A global entertainment trade group has worked with law enforcement authorities in Vietnam to target and close an illicit online sports television service.
This week, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) said it successfully targeted the Hanoi-based group responsible for websites like StreamEast, CrackStreams, WeakSpell, MarkkyStreams and BestSolaris, which collectively had more than 812 million visits from sports fans over the past year.
ACE said the pirates redistributed games airing on BeIn Sports, Canal Plus, DAZN and others, illegally and without compensation to the actual rights holders. Sports fans in the United States and Canada were the primary targets of the pirates, ACE affirmed.
The crackdown led to the group transferring control of nearly 140 domain names to ACE, though a quick search of social media platforms like Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) showed new domains for StreamEast and CrackStreams were already up and running.
Still, ACE Executive Vice President Larissa Knapp called the investigation a “huge victory in our campaign against the piracy of live sports programs,” and noted that it follows other successful cases brought against pirates who illegally stream sports and entertainment content online.
“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,” Knapp, who also serves as the Chief Content Protection Officer for the Motion Picture Association (MPA), said in a statement. “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.”
The domains that were seized from the pirates now redirect to an ACE website urging people to stream content legally.
It is at least the second time in the past six months that ACE has worked with police in Vietnam to identiy illicit streamers. In August, the organization was successful in shutting down Fmovies, which offered feature-length films, anime and other content online since 2016.
