Sports streaming makes up a huge proportion of online piracy and attracts household name advertising campaigns.
It is estimated that the Deontay Wilder VS Tyson Fury heavyweight boxing match held on the 1st of December 2018 attracted 325,000 pay per views, whereas illegally streamed versions of the fight pulled in around 1.9 million U.S. viewers.
According to Alexa and supporting metrics, many IP infringing sports streaming websites are more prevalent in terms of traffic than their official brand counterparts including The Premier League (www.premierleague.com), NBC Sports (www.nbcsports.com) and Major League Baseball (www.mlb.com).
That’s a lot of people watching for free as compared to paying customers.
Apart from lost revenue to companies that produce and distribute paid streaming content and the inherent damage to the sporting industry, the individuals and organisations that hijack IP infringing streams are making vast sums of money via the mechanics of digital advertising and the placement of premium brand ads.
Digital advertising works on a simple premise, in the same way, that traditional advertising does. More traffic provides more ad impressions and more click-throughs. More Money.
Follow the money
The EU Commission's "follow the money" approach has been well documented (https://bit.ly/2RWghF9), and with White Bullet’s unique insights, authorities like the Commission have been able to proceed with statistically driven evidence to support them.
For example, the stats regarding advertising on IP Infringing sports streaming destinations are a growing cause for concern:
20% of the most popular pirate sites are engaged in sports streaming.
Branded advertising (including premium household names) makes up 96% of all advertising on illegal sports streaming websites. Compared to 22% on illegal websites displaying other content.
Sports streaming makes up a huge proportion of online piracy and attracts the most premium advertising campaigns.
Coupled with millions of unique monthly page views, these pirates are generating millions in advertising revenue from illegal distribution of popular content.
Paid advertising is funding criminal activity online, and this is a real problem. Brands are supporting IP infringement. Also a real problem.
How does illegal sport streaming work, and how to people know where to find it?
Streaming is easy. The internet has made it easier and continues to make it so. A pay per view ticket or paid subscription is all that is needed to share the stream across multiple websites, domains and applications. Pretty much any destination with an IP address. Now add advertising to that destination, and you are ready to go, providing you don't mind a hefty fine, confiscation of all of your IT materials and perhaps a prison sentence.
The trick is to keep the stream a secret until the moment it is needed; otherwise there's a good chance the site will be shut down before the sporting event kicks off.
Burners and Cloakers
Sounds like something out of a fantasy novel, but it's the best way to describe the sophisticated methods that illegal streaming destination sites are using to avoid detection. White Bullet is witnessing a rise in destinations that pop up for the duration of the streamed event and disappear again afterwards. These are "burners", websites to be disposed of after the event has been and gone and the ad impressions and CTR have been "counted up".
"Cloakers" are really something. They appear to the world as an innocuous lifestyle blog or similar with the relevant advertising already in situ. For the most part, these destinations don't get much traffic and nothing much really happens with them until it's time to host a streamed event illegally. Then the feed appears in a content block for the duration before leaving again once the event is over. The site and the advertising stays where it is, and no-one would suspect anything. There would be a massive spike in direct and referral traffic, however, and a whole lot of ad impressions.
Money has been made. Brands have supported IP infringing streams.
How do people find these destinations and view illegally streamed sports media?
The answer is logical and straightforward; social networks and forums and are the primary providers. Links are shared around open social networks like Reddit and closed social networks like Discord. Quality premium shared content is the lifeblood of the social web, and it's near impossible to stop links being shared.
White Bullet's solution
- DETECT
White Bullet actively detects websites, applications, communities and systems that stream premium content illegally.
These online destinations are continually monitored for infringement and assigned a risk score. This score is flexible, updating its status as the destination becomes more or less of a risk, "de-cloaks" or vanishes altogether.
White Bullet also detects the advertising displayed on pirate destinations.
The advertising data provides a unique profile into how these destinations make money and who is funding them. - DEMONETISE
Dynamic risk scores are applied to online risk destinations (websites, applications etc.) forming the basis of an always relevant toolset. This intelligence allows brands, agencies and other organisations to take preventative measures in real time and to avoid advertising on high-risk online destinations - saving brands money and protecting their integrity.
The internet moves faster than the time it takes to create and curate static lists, so the only way to stay on top of the issue is to have a solution that compiles data and reports in real-time.
In addition to destinations to avoid and proof of illegal activity, White Bullet supplies information regarding advertising on those sites and who placed it there. This provides transparency for our clients to take action within their digital supply chain.
White Bullet Solutions are pioneers and tech leaders in this space working with an ever-growing roster of clients and IP rights owners that advocate our expertise, data insights to minimise risk and protect intellectual property.
White Bullet works with policymakers and authorities including the EU Commission, UK IPO (Intellectual Property Office) and PIPCU (The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit) to enhance strategies and coordinate with stakeholders.
Get started with IPIP
Collect all your data for unified prevention, detection, and response to digital piracy.
White Bullet has helped over 3,000 brands to avoid funding digital piracy.
With over a billion dollars of ad spend funding IP infringement in 2020, it's time to work with us to stop pirates from using advertising to profit from distributing intellectual property.
Media
UK: +44 (0)203 994 1110
info@white-bullet.com
White Bullet Solutions Limited.
1 Lyric Square
London
W6 0NB
