Launched on 4 June 2026 in Record, Portugal’s leading sports newspaper, SIGA’s weekly opinion column Linha da Frente (Front Line, in Portuguese) provides a dedicated platform to address issues at the heart of SIGA’s global agenda, including Sport Integrity, good governance, transparency, accountability, financial integrity, sports betting integrity, sustainability, youth development and protection, and the future of sport.
Click to read this week’s article in Portuguese.
Digital Success, IP Protection and Sports Integrity
Martin Bland, Commercial Director, StreamAMG (SIGA Member)
A week ago the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had seized nearly 400 sites that were streaming pirated World Cup content as part of its “Operation Offsides” campaign. Events like the FIFA World Cup 2026 are prime targets for criminals who steal popular streaming content. There are no reliable public figures that show what piracy costs FIFA but the exposure is undoubtedly in the $billions.
Football fans in Portugal will be familiar with LiveModeTV, a FIFA authorised YouTube channel launched by a Brazilian sports-media-rights business. Portugues football fans can enjoy free live streams and highlights of the 2026 World Cup, including all games featuring the Portuguese national team.
Its further evidence that sports streaming across web and mobile platforms like YouTube continues to change the traditional sports broadcasting business model. TV broadcasts will not become irrelevant, but they have a serious competitor as younger audiences seek more flexible means of consuming content on their favourite sports.
In creating an industry which offers huge opportunities for sports brands to grow their audience and generate revenue, streaming has also created a black market that is large enough to attract the same magnitude of viewers for major sports events like the FIFA World Cup. Therefore, with great opportunity comes great responsibility.
Streaming should be a fundamental part of a sports brand’s digital growth ambitions. While subscriptions are typically the primary source of revenue from an OTT platform, a freemium model does have it benefits where revenue is generated from advertising and sponsorship (FAST channels). Monetise the brands, not the fans.
It’s a strategy designed to appeal to younger audiences, and sports brands can use influencers and content creators to supplement live action and highlights. Attractive and accessible content builds large audiences and large audiences generate revenue.
YouTube is often the place to start, either directly or by selling rights to a partner. Both have benefits. They build a digital audience, provide good visibility and reach, and generate revenue, but a sports brand using YouTube has no control over who accesses that content.
Furthermore, a sports brand loses its direct relationship with its fans, as FIFA has done in this case in Portugal. For smaller sports leagues and federations, building a deep connection with its fans is absolutely critical to success. Third party platforms also result in a sports brand losing control over revenue generation, consumer data, the fans’ experience of their sport, the creative representation of their brand, originality, and greater control and protection of their IP.
This latter point is often underestimated but cannot be overstated. Illegal streaming is becoming normalised in the world of sport, and the economic damage is huge. Video piracy was estimated to cost the sports industry $34billion in 2025, while illegal sports streaming is thought to fund $150 billion for the illegal gambling market. What’s more astonishing is that enforcement is largely ineffective. 81% of all illegal streams stay live during sports events. It’s a real danger to the financial sustainability of sport, and a financially weakened sports ecosystem is more susceptible to integrity breaches.
So how do Portugues sports brands balance the opportunity with responsibility? Portugal consistently ranks as having among the highest piracy rates in Western Europe. 30 to 50% of viewers access illegal streams when watching Portuguese football matches. The Primeira Liga and its broadcasters are the primary losers. Estimates suggest that video-piracy could be eroding upwards of 70% of the potential media value for the Primeira Liga and the financial impact of video piracy across all sports in Portugal is estimated to cost €150million.
Why should the fans care? There are three primary considerations.
Firstly, a significant proportion of a sports league’s revenue comes from selling exclusive broadcast and streaming rights. If pirated streams are available, the value of the rights subsequently shrink and reduced rights values results in less investment in sport. Resources, facilities, development, innovation, talent and ultimately progression are all impacted
Secondly, if rights revenues fall, the richer leagues and the bigger clubs survive. It’s the smaller sports organisations that become especially vulnerable and struggle to remain viable. This increases inequality between teams and competitions and widens the economic gap in sports.
Thirdly, when fans become accustomed to an illicit ecosystem, piracy becomes normalized. Fans disregard the rules and licensing frameworks that are essential for the economic foundation of sport. This cultural shift erodes the integrity of the sports ecosystem and makes long-term sustainability harder.
Sports brands can reap the financial benefits of streaming while protecting their IP rights and the integrity of the game by launching their own OTT platform. YouTube is a great place to start, but should be perceived as a gateway to greater success. It should only supplement a sports brand’s own OTT platform, not replace it. A sports brand implementing its own secure OTT service has far greater control over who accesses its manifest and the multiple benefits it can offer:
- Greater IP protection and sports integrity
- Complete control of revenue generation
- Increased rights and investor value
- Strong direct connection with fans
- Consumer data and insight to help a brand understand and monetise its fans better
StreamAMG therefore works as a partner and member of SIGA to provide sports brands with great opportunities through streaming platforms, but also greater control over the financial sustainability, fairness, and cultural integrity of sports. Piracy remains one of the biggest risks to the integrity of sport and a core challenge to sports media economics. It is not a marginal issue and will only increase with consumer demand for free or cheap online content. We’re here to minimise that impact and maximise the opportunity.
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Previous Front Line articles
ABOUT SIGA
SIGA is the world’s leading organisation for Sport Integrity. We are creating a whole new landscape for the sports industry by delivering independent global rating and certification for world Sport to ensure it is governed and operates under the highest integrity standards: The SIGA Universal Standards.
Funded by our Members, SIGA is a non for profit global independent organisation with one aim: To ensure the sport industry is governed under the highest integrity standards so that the values of sport are protected.
SIGA is the only organisation to bring together sport, governments, academia, international organisations, sponsors, business, rights holders, NGOs and professional services companies, from every region in the world, around a common cause of fostering greater integrity throughout sport.
SIGA is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, as a non for-profit association, and comprises of the following continental subsidiaries: SIGA AMERICA, SIGA EUROPE and SIGA LATIN AMERICA.
For more information on SIGA, including its vision, mission and reform agenda, please refer to the website: www.siga-sport.com and FAQs.
To contact SIGA, please email: comms@siga-sport.com.