Bundesliga win landmark court case to block streaming service that could have implication for all football fans

Germany's Bundesliga and its primary broadcaster partner have won a court case that could now set the tone for similar action in other countries.

The German Football League (DFL) and DAZN, its lead broadcaster, obtained a landmark ruling that will see the streaming website livetv.sx blocked on the grounds that it is responsible for 'a large proportion of illegal streams' in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Football fans around the world are able to access illegal streams of live matches with increasing ease, with various well-known methods offering a magic key that millions are only to happy to use to watch their teams.

The popularity of these services is a result of technology advancing and legal streams providing the raw materials to tempt fans to work around the expensive and fragmented combination of subscriptions required to enjoy matches as they happen.

Illegal streaming isn't just a football phenomenon, but sport is usually at the forefront of sketchy workarounds.

In Germany and elsewhere – the Premier League has won a series of cases against the people behind the Flawless streaming service in England – sport is also leading the way when it comes to tackling the issue in the courts.

BILD reports that the Bundesliga case was brought by the Copyright Enforcement Unit on the Internet (CUII) with input from the DFL and DAZN, whose CEO in the German-speaking region addressed the estimated $28 billion lost to sport-related piracy every year.

"For DAZN, this directly undermines the value of the rights in which we invest heavily," explained Alice Mascia.

"However, the impact extends far beyond that: it affects the entire ecosystem – from leagues and clubs to players, production, and innovation."

Broadcasters pay enormous amounts for the rights to football in Germany and elsewhere, and the various actions to bring down illegal streaming are driven by the need to protect that investment into the sport.

It's no surprise, then, that the broadcast partners themselves are leading the charge.

The authorities are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to suppressing illegal streaming services but their tools are getting more sophisticated too.

"We have been fighting illegal streaming providers like livetv.sx for years as part of a broader, industry-wide approach – both globally and regionally," said Mascia.

"We have achieved remarkable successes over the years. However, this fight can never be relaxed, as these sites are operated by criminal organisations that operate across multiple jurisdictions and continuously change domains and technical infrastructure to evade enforcement."

What could this ruling mean for football fans around the world?

livetv.sx has been active for more than a decade but blocking its services will be a drop in the ocean globally.

Illegal streaming abhors a vacuum and those matches will be available by other means in no time.

Football bodies could move towards a more singular legal streaming vision, which has been long been suggested as perhaps the only way to meaningfully quell the alternative.

Even then, the days of moody match coverage are likely to continue.