Bolton Wanderers is supporting the EFL's Anti-Piracy campaign which launched today - aiming to prevent illegal streaming which takes important revenue from clubs on a match-by-match basis.
The EFL has launched an anti-piracy campaign with all 72 Clubs to send a strong message that piracy and illegal streams hurt clubs.
Most people would never steal from a shop, friends or family but pirates are regularly taking money away from their club, due to the fact that revenue from streaming goes directly back to EFL Clubs.
As well as having implications on the finances of football clubs during a time where COVID-19 restrictions are having a huge impact on revenue streams and, illegally streaming football matches can get you into trouble, with civil and criminal action a real possibility.
The Stats 2020/21*
- Almost 7,000 illegal EFL streams have been detected so far this season - with an average of 170 people viewing each stream – that’s almost 1.2 million people.
- The EFL and subsequently its Clubs could potentially lose at least a third of its income from illegal streaming this season, the reality is that this figure is probably a lot higher as it is impossible to detect every illegal stream.
- Over half of sports fans consume sports content from pirate services at least once a month*
- Over a quarter of those using illegal sites and services have paid these services for access*
- Just 16% of online sports fans say they never watch via illegal sources*
- To highlight the scale of the illegal market, a recent study estimated that 3.6% of the EU population stream copyright infringing IPTV (which corresponds to 16 million people), whereas the revenue generated by illegal IPTV was estimated to be nearly €1 billion in 2018.
*Taken from an Ampere Analysis white paper in 2020 entitled charting global sports piracy