A new Grant Thornton report, prepared in collaboration with the Live Content Coalition, confirms that illegal broadcasts of sporting events and other live events remain one of the main threats for rights holders, including LaLiga. Two years after the European Commission published its recommendation to combat this phenomenon, the data show that the problem remains latent, but also that there is an awareness among the operators due to the impact it has, evolving identification work for the consequent notifications to intermediaries, and increasing resources for it.
In 2024 at least 10.8 million notifications were sent to digital intermediaries (DSP’s, online platforms and others) for unauthorized broadcasts of live events. During the first semester of 2025 the situation shot until reaching 26.2 million notifications in this period of 18 monthswhich is a 142% increase In this first half of the year 2025. 89% of notifications did not result in suspension of illegal transmissions, according to this report.
Deficiencies in efficacy and response times
In this context in which the data confirms that the piracy of live events is a large -scale problem, with this significant increase in notifications sent to intermediaries, it also highlights the decline in the effectiveness of the answers: only 11% of the notifications ended in the suspension of illegal broadcasts in these 18 months, when in the second semester of 2024 that ratio was 19%, but In the first semester of 2025 the figure fell to 5%.
The study also analyzes the deficiency in the speed of response of the intermediaries. Only 6% of the infractions were treated in 30 minutes from the notice and 21% took more than two hours.
Current challenges with intermediaries
Between January 2024 and June 2025, the Dedicated Servants Suppliers (DSP) registered a total of 12 million notifications per yearwhich represents 46% of the total sent. These actors, who supply and manage the technical infrastructure, physical servers and network capacity on which many illegal platforms operate, have become a key actor within the content value chain. Online platforms congregate 5% of notifications, while the remaining 49% responds to ‘other online infrastructure service providers’, such as CDN and Inverse Proxy services.
Between the DSP and the category of “other hosting suppliers” most notices are concentrated, and with a very low effectiveness: 91% and 97% respectively did not translate into suspensions. In contrast, online platforms show better results, with 97% suspensions, although a serious recidivism problem persists in this case, where 90% of illegal emissions reappeared in less than 24 hours.
In 2025, notices aimed at other hosting suppliers such as Cloudflare also increased, employed in some cases to hide the servers that house the content, thus making it difficult to apply the antipiratry measures.
The importance of a joint response
The report also indicates that cooperation agreements remain limited, as They represent only 5% of the notifications issued during 2024 and the first semester of 2025.
This season, LaLiga has launched a new awareness campaign with the motto “You have pirate football. They have you”which seeks to raise awareness about the consequences of resorting to unofficial emissions. The initiative not only highlights the damage that these practices cause sports, but above all the risks to which users are exposed: malware, theft of personal information, bank fraud, and so on.
In Spain, LaLiga has registered a decrease in piracy of 60% during the 2024/25 season recently finished. With the evaluation of the recommendation provided by the European Commission in November 2025, LaLiga highlights the importance of a coordinated response that combines technology, social awareness, institutional cooperation and legal action to protect the value of sport and other live events, the integrity of fans and users, as well as to guarantee the sustainability of these events in the face of illegal broadcasts.
