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This article is part of our Opinions section, where we invite industry professionals to share their views on the most pressing technology questions of our time.
As one of the most lucrative segments in streaming, direct-to-consumer sports are now eclipsing the traditional regional sports network (RSN) model, with monthly sports streamers projected to surpass 90 million in 2025. The momentum has created new possibilities for rights holders, but it has also drawn sustained attention from illicit streaming platforms, which are no longer operating on the fringe.
Modern-day piracy bears little resemblance to its early form. What once were low-quality streams have given way to platforms built with commercial intent. Illicit platforms have built their own super-aggregator models that bundle live matches across leagues and geographies into a single interface. Pirates are even able to charge their own rates so long as they offer relevant sports games with a polished user experience that rivals legitimate platforms.
This level of organisation has pushed piracy firmly into the mainstream, particularly for sports. Nearly half of UK sports fans (48%) admit to watching sports via pirated streams at least once a month, with even higher rates in markets like the US (69%) and Brazil (72%).
But piracy is not a passing threat, nor something the sports industry can absorb as an operational expense. The financial loss is evident, with the NFL, NBA and UFC reporting that piracy is costing major leagues as much as $28 billion in annual losses. At that rate, is piracy a side effect or a rival?
Progress cannot be made if piracy is viewed as a background inconvenience rather than a systemic issue in the industry. Piracy can only lose its value proposition when it is treated as a competitor, and the industry strengthens the value of its respective sports content.
Greater alignment in the industry is narrowing the gaps that illicit services take advantage of. Rights holders and streaming providers have experimented with ways to make premium sports easier for viewers to navigate content, such as with cross-platform licensing. The Peacock–NFL deal proves the potential of strategic licensing, which amassed over 20 million viewers for the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins game alone.
It is clear that the sports streaming giants are taking strides to be more aligned for fans. The proposed sports-only bundle between ESPN, FOX and Warner Bros was among the first attempts to pool top-tier sports rights into a single service for a simpler experience for viewers. Although the venture did not advance, the industry’s reaction signals the appetite to aggregate sports content that strips the incentive of illicit streams.
The sports industry’s efforts to simplify access and recalibrate sports rights can reduce the appeal for viewers to turn toward illicit services, but this cannot neutralise a competitor as organised as modern piracy. The foundation of protection still depends on comprehensive anti-piracy measures that connect to the entire content delivery chain. End-to-end detection, rapid incident response and forensic watermarking interrupt these streams the moment they happen.
Yet the scope of the challenge extends well beyond isolated piracy threats. With piracy networks operating across borders, enforcement needs to be just as timely and supported by global intelligence that can identify and disable operations and their routes. Pirated services also mimic legitimate platforms by using well-known payment providers, and restricting their access to these financial pathways creates structural pressure that few other measures can match.
This is where advanced piracy intelligence and payment-ecosystem disruption strategies become essential. They give rights holders a clear understanding of how pirate platforms source, distribute and monetise content, while revealing the infrastructure and financial providers that enable them to operate.
This insight is what makes targeted, high-impact enforcement possible in a way that partnerships and licensing agreements cannot provide on their own. A methodical approach to piracy intelligence enables rights holders to understand pirates as true competitors and take control of their value with intention.
The systemic nature of piracy demands strategic discipline behind how the industry protects its value. When anti-piracy measures are methodical across the industry, they limit the spaces where illicit platforms operate. It is up to the industry to ensure that the commercial value of sports stays with the organisations that create it, and that the industry meets the sophistication of its rivals with structure and unity.
