Major Illegal Streaming TV Website Shut Down, Arrests Made

Sports fans everywhere were left in agony today after the world’s most popular illegal sports streaming website, StreamEast, was shut down.

The news comes one day before the next NFL season is set to kick off.

StreamEast is a well-known name to every sports fan around the globe, as pretty much every sporting event of any sort was available to watch on the site for free. A report from the New York Times and The Athletic noted that the site had 1.6 billion visits last year—almost a quarter of the world’s population.

In the report, a group of corporations known as the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) founded by companies like Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Paramount took action against those responsible for StreamEast.

The companies worked with Egyptian law enforcement to track down two men responsible for the site’s upkeep and arrested them on suspicion of copyright infringement 20 miles west of Cairo, Egypt. During the arrest, authorities seized laptops and smartphones belonging to the two. The site is no longer in operation.

“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,” said ACE chairman Charles Rivkin, who is also CEO and chairman of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). “With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide — and our global alliance will stay on the field as long as it takes to identify and target the biggest piracy rings across the globe.”

He also shared that ACE was working with police agencies worldwide, like Europol and the U.S. Department of Justice, to further stamp out illegal sports viewing.

It’s a massive blow to sports piracy, as StreamEast is the biggest name by far. Their brand was so big, in fact, that professional sports players have been seen using the website. LeBron James, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, was spotted courtside last year watching another NBA team’s game on StreamEast.

With the football season set to kick into gear tomorrow, fans who wish to watch sports without paying will have to look elsewhere.