World’s largest illegal sports streaming service shuts down

The world’s notorious online soccer piracy network Streameast has been reportedly shut down after more than 1.6 billion visits in the past year.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) said, on Wednesday, that it had teamed up in a collaborative effort with police in Egypt to close down Streameast, which is believed to be the world’s largest illegal streaming network.

The operation targeted a highly sophisticated piracy ring that was involved in illegally broadcasting live sports events, including major soccer leagues to a massive global audience through a network of websites and apps.

ACE chairman stated in the announcement, “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.”

Streameast provided users with unauthorized access to matches across Europe’s top soccer leagues.

Over the past two decades, soccer piracy has seen a huge increase due to major leagues selling their matches to high-priced pay-per-view and streaming services.

This often requires fans to pay for several distinct subscriptions to watch their favorite teams which has driven many to seek illegal options.

Ed McCarthy, chief operating officer of the DAZN group, said, “This criminal operation was siphoning value from sports at every level and putting fans across the world at risk. We recommend the Egyptian authorities and ACE for their action.”

Streameast was providing access to sport specific piracy sites for American sports like the NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA.

The Streameast domains have been taken over and now resolve to a page from The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) promoting the “Watch Legally” page.