StreamEast, one of the world’s largest illegal sports content websites, has been shut down following a law enforcement action by Egyptian authorities, according to a Hollywood industry trade association.
The closure of StreamEast was revealed in an announcement released by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) on Wednesday, through which the organization said it worked with Egyptian police to identify and shut down more than 80 domains associated with the platform.
StreamEast illegally retransmitted live sports from the National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, FIFA, NASCAR, Formula 1, UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League, among other leagues and sports organizations. Often, the illegal streams were powered by legitimate sources of live sports, but without payment to rights holders. Pay-per-view events, which secure some of the biggest financial windfalls for sports rights holders, were also offered to StreamEast users without a license or payment.
“Today, 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 Charles Rivkin, the Chairman of ACE and CEO of its parent organization, the Motion Picture Association.
Traffic to StreamEast domains originated mainly from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Philippines and Germany, according to ACE. All web domains now redirect to the “Watch Legally” web portal established by ACE to educate streamers on legitimate ways to watch live sports and other television programming.
While StreamEast was one of the most-popular streaming websites on the planet, it apparently took very little to operate the platform: Egyptian police seized just three laptops and four smartphones used to operate StreamEast, according to local media reports. Police also confiscated a number of prepaid Visa cards that totaled around $123,000, and crypto wallets that contained another $200,000, according to ACE.
Two people suspected of operating StreamEast were arrested by Egyptian police last month, though the website continued to operate for a few weeks until ACE redirected web traffic to their own webpage.
The raid is the second time ACE and local police have targeted StreamEast. A police campaign launched last December led to the arrests of several people and the temporary dismantling of StreamEast at its previous web domains. StreamEast relaunched at a new network of websites just a few days after that action. A similar website, called CrackStreams, was also targeted in the December action.
