Hundreds of illegal sports streams and IPTV platforms blocked after DAZN obtains unprecedented court order

Live sports broadcasting platform DAZN has cracked down on several streaming websites and IPTV platforms.

DAZN, which is a streaming platform available to over 200 countries, first launched in June 2015 and became the home of Matchroom Boxing shows after the companies agreed a five-year deal reportedly worth around £740m in May 2018 to promote 16 fights in the US.

The streaming platform announced a further five-year deal with Matchroom – owned by boxing promotor Eddie Hearn - in June 2021.

In February 2025, DAZN also agreed a deal to broadcast Frank Warren's Queensberry boxing events.

Although they do not hold the rights to Premier League football in the UK, DAZN is a huge player across Europe and broadcasts English top-flight games in countries such as Spain and Portugal.

However, the platform is currently in the process of combating illegal streamers with Telecompaper reporting that Belgian internet providers "have blocked 100 streaming websites and five IPTV platforms since 05 April due to concerns of copyright infringement. The measures were taken following a court order obtained by the sports broadcaster DAZN and its platform 12th Player”.

This comes after a change in the country’s law back in 2022 meaning internet service providers (ISPs) such as Proximus, Telenet, Orange Belgium and Voo must implement Domain Name System blocking at their own expense.

Telecompaper also explains how “Internet platforms such as Cloudflare, Google and Cisco must also comply or risk fines of EUR 100,000 per day”.

DAZN’s research reportedly found that a third of Belgians aged 16-24 use illegal streams to watch football - costing broadcasters upwards of £180m per year in damages.

DAZN broadcasts to over 200 countries (Credit:Getty)

Speaking at The Financial Times’ Business of Football Summit in February 2025, DAZN’s head of global rights Tom Burrows explaining how piracy and illegal streams were a “problem” for the broadcaster.

“We’re getting to the stage where it’s almost a crisis for the sports rights industry,” said Burrows as reported by The Athletic.

“Media-rights deals have been done on the basis of exclusivity but I think there’s almost an argument to say you can’t get exclusive rights anymore because piracy is so bad.

“In the past, the broadcasters have funded the financial gap (caused by piracy) but I don’t think that’s going to continue and, if we can’t find a way to bridge that gap, it will be the sports themselves that suffer.”