Following the Money: How Cryptocurrency is Powering Sports Piracy and How We Can Stop It
Session details:
Title: Following the Money: How Cryptocurrency is Powering Sports Piracy and How We Can Stop It
Speakers:
Mark Mulready, Vice President, Cyber Services, Irdeto
Chris Pyer, Service Delivery Manager, Irdeto
Abstract:
As piracy networks grow increasingly professionalized, cryptocurrency has become a popular payment method enabling anonymity, faster transactions, and cross-border scalability. In the sports ecosystem, where live content remains the most pirated category globally, this shift is fueling an underground economy that directly threatens league and broadcaster revenues.
Drawing on Irdeto’s latest intelligence, Mark Mulready and Chris Pyer will reveal how the use of cryptocurrency by illicit service providers has climbed from 13% in 2022 to 19% by the end of 2024, with more than 20% of illicit IPTV piracy operations now accepting crypto as payment[MM1] [CP2] . They will unpack how criminals exploit encryption, mixers, and decentralized exchanges to conceal earnings—and how emerging collaborations between cybersecurity experts, financial platforms, and law enforcement are disrupting and dismantling these operations.
Why this matters for sports stakeholders:
Understanding the financial backbone of piracy is essential for protecting sports’ commercial sustainability. Leagues, rights holders, and streaming platforms cannot fully combat piracy without targeting its payment networks. This session provides a rare look inside the investigative and enforcement funnel—how crypto tracing tools, compliance partnerships, and data-driven disruption are reshaping the future of anti-piracy strategy.
Takeaways:
- Understand how cryptocurrency is transforming the funding model of sports piracy.
- Gain insight into the tools and investigative methods used to trace and disrupt crypto-based payment flows.
- Learn how financial and cybersecurity collaboration strengthens enforcement and restores revenue to rights holders.
