Carrillo de Albornoz (LALIGA): "Behind illegal IPTV are mafias, malware, and the erosion of Spanish sport."

In the digital age, content creators face a daily enemy that directly threatens the sustainability of their business models: piracy . The film, music, and sports industries are affected by illegal activity that includes not only the unauthorized distribution of protected audiovisual content, but also its access and reproduction . While user awareness grows, legal action is sharpened, and detection technologies are refined, the organizations affected believe that much remains to be done . All of this will be addressed by the forum "Invisible Collaborators: Those Facilitating the Business of Audiovisual Fraud ," organized by El Confidencial in conjunction with LALIGA on May 23rd. All interested parties can still register for free. The event will feature participation by Susana Curic, General Manager of AWS (Amazon Web Services) in Spain and Portugal; Oscar Vilda, CEO of DAZN in Spain; and Javier Tebas , President of LALIGA, among other prominent representatives of the sector.

And the largest Spanish professional football competition considers content piracy to be the most important challenge facing the sports ecosystem because it directly impacts its economic value and, furthermore, does so in real time . So much so that José Ignacio Carrillo de Albornoz , LALIGA's Global Content Protection Manager, warns that it is "a practice that is not at all marginal," but rather "driven by organized and professionalized networks that act as true parallel economies." Of all the existing formats, the one that most concerns the organization is illegal IPTV , as it represents the most widespread and sophisticated form of illicit broadcasting. "These platforms function as complete commercial ecosystems that offer thousands of channels, including live matches , for rock-bottom prices," the expert explains.

"Behind IPTV are mafias operating with servers, alternative payment systems, and customer service via Telegram or Discord."

But who is behind IPTV? Carrillo de Albornoz is blunt: "These networks are orchestrated by mafias that operate with servers, resellers, commercial promotion strategies, marketing teams, conventional and alternative payment systems, and real-time customer service through Telegram, WhatsApp, or Discord," he asserts. The threat, therefore, goes beyond illegal access to content because "these networks replicate legal services without assuming responsibility , constantly mutate their infrastructure, and hide through the use of technologies such as reverse proxies provided by large multinationals like Cloudflare , making them difficult to detect and eliminate," he explains.

To date, the economic impact of piracy has been significant. LALIGA alone estimates annual losses ranging between €600 and €700 million . This figure translates, in concrete terms, into 12 clubs potentially going without audiovisual revenue for an entire season, resulting in losses that directly affect investment in players , facilities, youth teams, and social initiatives. "Furthermore," adds the representative of the organization, "by law we allocate up to 3% of our revenue to the Higher Sports Council (CSD), which translates into € 200 million of investment allocated to grassroots and federation sports in the last Olympic cycle (2020-2024). This means that piracy also erodes the foundations of the entire national sports ecosystem."

Among the internet services involved in the illegal broadcasting network, content distribution services (CDN), anonymization (such as Cloudflare), hosting (Hosting/DSP), search engines, apps, social networks and messaging applications play a fundamental role . The competition explains that "while content distribution and hosting services offer the basic technological infrastructure for criminal organizations to offer the pirated service, other platforms such as Telegram, X (Twitter), WhatsApp, Signal and Discord are used to promote illegal links, offer technical support and manage payments. In addition, services like the aforementioned Cloudflare make it difficult to detect the source of illegal content."

In this regard, Carillo de Albornoz denounces that each service plays its role in ensuring the continued existence of audiovisual fraud. “While large companies like YouTube, Twitch, Scaleway, CDN77, Akamai, and Facebook actively collaborate with LALIGA to combat piracy, other content distribution, hosting, anonymization, search engine, and encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp are showing worrying resistance ,” he laments, adding that “the lack of active involvement of these intermediaries allows many illegal networks to continue operating with impunity and widespread reach.”

Legal and technological measures implemented

LALIGA has long been combating this threat through a strategy based on legal action and technology , but also on institutional collaboration and awareness-raising . In the first area, a final ruling by Barcelona Commercial Court No. 6 allows for dynamic IP blocking with judicial endorsement . "This ruling has been upheld even in the face of appeals from companies like Cloudflare," emphasizes the head of Global Content Protection. In practice, more than 675,000 illegal transmissions have been blocked since December 2024.

But the risk also extends to the users themselves who consume pirated content. "Many applications shared by illegal networks contain Trojans , keyloggers , and other types of malware designed to steal personal information, banking data , images, or identify a device's location," warns Carrillo de Albornoz. In some cases, infected devices are incorporated into botnets that are then used for cyberattacks . According to LALIGA, "it is surprising how many users give up full access to their information in exchange for supposedly free content." In this regard, the National Police has warned that simply visiting a malicious website is enough for hidden scripts to compromise a device's security.

"Many apps on illegal networks contain Trojans, ransomware, and other types of malware designed to steal personal information."

In parallel to the economic impact on sport, the Spanish competition warns that content piracy connects with international criminal networks, which it financially supports: "Their profits are reinvested in other criminal activities such as drug trafficking , terrorism , and money laundering ," LALIGA explains. Operation Blue Corsair , with more than 78,000 users and €42 million defrauded, exemplifies the real danger of these networks. "In this way," Carrillo de Albornoz continues, "whoever accesses pirated content not only breaks the law, but also unknowingly collaborates with organizations that represent a direct threat to public safety."

This is one of the reasons why LALIGA doesn't limit itself to fighting piracy in the courts or through technology, but also seeks to promote cultural change. Through information campaigns in the press, television, and digital platforms, it aims to "educate" society about the real consequences of illegal content consumption. With the slogan that piracy "isn't free," it aims to raise public awareness about the damage it causes to sports, clubs, and users themselves.

This professional football organization believes that the future of the fight against piracy requires a firm commitment from all stakeholders in the digital ecosystem. This is especially true in the case of live sports because "although industries such as film, TV series, and music also suffer the effects of piracy, we have a critical unique feature: market value disappears as soon as the event concludes ," explains the head of Global Content Protection.

All these reasons lead LALIGA to insist that "without the collaboration of technological intermediaries —content distribution services, hosting, anonymization, messaging platforms, social networks, search engines, app stores —it will be impossible to eradicate these practices." Carrillo de Albornoz concludes with a message of responsibility : "It is necessary that all links in the digital chain act legally and ethically. Only in this way can we guarantee the viability of sport as an industry , protect fans, and ensure that content reaches users in safe and legitimate conditions."