The U.S. Department of Justice said it seized more than 1,000 internet domains used to stream World Cup matches without authorization during the tournament, a crackdown aimed at both sports piracy operators and the viewers who fed them traffic.
The announcement came one day after the World Cup ended with Spain winning the tournament. According to the DOJ, Homeland Security Investigations and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center disabled the domains through three operations carried out over the course of the event.
HSI had already disclosed part of the campaign in June, when officials said nearly 400 domains had been seized for pirating matches. At that point, federal officials said they had targeted servers and domains in Bulgaria and Peru, which they described as centers for illegal streaming operations.
The DOJ framed the seizures as a consumer protection issue as well as an intellectual property case. Federal officials said many unauthorized streaming services can carry malicious software, and they warned that people using those sites may expose their devices or payment details.
Matthew Millhollin, deputy executive associate director of HSI, said in the DOJ announcement that illicit streaming sites create unknown risks for users. He said operators already willing to stream copyrighted World Cup games without permission may also try to install malware or steal financial information.
International takedowns and arrests
The DOJ said the international part of the investigation led to the takedown of hundreds of additional sites in Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Colombia.
Colombian authorities also arrested four suspected members of Los Ciberinfiltrados earlier this month, according to the DOJ. Federal officials alleged that members of the group had accessed telecommunications systems illegally and sold pirated streaming content, including World Cup matches, since 2024.
The DOJ said the group used fraudulent credentials, virtual private networks, intercepted security codes and other methods to support the unauthorized streams. In plain terms, investigators are alleging more than a website-with-a-video-player operation: they say the group broke into or abused telecom access, then resold the resulting feeds.
Law enforcement agencies have long treated sports piracy as a profitable business rather than casual fan behavior. The DOJ said fans often reach unauthorized sports streams through internet protocol television, or IPTV, services. IPTV delivers video over internet connections rather than cable or satellite infrastructure, which makes it easy for legitimate providers to distribute channels and also easy for pirate operators to package stolen feeds into subscription services.
Federal officials said those services can generate millions of dollars for their operators. The DOJ did not disclose how much money the World Cup domains allegedly made, nor did it identify the domain names in the announcement.
The seizures remove access to the domains, but they do not by themselves settle the larger problem. Live sports rights remain expensive, demand is global, and pirate IPTV services can rebuild quickly when operators still control infrastructure, credentials or customer lists. The DOJ’s announcement confirms the scale of this round: more than 1,000 domains disabled, multiple countries involved, and at least four arrests tied to the Colombian case.
This story draws on original reporting from The Record.
