beIN and ACE welcome shutdown of four pirate websites in Egypt

beIN Media Group (beIN) and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal ecosystem for creative content, have praised the shutdown of four illegal piracy operations in Egypt.ACE and beIN, which joined the coalition earlier this year, worked together to support the take down of four major illegal live sport operators in Cairo. They are Goalarab.com, Yalla-Shoot-7sry.com, yalla-shoot.us and yallashoot-news.comCombined, the four websites engaged more than 1.8mn users from Egypt and more than 4.8mn users globally during the month of May 2022. Since the start of this year, an estimated 9mn users in Egypt and 24mn users globally watched illegal content stolen from beIN Sports channels, beIN said in a press statement.Almost half of the global visits to these pirate websites came from users in Egypt. These websites were among the most popular illegal live sports streaming sites in the Arab-speaking region, with each totalling close to 1mn unique views.“The successful action against these four illegal piracy operations highlights the real-world value of the new partnership between beIN and ACE,” said Jan van Voorn, executive vice-president and chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association and head of ACE. “Working together, we have the network, the resources and the expertise needed to tackle the serious threat piracy poses to media companies all over the world and to protect the legal marketplace for content creators.”A beIN spokesperson added, “Broadcasting piracy threatens sport now and in the future; these sites take funding away from sports fans, players and clubs of all levels and leagues. Actions like those undertaken by Egyptian law-enforcement agencies are a huge victory. In concert with ACE, we collectively have the means to support takedowns of this nature throughout the region, and will continue to do so to protect the leagues, fellow broadcasters and the entire sporting ecosystem.”The action included 60 Egyptian police officers who were supported by the Egyptian Ministry of Internal Affairs, ensuring all relevant authorities were involved. This led to the subsequent arrest of three individuals – and seizure of the domains, assets and their IT equipment. The domains are now controlled by ACE and are redirecting viewers to watch the content on legal platforms, through ‘Watch legally’.This action further highlights beIN’s and ACE’s commitment to tackling piracy across the region. As a premium sports and entertainment content provider to more than 40 territories around the world, beIN joined ACE as part of the company’s comprehensive effort to end global content theft.beIN’s partnership with ACE has already produced results, following the co-ordination to tackle pirated content during the UEFA Champions League and the CAF Champions League finals.The daily theft of sport and entertainment programme remains a key threat to the licensed services market.These actions taken by beIN and ACE are the beginning of the partners’ work to bring these pirates to justice. beIN and ACE will continue to work together in fighting online content theft and will release details of future operations in the coming months.