174B Illegal Stream Views on the World Cup and its Black Market Connection

Over a month on from the World Cup, and the prestigious competition has notched up another record. Though this is barely one to be proud of. A report by Gaming Compliance International (GLI), has found that over 174.3 billion illegal live streams of the competition were viewed during the event. And of those, 95% carried ads for black market gambling operators, meaning who knows how many people were exposed to these unregulated sites.

If anything, it has raised attention to the sheer magnitude of illegal gambling ads across the net, and while there are efforts all around the world to mitigate their spread, there are territories that regulators simply cannot crack. These pirate streams have just been cast into the spotlight because of the massive demand for them during the FIFA World Cup – even though a record 220 territories secured broadcasting rights to the competition. Many of these territories either had fully or partial free-to-air access to the World Cup. Where not, there were possibly paid subscriptions or games included on major domestic TV broadcasters.

This didn’t have much of an impact, as illegal stream sites racked up billions of views. On top of this, it seems like pirate sports streams are becoming a major platform for black market operators to target sports fans, and there are countries where this issue has not been addressed yet.

174B World Cup Illegal Stream Views

Gaming Compliance International creates regulatory technology and mainly specialises in gambling law compliance and fighting the black market. This company is regularly at the forefront of tracking digital trends, helping authorities measure their revenue, and they also make reports on the black market, which is where this latest figure comes from. According to the GCI’s findings, the FIFA World Cup was viewed over 174.3 billion times across illegal streams.

Views in this context were counted as streams that were watched for at least 90 seconds, and it didn’t count unique viewers but just running streams. The final games of the tournament, the Spain-Argentina final had around 6.2 billion views, and the England-France third place tie drew in 2 billion. And the average for games across the entire tournament was about 1.68 billion.

Now this World Cup shattered many records, reaching a phenomenal $4.3 billion betting handle (in America alone), eclipsing the March Madness 2026 betting handle. But this is an unwanted record. What makes it more depressing for regulators is that over 220 territories had broadcasting rights to the competition, and many offered partial free access.

Why Illegal Streams Are So Valuable to the Black Market

What will make the news even more concerning is that 95% of the illegal stream sites had unregulated gambling site ads. Matthew Holt, the chief executive of GCI, said

“When 95% of qualifying illegal stream views carry advertising for unregulated gambling, illegal streaming is not simply stealing content… It is providing one of the world’s largest sporting audiences as an acquisition channel for the unregulated gambling economy.”

The links between illegal streaming sites and black market operators exist for a multitude of reasons. The audiences that use illegal streaming sites are mostly dedicated sports fans who have gone out of their way to find streaming sites and plough through all kinds of ads, all to watch their sports live. They are highly engaged, and as they are watching the games live, it also lends to interest in live betting. Black market operators can then pitch their ads with some of the following in mind:

• Relevant promotions (on the main competition being watched – in this case the World Cup)
• Live betting options (so players can sign up and bet on the game they are watching on the stream)
• Flash deals or pressured ads (sign up now, you don’t have much time left to get this promo)

The other strong aspects of pirate stream sites are that they:

• Don’t have the same safeguards as social media or other sites
• Cater to international audiences – these are not local or domestic sites (for the most part)
• Have a much lower customer acquisition cost

The final relates to how much the black market gambling operator has to pay to advertise their brands. On social media channels, messaging apps or even payment providers, the cost tends to be extremely high. On pirate sites, it can be dirt cheap.

Other Advertising Platforms

Pirate streams are an attractive funnel for the black market advertising industry, but it is not the only one. There are plenty of routes these black market operators can take when looking to acquire more customers.

• Social Media
• Influencers
• Search results
• Messaging apps and platforms
• Online forums

Even webshops, affiliate sites, online marketplaces and payment platforms can inadvertently sell advertising space to a dodgy or unregulated site. Not the major ones, for the most part, but you could encounter some kind of black market gambling site when on a gaming app, or while browsing through a webshop for kitchen products. Targeting these is difficult for operators, but the audience who happen across a black market operator whilst playing Angry Birds on their phone, or looking for pressure cookers on their laptop – they are not very likely to take much of an interest. It is not really the dedicated audience.

However, social media can be a very strong channel for black market operators. It is becoming harder, especially as the likes of Meta and Twitter continuously tighten their gambling ads policies. But black market operators can still use workarounds on these sites, or target social media sites or messaging apps with relatively looser laws.

Internet Personalities and Influencers Impact

Influencers fall into a category of their own. The content they make can transcend one platform, especially with the more popular influencers, who may have outlets in short form videos (clips, reels, etc), long form videos, streams (broadcasts, vlogs, etc), written posts, uploaded pictures (grid posts, feed posts, carousel posts), snaps (disappearing photos and stories), and even memes (viral images, reaction pictures/gifs, internet jokes). Now think about the audiences that these influencers speak to, it can range widely, from the family-friendly general ones to people who target very specific niches – like male 18-30 yr old football fans.

For black market operators, influencers are a strong opportunity. They can be cheaper than the advertising space sold on social media and other outlets, and the right influencer can have a massive dedicated following who will be highly interested. It doesn’t have to be straight up endorsing either, it can even be brand marketing in some of their content – like the Manchester United (MANU ) viral haircut fan who had illegal gambling sponsors in his content.

Targeting Illegal Gambling Ads

The problem is that with these influencers, social media, and many of the other channels, it is very difficult to control who receives these ads. An influencer with sports-oriented content could easily have a following of teenage fans or even children. This is a very real issue that authorities around the world are trying to tackle. In America, there was a study last year that indicated thousands of teenage boys had bet on sports with real money. The Dutch authorities banned Share Your Bet and tightened their regulation on gambling ads last year, and are now even contemplating an outright gambling ban on bonuses to help mitigate the inducements in ads.

In the UK, a special Illegal Gambling Taskforce was set up for this very purpose. And the UK Treasury dedicated £26 million to the UK Gambling Commission to bolster the responsible gambling tools, research the space, and combat the black market. The pirate stream sites are much more difficult to target because these are already illegal and operate outside the law.

Dangers of Gambling Ads on Unreliable Sites

Hitting the illegal stream sites is an ongoing process, but one that becomes tricky as the providers just move domains, hide their operations across skin sites, and continuously cloak their operations. Last year, a man was arrested in the UK for running three illegal streaming sites. He had made an estimated £1 million from the operation. People who run these sites are punished severely, but it doesn’t change the fact that there are seemingly always people to replace their supply in the market.

The gambling authorities, on the other hand, continue to use their own methods to target the black market, through blocking payment methods, blocking domains, striking them off search engines, and flushing out the gambling ads space. We also recently covered how technology or game providers can help fight the black market – on the back of the UK Gambling Commission penalising Evolution.

The next step, after this World Cup, is for the authorities to come together and think about how to target these illegal streamers even harder. Perhaps the scale, and the sheer international reach of it, will give them the motivation and raise attention to the issue enough to prompt a serious reaction.