The end of piracy is near: one of the largest distribution networks for illegal IPTV for football is shut down.

Piracy is one of the biggest problems facing football copyright holders. Although today there are all kinds of platforms offering services for easier and faster access to this content, many users still refuse to pay a subscription to access it.

This is because, for example, watching live football has become an increasingly expensive pastime, where even paying almost 50 euros a month doesn't allow you to watch all the matches, which leads people to turn to websites, apps, or pirated IPTV to watch them.

However, this is becoming increasingly complicated as authorities and image rights holders are conducting a sweeping crackdown on these sites that illegally broadcast soccer. And the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world's leading anti-piracy group, has just announced a major blow to users of these types of platforms.

It was this past Wednesday when they announced the closure of the Streameast website , which received more than 1.6 billion visits last year alone. The site was known for its live soccer broadcasts, but also for all types of sports broadcasts from around the world.

Apparently, it was a joint operation between ACE and Egyptian police to arrest the owners of this platform , where they found numerous devices for carrying out the broadcasts, as well as large amounts of cash and credit cards.

Authorities say they also found links to a shell company in the United Arab Emirates that was allegedly used to launder £4.9 million in advertising revenue since 2010, as well as £150,000 in cryptocurrency.

ACE President Charles Rivkin said it was a "resounding victory in their fight to detect, deter, and dismantle perpetrators of digital piracy crimes."

The problem is that even though this is a major blow to piracy, pirates always find ways to circumvent the blockages and continue broadcasting content illegally, so even if a service as large as Streameast is taken down, a replacement will emerge.

As researcher Ben Woods explains, "Directly cracking down on pirates is only part of the solution. Only by exploring ways to make live sports more accessible will this issue cease to be a problem for major sports leagues."

And it's been proven time and time again that people are willing to pay a fair price for content , and that they actually prefer the ease and convenience of legitimate sites. There are hundreds of examples, such as the disappearance of pirated movies with the emergence of Netflix, or the illegal downloading of music with Spotify.