Over 300 illegal streams were detected for the heavyweight title unification fight between Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker.
The boxing bout was shown on pay-per-view across a number of markets, but pirates took to social media to promote their illegal streaming, which included 71 streams that ran on plugins for the Kodi media player.
Security firm Irdeto detected 339 illegal streams for the fight, which it said demonstrated that tool were available to both detect and remove illegally distributed live content. “High-profile live sporting events like this are major targets for criminals looking to profit from illegal streams,” said Rory O’Connor, Senior Vice President of Cybersecurity Services, Irdeto. “Content owners and rights holders can combine state-of-the-art anti-piracy technology, proactive services and comprehensive cybercrime business intelligence services to shut down streams in real-time and protect their content investments. Consumers should be vigilant as well. By watching illegal streams, knowingly or unknowingly, they could miss crucial sporting moments and are exposing their devices, data and families to risks of cybercrime, inappropriate content and other threats. In addition, people who think about sharing events like this illegally should be aware that they could face charges or legal action as a result.”
Irdeto identified 180 advertisements for illicit streaming devices offering Joshua vs. Parker on e-commerce websites, including eBay and Gumtree in just one day in the week leading up to the fight.