Tackling football piracy: How to protect the world’s most watched sport

Piracy is running rampant in sports, growing in both scale and impact. Football, like many sports, feels the full impact.

With over five billion followers, football is the most popular sport worldwide. The surge in digital streaming has expanded its reach, with millions streaming matches online, enhancing accessibility and engagement. Protecting its integrity is essential to ensure the continued enjoyment of all fans.

Piracy in football: How severe is it?

Due to its global popularity, football is a prime target of digital piracy. Piracy activity is concentrated around high-value content, particularly top-tier leagues and first-division tournaments at both national and international levels. Events such as the UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup are frequently redistributed at scale via illicit IPTV networks, unauthorized apps and social media platforms, reaching millions of viewers in real time.

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Major challenges for football rights holders

1. Rapid growth of unauthorized streaming services

The rise of unauthorized streaming significantly undercut the broadcaster's ability to convert viewers into paying subscribers. As free illegal alternatives become easily accessible, many potential customers choose piracy over legitimate options. This directly impacts revenue streams, reducing overall profitability and the return on investment for expensive sports broadcasting rights.

2. Prolonged takedown proces

Even when illegal streams are detected, the process of removing them proves slow and cumbersome. A recent report shows that only 19% of takedown notices for illegal live streams led to actual suspensions. Moreover, just 2.7% of these were removed within 30 minutes

Legal and procedural delays mean that many pirated broadcasts remained active during the live event, rendering enforcement efforts ineffective. By the time takedowns are completed – often post-event – the impact is already felt, resulting in both significant revenue loss and reputational damage for the broadcasters.

3. The devaluation of sports rights

Rampant piracy in regions outside of the rights-holder's primary market begins to erode the overall value of their broadcasting rights. When pirated streams are widely available, the exclusivity that advertisers and global partners count on diminishes. This leads to a decline in advertising appeal and makes it more challenging to secure lucrative commercial partnerships, ultimately devaluing the investment in premium sports content.

What are the best practices for sports rights holders to address these challenges?

1. Implement end-to-end online piracy detection and mitigation

To combat the widespread threat of digital piracy, a robust end-to-end detection and mitigation system is highly needed. It utilizes advanced automated scanning combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven analysis to continuously monitor live and on-demand content across video platforms, websites, forums and apps

Real-time identification and disruption of unauthorized streams ensured swift takedowns, preserving revenue and maintaining content exclusivity across digital platforms.

2. Enable fast social media takedowns through direct collaboration

Establishing direct collaboration with social media platforms enables priority enforcement and rapid removal of illegal streams. Real-time communication channels and the integration of automated detection tools ensure quick action, significantly reduce unauthorized broadcasts and minimize financial losses. This not only minimized the exposure of unauthorized streams to mass audiences but also discouraged future reuploads by establishing a strong precedent for swift legal action.

3. Utilize threat intelligence and enforcement expertise in all regions

With piracy networks operating globally, enforcement needs to be equally widespread and responsive. The strategy includes leveraging a global enforcement network with real-time intelligence to identify and shut down piracy operations efficiently. A combination of advanced monitoring, legal action and coordinated takedown efforts helps protect their sports rights, uphold licensing agreements and maintain advertisers' trust.

What our client achieved with Irdeto's robust anti-piracy technology and approach