The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has shut down a major Vietnam-based sports piracy ring. In a blog post, the world’s leading anti-piracy coalition announced the shutdown of the racket’s websites, including bestsolaris.com and streameast.to, which were viewed extensively throughout the world.
With the websites getting over 812 million visits in the past year, the group became the largest sports piracy ring in the world. ACE noted that it identified and approached the Hanoi-based operators, who agreed to transfer 138 domains to the organisation. This is the largest sports piracy ring taken down by ACE to date which also includes other websites like markkystreams.com, crackstreams.dev and weakspell.to.
Who were the primary targets of the piracy ring
The sites primarily catered to audiences in the US and Canada, streaming daily sports events, including content from all US sports leagues as well as global leagues across various categories. This illegal operation impacted all ACE members, including its sports-focused members like beIN Sports, Canal+, and DAZN.
What the affected companies said about the operation
Commenting on the live sports piracy ring being busted, the executive VP and chief content protection officer for the Motion Picture Association (MPA), Larissa Knapp said: “The shutdown of this globally notorious live sports piracy ring is a huge victory in our campaign against the piracy of live sports programs and follows other recent successful actions by ACE and law enforcement in Vietnam. ACE’s live sports members face a unique threat when it comes to digital piracy, as live sports broadcasts lose substantial commercial value once the game ends. The takedown serves as a warning to piracy operators everywhere – including operators in live sports piracy – that ACE will identify and shut down their illegal operations.”
UK-based sports streaming platform DAZN also expressed its relief at the piracy racket being shut down. The company’s CEO Ed McCarthy said: “DAZN stands with ACE in the fight to eradicate piracy, which undermines the sports ecosystem at all levels. It is very pleasing that a criminal operation of this scale was taken down. Piracy often compromises the security of fans’ data, which is then used for illegal purposes, so the closure of this piracy ring has the added benefit that potential subscribers will be guided toward legitimate content providers like DAZN.”
