Five men who illegally streamed Premier League football matches to tens of thousands of people have been jailed at Derby Crown Court. Mark Gould, 36, the gang’s “prime mover”, was sentenced to 11 years in prison, while four other members were sentenced to between three and more than five years. The gang sold cut-price £10-a-month subscriptions, bragging they made money showing games not otherwise available to watch live in the UK due to “blackout” broadcasting rules. Their operation, described as the biggest so far, received more than £7m from 50,000 subscribers.
The fraud prosecution was brought by the Premier League to protect “some of the world’s most valuable content”. It followed a lengthy trading-standards investigation led by Hammersmith and Fulham Council. The gang took feeds from broadcasters in the UK, Qatar, the US, Australia and Canada and streamed them a few seconds later via the Flawless service. They developed apps offering Premier League matches and other content, which ran on phones and smart TVs.
The gang made £7.2m between 2016 and 2021, according to the league. Gould personally made more than £1.7m. Direct subscribers paid £10 a month to watch every Premier League game, compared with about £80 a month for legal services from Sky, BT Sport and Amazon Prime.
The case has highlighted a demand for illegal streaming created by the unavailability of many football matches on TV. Uefa allows the Premier League to prevent broadcasts of UK matches between 14:45 and 17:15 on Saturdays, in order to encourage fans to attend matches rather than watch on TV. However, Flawless offered subscribers “3pm kick-off” Premier League games, otherwise broadcast only abroad.
The gang had exchanged messages saying the “blackout” was “good for business”, accounting for 80% of subscribers. Research from the Intellectual Property Office estimates nearly four million people in the UK used an illegal source to watch live sport last year. Some pubs and bars also use illegal streams to show unavailable matches, or to avoid the cost of official services.
When investigators raided the homes of gang members, they seized computer equipment and documents detailing the operation of Flawless. As a result, they now have payment information for thousands of those who subscribed to the service. The Premier League pays the Federation Against Copyright Theft to investigate and enforce its copyright over football content. Fact visits those identified as using illegal football streaming, warning them they are potentially breaking the law, as well as issuing “cease and desist” letters to those running streams.
The Premier League’s legal team say they will now pursue other illegal streaming operators. “The Premier League’s substantial financial contribution to the entire football pyramid is made possible through the ability to sell our broadcast rights,” said Kevin Plumb, the league’s general counsel. “We are pleased that through rulings such as this, the courts continue to show that they recognise the importance of safeguarding the Premier League’s rights. We will continue to protect our rights and our fans by investigating and prosecuting illegal operators at all levels.”