The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is the most active anti-piracy coalition, assisting enforcement efforts around the world.

The group is backed by prominent rightsholders such as Apple, BBC, Canal+, Disney, Sky, Netflix, and Warner Bros, as it systematically hunts down key piracy players.

Earlier this year ACE expanded its scope into the sports arena by adding sports broadcaster beIN to its list of members. The partnership was put to work immediately in Egypt, where the coalition teamed up with local law enforcement to tackle several large streaming portals.

In June, this led to early successes . The domains of 18 websites, including Yalla-Shoot-7sry.com, yalla-shoot.us, and Yallashoot-news.com, were taken offline and three people were arrested.

New Sports Piracy Crackdown

While this crackdown was significant, many other sites remained online. However, the enforcement actions continued after the first wave, with new seizures and arrests announced by ACE and BeIN this week.

In a new enforcement wave, nine additional sports streaming sites were pulled offline . In addition, 16 Egyptian police officers, backed by the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, arrested the operators of two of the streaming portals.

The targeted domain names are mostly popular among soccer fans. These include yalla-shoot-kora.com, yalla-shoot-arabia.com, yalla-shoot-arabia.net, hdkoora.com, kooora4k.com, kooora4k.com, korawatch.com, kooralive-online.com and alqnassport.com. Together, these are good for millions of monthly views.

Yalla-shoot.today had the biggest audience with a reported 1.8 million visits in June this year. The site’s traffic appeared to be waning already, as ACE reported that the site had 125 million visits in the last two years.

ACE and BeIN Praise Egypt

As the largest sports rightsholder in the region, BeIN is happy with the result and the help it received from Egypt.

“It is hugely encouraging to see continued anti-piracy operations undertaken by our Egyptian colleagues. This is another victory for sports fans, players and clubs of all levels in across the sporting eco-system,” a BeIN spokesperson notes.

Commenting on the results, ACE’s Jan van Voorn also thanks the Egyptian authorities for prioritizing online piracy as a serious crime. At the same time, he recognizes that the job isn’t done yet.

“ACE and beIN take an extremely active approach to tackling piracy, customizing our actions to most effectively combat various piracy methods – in Egypt, across the entire region, and globally,” van Voorn notes.

“This is just the beginning of the work we’re going to do together to bring these illegal operations to justice.”

Largest Sports Streaming Sites Remain Online

There is indeed more work to be done. Without downplaying the recent enforcement actions, it is worth mentioning that the largest pirate sports streaming portal in Egypt, yalla-shoot.io, remains operational.

Yalla-shoot.io has millions of monthly visitors and is the largest sports website in the country, beating many legal alternatives. The same is true for Yalla-shoot.com, which has been in operation for years.

This isn’t news to ACE. Van Voorn informs TorrentFreak that the work in Egypt isn’t done yet and he adds that the alliance will continue to assist anti-piracy initiatives around the world.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

There is no denying that the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment ( ACE ) has been rather successful over the past few years.

The anti-piracy group, which represents prominent rightsholders such as Apple, the BBC, Canal+, Disney, Sky, Netflix, and Warner Bros, systematically hunts down key piracy players.

ACE is well connected with law enforcement around the world and continues to expand its user base. Last week, two new rightsholders from Asia were added to the roster and last month sports broadcaster beIN joined the group .

Crackdown on Egyptian Sports Streaming Sites

The partnership with beIN is already proving fruitful. A few days ago four major sports streaming sites, including Yalla-Shoot-7sry.com, yalla-shoot.us, and Yallashoot-news.com, were taken offline after infringing beIN’s rights.

The sites in question had a combined 4.8 million ‘users’ in May and were particularly popular in Egypt. ACE and beIN received help from 60 Egyptian police officers as well as the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The police action resulted in three arrests and the seizures of several domain names, which are now controlled by ACE. Instead of live sports, visitors to these sites will now see an ACE banner, informing them that their favorite streaming portal is no longer available due to copyright infringement.

Research by TorrentFreak revealed that several other sports streaming domains have also been taken over by ACE. These include Goal-cairo.net, Yalla-shoot.club, and Yalla-live.us.

ACE and beIN Celebrate

Both ACE and beIN are pleased with the results of the operation. Commenting on the takedowns, ACE’s global content protection chief Jan van Voorn praises the broad cooperation.

“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,” Van Voorn notes.

A beIN spokesperson shares this sentiment and considers last week’s action a major success that will help to protect rightsholders worldwide.

“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.”

Largest Sports Streaming Sites are Still Online

There is no denying that the takedown efforts had a significant impact. However, that doesn’t mean that the sports streaming problem in Egypt has been solved. In fact, the largest “Yalla-Shoot” sites still remain online.

At the time of writing, Yalla-shoot.io, Yalla-shoot.com and Yalla-shoot-new.com are still accessible. Together, these sites have a combined 20 million ‘users’ which is four times as many as the domains that were seized.

There’s no doubt that ACE and beIN have these domains on their radar. The question is whether they can track down the operators or convince domain registries and registrars to take action.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.