ACE shuts down major sports piracy ring in Morocco

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal ecosystem for creative content, today announced the successful shutdown of a major sports piracy operation in Morocco.

Before they were shut down Nov. 11, the streaming websites carried live soccer matches free of charge. The domains, livekoora.online and yalla-shoot-new.tv, drew 20.6 million monthly visits in October 2022.

The piracy operation primarily drew content from international sports broadcaster, beIN SPORTS, which joined ACE in April and supported this successful action in Morocco. The shutdown of a major sports piracy ring took place just nine days before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022^TM is scheduled to start Nov. 20; FIFA is anticipating an audience of 5 billion viewers.

“The successful ACE action in Morocco is a direct result of our enhanced focus on the growing threat that live sports piracy poses to consumers, sports leagues and their fans,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Global Content Protection Chief for the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE. “Working with our member, beIN SPORTS, we have sent a clear message to piracy operators around the world, including anyone planning to steal content from the upcoming World Cup games, that we will find you and shut you down.”

A beIN Spokesperson said, “With just days to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022^TM, we are delighted with the most recent shutdown of illegal broadcast websites in Morocco. We are grateful to our partners at ACE for facilitating this important anti-piracy activity, which safeguards our consumers in Morocco, ensuring they are not subject to harmful illegal streaming.”

ACE has dramatically enhanced its focus this year on the growing threat large-scale piracy operations pose to live sports broadcasters. According to a recent study from Synamedia/Ampere, addressing global sports piracy could amount to an additional $28 billion of annual revenue for the industry.

ACE’s comprehensive approach to reducing piracy, which includes criminal referrals, litigation, and direct communications among other tactics, has positioned ACE and its partners to move swiftly into reducing piracy of live sports broadcasts globally.