NFL fans were left devastated on Wednesday as news spread of an illicit streaming giant being shut down just a day before the start of the new season.
The Super Bowl-champion Eagles are hosting the Cowboys on Thursday night, with the game being officially broadcast on NBC and Peacock.
However, fans hoping to illegally stream the game via Streameast appear out of luck after the site – which drew a combined 1.6billion visits across its network of domains over the last year – was reportedly shut down late last month.
The website, known for providing free streams of top leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB, Premier League and more, was brought down on August 24 in what The Athletic described as a joint effort between the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) and law enforcement officials in Egypt.
Two men in Egypt were reportedly arrested on suspicion of copyright infringement, with laptops and smartphones being seized during the raid.
Authorities also reportedly seized cash and credit cards, and discovered a connection to an Emirati shell company which has allegedly laundered $6.2million in advertising revenue since 2010.
Fans hoping to watch Jalen Hurts and Jayden Daniels via Streameast are out of luck
Streameast scored over a billion visits on its network of sites in the last 12 months
Nonetheless, fans were said to see the site go.
‘RIP Streameast man. Painted as criminals by the media now, but heroes to sports fans everywhere providing access to watch stuff when entertainment networks kept charging asinine amounts of money to watch our favorites teams and sports,’ one wrote on X.
‘Now that Streameast is down, you’re gonna have to visit that annoying cousin with cable to watch the game. And he doesn’t even put out dip!,’ another cracked.
‘One of my worst fear just came to life. Rip streameast you will be missed!,’ a third said.
‘And a fourth asked: ‘Streameast getting shutdown is a gamechanger. Does this mean i have to pay to watch sports now?
The original domain appears to now produce a message from ACE on the dangers of illegally streaming.
Streameast is said to have a network of 80 illegal domains – some of which were seized last year by US Homeland Security Investigations.
Fans were left devastated on Wednesday by the news that Streameast had shut down
However, the network of sites was able to keep running with Streameast garnering 136million visits per month on average.
ACE, which is comprised of media giants like Amazon and Apple, is said to be aware of ‘copycat’ sites cropping up, and some fans have claimed to still have access to a version of the site.
Nonetheless, ACE hailed their shutdown of Streameast as a huge win.
‘ACE scored a resounding victory in its fight to detect, deter, and dismantle criminal perpetrators of digital piracy: by taking down the largest illegal live sports platform anywhere,’ ACE chairman Charles Rivkin said, via The Athletic.
‘With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide – and our global alliance will stay on the field as long as it takes to identify and target the biggest piracy rings across the globe.’
