Egypt Continues Sports Piracy Crackdown, But The Main Target Remains

Following an anti-piracy crackdown in early June, Egyptian authorities have shut down nine additional sports streaming portals. Local police received support from anti-piracy coalition ACE and broadcaster beIN. While the results are significant, the largest Egyptian sports piracy portal remains online.

ball oldThe Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is the most active anti-piracy coalition, assisting enforcement efforts around the world.

The group is backed by prominent rightsholders such as Apple, BBC, Canal+, Disney, Sky, Netflix, and Warner Bros, as it systematically hunts down key piracy players.

Earlier this year ACE expanded its scope into the sports arena by adding sports broadcaster beIN to its list of members. The partnership was put to work immediately in Egypt, where the coalition teamed up with local law enforcement to tackle several large streaming portals.

In June, this led to early successes. The domains of 18 websites, including Yalla-Shoot-7sry.com, yalla-shoot.us, and Yallashoot-news.com, were taken offline and three people were arrested.

New Sports Piracy Crackdown
While this crackdown was significant, many other sites remained online. However, the enforcement actions continued after the first wave, with new seizures and arrests announced by ACE and BeIN this week.

In a new enforcement wave, nine additional sports streaming sites were pulled offline. In addition, 16 Egyptian police officers, backed by the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, arrested the operators of two of the streaming portals.

The targeted domain names are mostly popular among soccer fans. These include yalla-shoot-kora.com, yalla-shoot-arabia.com, yalla-shoot-arabia.net, hdkoora.com, kooora4k.com, kooora4k.com, korawatch.com, kooralive-online.com and alqnassport.com. Together, these are good for millions of monthly views.

ace seized
Yalla-shoot.today had the biggest audience with a reported 1.8 million visits in June this year. The site’s traffic appeared to be waning already, as ACE reported that the site had 125 million visits in the last two years.

ACE and BeIN Praise Egypt
As the largest sports rightsholder in the region, BeIN is happy with the result and the help it received from Egypt.

“It is hugely encouraging to see continued anti-piracy operations undertaken by our Egyptian colleagues. This is another victory for sports fans, players and clubs of all levels in across the sporting eco-system,” a BeIN spokesperson notes.

Commenting on the results, ACE’s Jan van Voorn also thanks the Egyptian authorities for prioritizing online piracy as a serious crime. At the same time, he recognizes that the job isn’t done yet.

“ACE and beIN take an extremely active approach to tackling piracy, customizing our actions to most effectively combat various piracy methods – in Egypt, across the entire region, and globally,” van Voorn notes.

“This is just the beginning of the work we’re going to do together to bring these illegal operations to justice.”

Largest Sports Streaming Sites Remain Online
There is indeed more work to be done. Without downplaying the recent enforcement actions, it is worth mentioning that the largest pirate sports streaming portal in Egypt, yalla-shoot.io, remains operational.

Yalla-shoot.io has millions of monthly visitors and is the largest sports website in the country, beating many legal alternatives. The same is true for Yalla-shoot.com, which has been in operation for years.

This isn’t news to ACE. Van Voorn informs TorrentFreak that the work in Egypt isn’t done yet and he adds that the alliance will continue to assist anti-piracy initiatives around the world.