Coincidentally or not, the US authorities targeted dozens of pirate sports streaming sites just as tens of millions of people tuned in to watch the Super Bowl late Sunday night.
The Super Bowl is, of course, traditionally the most popular TV broadcast in the US, attracting over a hundred million viewers every year.
But many also watch the game through unauthorized live streams, a major nuisance for rightholders. This year was no exception – but that also meant that authorities could observe illegal activity online and take dozens of domains offline.
As TorrentFreak reports, at least 40 domain names of popular brands such as Streameast, Crackstreams, and Totalsportek all became inaccessible overnight. Visitors are now welcomed by a seizure banner with the seals of US law enforcement agencies.
“It is unlawful to reproduce or distribute copyrighted material including sporting events, television shows, movies, music, software, or games without authorization,” said the message.
The domains taken offline are now pointing to the seizedservers.com nameservers, controlled by the US Department of Justice and used to shut down websites as part of criminal proceedings. The list of seized domain names can be found here.
Similar crackdowns are reported all the time, of course – but, clearly, sports streaming piracy remains an ongoing problem because most of the sites find a way to reappear online.
It’s an issue also torturing companies that hold the rights to broadcast other global sports such as the English Premier League. Soccer is popular around the world but expensive to watch legally, especially in the United Kingdom.
In late 2024, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, a coalition of over 50 media and entertainment companies, took down one of the world's largest live sports streaming piracy rings, the Vietnam-based Markkystreams operation with over 821 million visits last year.
The piracy ring targeted audiences across the US and Canada, and was streaming sports events daily from all major leagues.
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