Sports streaming piracy service with 123M yearly visits shut down

​Calcio, a large piracy sports streaming platform with more than 120 million visits in the past year, was shut down following a collaborative effort by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) and DAZN.

This massive illegal streaming service received more than 123 million visits over the past 12 months across 134 domains, with over 6 million monthly visits from Italy alone, making it the country’s most popular sports streaming site, according to ACE.

In total, more than 80% of Calcio’s traffic came from Italy, with visitors also originating from Spain, the United States, Germany, and France.

Calcio’s Moldova-based operator has agreed to cease operations after being approached by the two anti-piracy organizations, with all domains now transferred to ACE and redirecting to ACE’s Watch Legally website.

The piracy platform provided its visitors unauthorized access to various sports streams, including but not limited to:

• European football leagues (e.g., Serie A, Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1),
• UEFA club competitions (e.g., Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League),
• International competitions (including the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA EURO championship),
• basketball leagues, including the NBA,
• motorsports (including Formula 1 and Moto GP),
• tennis matches, and many more.

​”Shutting down illegal operations like Calcio is vital for protecting fans, safeguarding jobs, and preserving the value and integrity of live sports. ACE and DAZN’s decisive action in removing this site has prevented further harm to the wellbeing of the sports ecosystem,” said Ed McCarthy, COO of DAZN Group, a British streaming and entertainment platform.

“Piracy diminishes the commercial value of a live sports broadcast well before the final whistle blows, harming broadcasters, sports leagues, and fans alike,” added Larissa Knapp, Executive Vice President at the Motion Picture Association (MPA).

ACE is a coalition focused on shutting down illegal streaming services and comprising more than 50 media and entertainment firms from around the world, including major film studios and television networks such as Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios, Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV+, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

In previous actions, it targeted large-scale illegal streaming networks in joint operations with law enforcement organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice, Europol, and Interpol.

Earlier this year, ACE was also involved in joint actions that led to the shutdown of Streameast, which claimed to be the world’s largest illegal live sports streaming network, and of Rare Breed TV, another illegal IPTV service provider that offered subscribers access to more than 28,000 channels and over 100,000 movies and series.

Another ACE action led to the sentencing of Kristopher Lee Dallmann, the ringleader of the Jetflicks, a massive pirate streaming operation with tens of thousands of subscribers, to seven years in prison.