Illegal Premier League Streamers Hit By Jail Sentence
Five men who illegally streamed Premier League football matches to tens of thousands of people have been jailed.
The gang, who were based in South London, sold cut-price £10-a-month subscriptions to a platform that allowed UK viewers to watch Premier League games that are not broadcast in the country owing to the ‘3pm blackout’ rule.
Their operation, described as the biggest so far, received more than £7m from 50,000 subscribers.
The sentencing follows a rare private prosecution by the Premier League.
The group, aged between 30 and 46, were sentenced on Tuesday at Chesterfield Crown Court for a number of different offences for selling the sticks that facilitated the illegal streams.
The group used three different organisations to sell the streaming services between 2016 and 2021.
The fraud prosecution was brought to protect ‘some of the world’s most valuable content’, the league’s lawyers said.
The personal details of many of those who paid for illegal are now in the hands of investigators, which has raised questions over whether they will also receive a form of punishment.
