A prominent anti-piracy organisation claims that the largest location in the world for illicit streaming of live sporting events has been closed.

On Wednesday, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) said that it had partnered with Egyptian law enforcement to shut down Streameast, which had received over 1.6 billion visits in the previous year.

Millions of people were able to watch unauthorised feeds of major league baseball games, Formula One races, and Premier League football fixtures.

The “resounding victory in its fight to detect, deter, and dismantle criminal perpetrators of digital piracy” was declared by ACE chairman Charles Rivkin.

“With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide,” he stated.

The crackdown follows a report earlier this year that revealed “industrial scale” illegal sports streaming.

The value of media rights worldwide exceeded $60 billion (£44 billion) last year, demonstrating how profitable sports broadcasting is.

Some fans have turned to illegal streaming because to the growing expenses of rights deals being passed on to them at home, which are made worse by the requirement for memberships to several sites that show different matches.

The UK, US, Canada, Philippines, and Germany were the primary countries from which traffic to Streameast’s many domains came, according to ACE.

According to The Athletic, police in El-Sheikh Zaid, close to Egypt’s capital Cairo, detained two guys on suspicion of violating copyright.

It stated that during a raid, investigators had confiscated cash and credit cards along with laptops and cellphones that were allegedly used to run the websites.

Additionally, police discovered connections to a UAE shell business that was purportedly used to launder £150,000 in bitcoin and £4.9 million in advertising revenue since 2010.

‘Game of whack-a-mole’

DAZN Group’s chief operating officer, Ed McCarthy, applauded its removal.

“This criminal operation was syphoning value from sports at every level and putting fans across the world at risk,” he stated.

An ACE webpage recommending channels they can “watch legally” will now be displayed to users attempting to access Streameast domains or websites, according to the statement.

Ben Woods, an entertainment analyst at Midia Research, stated that while the site’s closure would benefit broadcasters, it would ultimately fall short of ending the “game of whack-a-mole” that confronts those attempting to combat live sports piracy.

He told the media that a “cocktail of forces” that continue to support illicit streaming include the high costs customers must pay to watch sports lawfully.

Additionally, he claimed that younger sports fans, who might not have the money or job security to pay for access, have grown accustomed to receiving content on social media for free.

“Cracking down on pirates directly is just one part of the solution,” said Mr. Woods.

“Only by exploring ways to make live sport more accessible will this issue become less of a problem for major sports leagues.”