DAZN Group Ltd., the sports streaming company backed by billionaire Len Blavatnik, is joining the Alliance for Creativity & Entertainment, the antipiracy arm of the Motion Picture Association, as part of a crackdown on illegal broadcasts of games.
Media rights owners lose about $28 billion in revenue annually to sports piracy, according to a study from Synamedia and Ampere Analysis. In the past six years, sports piracy has shifted from browser based to illegal subscription platforms charging anywhere from $5 to $20 a month, Jan van Voorn, the MPA executive overseeing the sports effort, said in an interview.
The alliance estimates that the top three sports piracy platforms in the US have roughly 2 million combined monthly paying subscribers.
Read more: Hollywood Steps Up Fight Against $71 Billion Piracy Industry
Last year, the alliance worked with BeIN Sports to shut down an illegal streaming service in Morocco days before Qatar began hosting the 2022 soccer World Cup.
The alliance, whose members also include Walt Disney Co. and Netflix Inc., was formed in 2017 to tackle piracy of movies and TV shows. More recently the group has branched out to include sports broadcasters. It’s also looking to enlist sports leagues as members.
