Almost 3,000 websites have been blocked or seized for illegally streaming World Cup matches, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has said.
More than 1,000 domains were shut down in the US alone during the tournament, with a similar number blocked in Colombia.
Enforcement agencies in America and across South America carried out the action under investigations named “operation offsides” and “operation red card”.
Ivan J. Arvelo, director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (NIPRCC), said unauthorised broadcasting of World Cup matches violated intellectual property rights and “fuels criminal organizations”.
The DOJ said at the end of last month it had taken down 400 webpages over illegal World Cup streaming. Now hundreds more have been taken down or blocked.
“The sustained effort to seize more than a thousand domains dedicated to illegally streaming the World Cup confirms the administration’s commitment to intellectual property rights and to the success of the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” said the DOJ’s assistant attorney general A. Tysen Duva.
The enforcement has been largely overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal agency that includes the NIPRCC.
The illegal streaming of sports often happens through webpages or websites created specifically for the event. Companies and broadcasters have estimated, external the activity costs them billions of dollars a year.
Due to its global popularity, football has been found to be pirated at an “industrial scale”, according to analysts. The increasing cost of rights deals for matches has resulted in higher prices for fans at home, especially if they choose to pay for multiple services to watch their team play.
It has led to some fans turning to illegal streams of big games to avoid such costs.
Charles Rivkin, chairman of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which aims to combat digital piracy and helped in the police effort, said on Monday that the World Cup was the “kind of global live event that piracy networks move quickly to exploit”.
The crackdown on illegal streaming was also supported by Fifa, which organises the World Cup, beIN Media Group, NBC Universal, Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Warner Brothers.
Much of Fifa’s revenue comes from the sale of broadcasting rights to the various global media networks that want to televise matches.
Fifa and the other media entities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Colombian Attorney General’s Office said it had even made several arrests in connection with the operations.
Four members of what was referred to as the “cybercriminal group” Los Ciberinfiltrados were arrested for allegedly gaining and distributing access to World Cup games illegally.
Another 830 websites in Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and the Dominican Republic were also taken down.
As well as illegal streaming, police in Colombia conducted “nationwide search-and-seizure operations” around counterfeit sports clothing.
The DoJ said 11 people in the country has been arrested and convicted for the illegal manufacture and distribution of fake sporting merchandise.