Law enforcement organizations arrested two men suspected of running Streameast in August 2025, shutting the service down in the process.
The world’s premier streamer of pirated sporting events, Streameast, has been shut down after a year-long sting operation that saw Europol, the U.S. Department of Justice, and Egyptian law enforcement collaborate with some of the world’s largest media companies. According to a September 3, 2025, report by The Athletic, the investigation was spearheaded by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), an anti-piracy coalition between 50 of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates, including Amazon, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Apple, and Netflix. The organization has been at the forefront of shutting down illegal streaming services since its founding in 2017, orchestrating takedowns of popular pirate sites like RareBreed, Jetflicks, Beast IPTV, and Zoro.to.
Streameast purportedly used 80 domains to generate 1.6 billion visits in 2024, broadcasting everything from European soccer to the NFL, NBA, MLB, boxing, and F1. The operation is a major win for the sports and entertainment ecosystem of broadcasters, leagues, and teams that depend on media rights deals to generate revenue.
The skyrocketing popularity of illicit streams and the complexity of the networks orchestrating them have made piracy a difficult problem for law enforcement. In addition to pirated streams, unlicensed subscription platforms like TheTVapp.to have also begun to pose a serious problem for broadcasters. Workarounds like bootlegged IPTV Sticks and jailbroken Amazon Fire Sticks have also become an area of concern for regulators. But as ACE’s chairman Charles Rivkin told The Athletic, „With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide.
