LatAm sports piracy ring disrupted
A major sports piracy network linked to the illegal streaming platform PirloTV has been disrupted through a coordinated enforcement operation led by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), UEFA, UC3, and Mexican authorities. The operation targeted 44 domains associated with the network ahead of the UEFA Champions League final, aiming to reduce piracy during one of the year’s biggest live sporting events.
PirloTV was one of the largest illegal sports streaming services in Latin America. Rather than hosting streams itself, it aggregated and embedded unauthorized broadcasts from licensed sports networks, making premium football and other sporting events freely accessible to millions of users. The platform had become known for rapidly switching to new domains whenever previous ones were taken down.
The 44 targeted domains collectively generated more than 950 million visits annually, including around 230 million visits from Mexico alone. While the primary audience was in Latin America, particularly Mexico and Colombia, the sites also attracted significant traffic from Spain and the United States.
The operation also marked the first collaboration between ACE and Mexico’s Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) under a newly signed Memorandum of Understanding designed to strengthen cooperation against digital piracy. The case highlights ACE’s increasing reliance on intelligence driven investigations, partnerships with governments, and coordinated enforcement actions against large scale piracy infrastructure.
UEFA emphasized that combating piracy remains essential to protecting its broadcast partners and ensuring continued investment in European football. ACE described the action as another example of growing international cooperation against illegal streaming operations and a warning that major piracy networks face increasing enforcement pressure worldwide.
Although the disruption significantly impacts PirloTV’s infrastructure, experts note that similar operations often attempt to recover by registering new domains. As a result, continued monitoring and coordinated enforcement will likely be required to limit the network’s long term ability to reappear.
