UFC is to refund fans after heavy demand resulted in a collapse of online streaming during Saturday’s Mayweather-McGregor fight.
The much-anticipated event between Floyd Mayweather and his UFC challenger Conor McGregor resulted in a flood of complaints to UFC and to the US pay broadcaster Showtime.
The streams were provided by VOD specialist Neulion, which also supplied Sky Sports in the UK, Sky New Zealand and Eleven Sports Network. Its made no comment on the issues that appear to have been restricted to North America.
In a statement issued before the fight NeuLion said it would be delivering and monitoring the live event from its technical operations centers located in New York and London.
Statement from @DanaWhite: pic.twitter.com/ErvWRnjnVe
— UFC (@ufc) August 29, 2017
“We’re incredibly disappointed by the technical difficulties that were experienced Saturday night, and we’re working with our vendor NeuLion to assess exactly what happened,” UFC President Dana White said on Twitter. “Nothing is more important to the UFC than our fans. They’ve always been incredibly loyal and supportive and we’ll always take care of them.”
UFC and Showtime are now facing the enevitable class actions.
Security specialist Irdeto said it had identified 239 streams that illegally redistributed the match. Of those streams, 67 were provided via traditional pirate streaming websites.
