Egyptian police arrested three individuals and seized the domains, assets, and IT equipment of the four illegal live sports streaming sites, Middle East business and financial news (MENAFN) reported on Thursday.

The four sites are Goalarab.com, Yalla-Shoot-7sry.com, yalla-shoot.us and yallashoot-news.com.

The four websites engaged more than 1.8 million users from Egypt and more than 4.8 million users globally during May 2022.

Since the beginning of 2022, an estimated nine million users in Egypt and 24 million users worldwide 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.

The domains of the four websites are now controlled by the ACE, which redirects viewers to watch the content on legal platforms, through "Watch legally."

“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,” beIN spokesperson was quoted as saying on MENAFN.

“Broadcasting piracy threatens sports now and in the future; these sites take funding away from sports fans, players, and clubs of all levels and leagues,” he added.

“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,” beIN spokesman added.

The daily theft of sports and entertainment programmes 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 pirates to justice.

beIN Media Group owns beIN Sports TV Channels, which have the broadcasting rights in the MENA region of all the CAF competitions, including the African Cup of Nations, in addition to the UEFA champions league and some major European leagues, such as the English Premier League and Spain's La Liga.

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