sports streaming site shut down

The world's largest illegal sports streaming site, Streameast, has been officially shut down after a year-long investigation.

Illegal sports broadcasting platform "Streameast" has been shut down - Illustration: Created by AI

According to The Athletic , the platform has attracted more than 1.6 billion visits in the past 12 months (equivalent to nearly 20% of the world's population). The site illegally broadcasts a series of major sporting events such as the Premier League, Champions League, NFL and NBA.

According to a report by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) - an organization that includes 50 media and entertainment companies such as Amazon and Netflix - has coordinated with Egyptian law enforcement to carry out a long-term crackdown.

As a result, two men were arrested in El-Sheikh Zaid, Giza Governorate (Egypt) on suspicion of copyright infringement. Authorities seized several phones, laptops, cash and credit cards believed to be related to the operation of the website.

The investigation also uncovered links to a company in the UAE, which is alleged to have been used to launder £4.9m in advertising revenue since 2010, and a further £150,000 in cryptocurrency.

Streameast has an average of 136 million monthly visitors and made headlines when basketball superstar LeBron James was spotted using the site to watch an NBA game.

Charles Rivkin, chairman of ACE, called it a major victory in the fight against digital piracy. Similarly, Ed McCarthy, CEO of DAZN Group (an ACE member), said: “The takedown of Streameast is a major victory for the live sports ecosystem.”

While the original Streameast domain is no longer active, it is believed that backup domains may still be running. ACE said it is aware of the threat posed by cloned sites and is continuing to investigate.

The case is a major victory for the legal platforms, which pay huge sums for broadcasting rights. In December 2023, the Premier League signed a new £6.7bn TV rights deal with Sky Sports and TNT Sports.

THANH DINH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/trang-web-chieu-lau-the-thao-lon-nhat-the-gioi-bi-dong-cua-20250904141911988.htm