The $500million mega-fight may have been and gone, yet the Mayweather/McGregor news continues to fill our news feeds.
This time it’s not so much about the action inside the ring, but about those of you who were watching.
According to reports, the bout between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor may have been the most pirated fight in history.
Irdeto, a digital security firm, say an estimated 2.9 million people illegally streamed the fight on Saturday 26 August.
Although the event was marketed as the biggest event in combat sports history, many sport lovers felt it wasn’t worth the $20 theatre price and especially not the $100 pay-per-view price (in America) and opted to watch illegally.
It’s reported people used social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Periscope and Twitch, through 239 different streams to tune in.
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Traditional pirate streaming sites were said to be responsible for 67 of the streams, but most viewers seemed to watch on mobile and tablet apps.
On social media, Periscope became a trending topic, with many users posting to say they were able to access streams on the app courtesy of ‘digital Robin Hoods’ – they’d shelled out money for the fight then streamed it from their account to hoards of followers.
In just a single day, Irdeto found 42 ads promoting the illegal streams on e-commerce websites like Amazon, eBay and Alibaba.
Rory O’Connor, Senior VP of Cybersecurity Services at Irdeto said in a statement:
Live sports are a cornerstone of global piracy, with thousands of sites providing illegal content attracting millions of viewers.
When combating live sports piracy, speed in disrupting piracy is essential… By identifying and stopping pirate streams in real-time through specialised knowledge and technology, content owners and operators are able to protect revenue and deliver a greater user experience.
Reports surfaced over the weekend there was a traceable code appearing on some people’s streams, that could be used to trace illegal watchers.
Hmm… something tells me this isn’t the last we’ve heard of so-called ‘mega-fights’.
