Large-scale Sports Streaming Piracy Network, Streameast, Brought to a Halt Following Law Enforcement Raid
In a significant move against piracy, Egyptian law enforcement officials have raided the offices of Streameast, a notorious platform known for providing unauthorised access to live sports events. The shutdown, announced by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), follows an investigation conducted from July 2024 to June 2025.
During the raid, three laptops, four smartphones, 10 Visa cards with approximately $123,000 in total, and about $200,000 in crypto wallets were seized. The piracy sites offered access to matches from Europe's top soccer leagues, including the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Primeira Liga, and UEFA club competitions such as the Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League, among others. Additionally, international qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro, UEFA Nations League, and CONMEBOL Copa América were also available.
The piracy network Streameast also provided unauthorised access to sport-specific piracy sites for various American sports leagues, including the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and Major League Soccer, as well as international sports like pay-per-view boxing, mixed martial arts, and motorsports including Formula 1 and MotoGP.
The shutdown of Streameast was a major victory for DAZN, a company that offers legitimate sports streaming outside the U.S., which cheered the closure, stating it was a significant win for everyone who invests in and relies on the live sports ecosystem.
Site traffic to the various domains originated primarily from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., the Philippines, and Germany. Authorities found that the operators of Streameast created a shell company in the United Arab Emirates to funnel ad revenue from the sites.
Two men, Ahmed Elsobky and Richard Chapiro, were arrested and detained on suspicion of copyright infringement in El-Sheikh Zaid in the Giza Governorate of Egypt late last month. The former Streameast sites will be redirected to ACE's "Watch Legally" page.
According to ACE, Streameast sites averaged more than 136 million monthly visits, and in the past year, the platform had over 1.6 billion visits, making it the largest illicit live sports streaming operation in the world.
The shutdown was a collaborative effort between ACE, an antipiracy coalition led by the Motion Picture Association, and Egyptian authorities. The current governing board members for ACE are Amazon, Apple TV+, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, the Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
