Soccer is The Number One Gateway Sport to Online Streaming Piracy

[Night hunter]

A new report published by Synamedia shows that soccer is the number one gateway sport to other forms of sports piracy. This is also true for the US where soccer has a relatively smaller audience. India is the only exception in the researched countries, with cricket as the main piracy gateway. In the Middle East, meanwhile, pirated camel racing streams are thriving.

While pirated Hollywood blockbusters often score the big headlines, there are several other industries that have been battling piracy over the years. This includes sports organizations.

Sports piracy often comes with the added challenge that it mostly affects live events. This means that takedowns and other disruption efforts have to be near to instant.

In recent years many sports leagues have lobbied for stronger enforcement options and have already booked some successes. For example, the EU Parliament recently adopted a report that calls for new rules that require online services to take down unauthorized live streams within 30 minutes.

Mapping The Sports Piracy Landscape

Aside from the enforcement angle, it can also be helpful to research why people turn to sports piracy to begin with. This is a gap that the streaming video provider and protection service Synamedia is trying to fill with a series of reports.

Previous reports already revealed that more than half of all sports fans frequently turn to unauthorized services. These pirates are typically more engaged than regular sports fans and are worth billions of dollars in extra revenue if they can be converted.

Synamedia’s latest report looks at the individual consumption patterns of pirates. What do they watch illegally and why? And what can rightsholders learn from this?

Piracy Gateways

The research specifically looks at which sports serve as the gateway to sports piracy. In other words, what caused people to pirate in the first place. These “gateway” sports are often the start of people’s piracy habits.

The report is based on an extensive survey of over 6,000 respondents in ten countries – Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India, Italy, Jordan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, UK and the United States.

One of the main findings shows that soccer is the top gateway sport for pirates. This is even true in the US where it has a relatively small following. The only exception is India, where cricket comes out on top.

“Soccer is the planet’s most-pirated sport across every demographic and nearly every territory, and it’s the biggest gateway into other illegal sports streaming. But moving the goalposts beyond the football field is key to tackling piracy.”

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