LaLiga Shifts From Takedowns to Tactics: Key Takeaways from a Crime-Fighting Model for Sports Piracy

In 2024, Spain’s Commercial Court ordered illegal streaming site Roja Directa, and its parent company Puerto 80 Projects, to pay €31.6 million in damages to Mediapro for unlicensed streaming of LaLiga matches. The impact of piracy persists, however, reportedly costing the league between €600m and €700m each year.

The shift in approach by LaLiga underscores important lessons for all stakeholders in sport and entertainment.

Key takeaways:

• Piracy viewed as industrial-scale crime
  LaLiga views piracy as an organised criminal enterprise. Rather than a focus on takedowns, rights holders will need to adapt their enforcement strategies, treating piracy as a structural threat to revenue and competition integrity. As is highlighted in the European Commission’s recommendation on combating online piracy, this requires focus, commitment and action by all parties in the sports media ecosystem.
• Collaboration with tech, broadcasters & governments
  LaLiga is working with Content Delivery Network (CDN) providers, social platforms, broadcasters, governments and law enforcement bodies. This collaboration enables faster IP/domain blocking and facilitates coordinated legal action and regulatory lobbying.
• Shared intelligence
  Pooling forensic data and enforcement experience globally, across leagues, sports, broadcasters and other sport and entertainment stakeholders, will promote a more effective response to piracy. Anti-piracy coalitions such as the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) will be pivotal, evidenced by its role in the shutdown of Stream East (reportedly visited 1.6 billion times in the last year).
• Anti-piracy technology
  Rights holders can employ technology that utilises AI-driven analytics to monitor live sports streams, flagging suspicious activity and detecting unauthorised broadcasts. Forensic watermarking (which embeds video streams with hidden markers) and CDN-based stream disruption (which triggers real time quality degradation or cut-offs of illegal streams) provide further protection for rights holders.
• Role of blocking injunctions
  Blocking injunctions are a crucial legal mechanism by which a rights holder can tackle illegal streaming. Injunctions require Internet Service Providers (ISP) to block the access of users in a given jurisdiction to streaming websites or servers (for instance Sky’s successful application for dynamic and static blocking orders against the UK’s six largest ISPs in 2023). As live monitoring of infringements improves, so too does the importance of such injunctions to rights holders.
• Pressure on technology providers
  Some Big Tech companies remain resistant to proactive cooperation. Industry unity and political pressure are required to force binding obligations on technology firms, particularly in relation to automated takedowns through their social media and streaming platforms.
• Fan education
  Piracy damages the sport and entertainment industry at all levels, also exposing fans to fraud, malware and identity theft. Rights holders should engage in fan-focussed campaigns, tackling consumers’ current acceptance of piracy.
  
  The team at Level has decades of experience supporting stakeholders in the monetisation and protection of their broadcasting rights. As the tools that can be used to combat piracy develop, a proactive approach from rights holders will promote growth and increase revenues in the world of sports and entertainment.