Piracy/MENA: three illegal networks broadcasting football matches taken down by the ACE in 2023

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a global anti-piracy coalition, has taken down, since the beginning of 2023, three pirate networks operating in Egypt that were illegally broadcasting football matches and other content in the MENA region, announced ACE on 05/09/2023.

These three networks notably impacted the OTT platform DAZN, the Qatari pay-TV group beIN Media Group and the streaming service Shahid (owned by the audiovisual group MBC Group), all members of ACE. As a result of ACE operations, the Livehd7 (August 2023), Egylive.online (February) and Fal3arda (January) networks were taken down.

"In synchronized arrests on 28 and 29/08/2023, the Egyptian police and the Egyptian Ministry of Internal Affairs took action against two operators of the ring of live sport, TV series and movie sites livehd7 and 3sktv (part of the Livehd7 network) in Kafr El-Sheikh (EGY). The ring of sites was logging an average of nearly 18 million visits monthly, with most of the traffic coming from Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Police noted that the operators grossed nearly $1m…