The EFL, alongside all 72 of its member clubs, has today launched a campaign aimed at discouraging the illegal streaming of fixtures, warning that doing so will take vital revenue away from clubs.
The outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent behind-closed-doors matches mean that income generated by streaming on the League’s official service, iFollow (or club equivalent service), is more important than ever, and remains one of the only income streams available at this challenging time.
Illegal streaming, therefore, is having a greater impact on clubs whilst supporters are unable to attend matches.
The EFL and its clubs could potentially lose around a third of income from illegal streaming this season, a figure which is potentially much higher when factoring in every illegal stream.
United’s chief executive and media officer have attended EFL anti-piracy meetings this week, with the club committed to doing what it can to combat this particular illegal activity.
Nigel Clibbens said: “The EFL meetings have opened our eyes to just how much this type of pirating activity is damaging and costing clubs.
“The more people who use illegal streams, fire sticks, VPNs or other pirating software or devices, the bigger the impact. We can see the links and access codes used to create VPNs and, where possible, these will be investigated.
“We ask our fans not to subscribe to pirate streams and to help us to help the EFL to eradicate this activity by reporting any signs of illegal activity they may come across.”
Please report any illegal activity you come across to piracy@efl.com.
All emails will be treated confidentially.
Andy Hall said: “We’re seeing on Facebook that we are being directly targeted every match day on social media, and we’re doing what we can to deal with that.
“The obvious warning is that fans who follow these links are putting themselves at real risk of having their personal information farmed and used against them.
“We urge anyone to report anything they see immediately, both via the platform’s own reporting tool and to the email address shown below.”
Please report any illegal activity you come across to piracy@efl.com.
All emails will be treated confidentially.
Statistics show that over half of sports fans consume sports content from pirate services at least once a month.
Over 7,000 illegal EFL streams have been detected so far this season, with an average of 170 people viewing each stream, totalling almost 1.2million people.
Supporters in the UK accessing iFollow (or club equivalent) via a VPN are also accessing the stream illegally.
Failure to comply with the terms set out when subscribing to iFollow is a serious breach and allows the EFL to terminate the subscription.
Clubs streaming through their own services are likely to have very similar rights in their terms and conditions.
The EFL and its clubs take piracy incredibly seriously, working with a specialist security agency to proactively seek out illegal streams on all formats and taking action against businesses and individuals.
Supporters are therefore encouraged to report any illegal streams, or pubs that may be showing EFL content unlawfully, by emailing piracy@efl.com. All emails will be treated confidentially.
More information on the club’s official streaming service, iFollow, can be found HERE.
More information on the EFL campaign can be found HERE.