Matchroom Sport Injunction to Block Joshua vs Povetkin Illegal Streams

• Sports promoter Matchroom Sport will now be able to block streams in the UK for the next two years.
• The injunction is similar to what the Premier League received recently.
• The upcoming Alexander Povetkin versus Anthony Joshua match at the Wembley can also be blocked by Matchroom.

Piracy in the UK is getting more difficult than ever with IPTV sellers and illegal streams being heavily targeted. After the Premier League received its injunction to block soccer streams directly by partnering with ISPs like Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, and British Telecom. Matchroom Sport is the second sporting body to receive a similar injunction.

Matchroom will be able to block the upcoming high-profile match between Anthony Joshua and Alexander Povetkin at the Wembley on Saturday with the injunction already active. The court order that was processed by the High Court under Section 97a of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act can hurt pirate streams. The sports promoter hopes to put an end to piracy in the UK and stream boxing matches without losing any profits.

Unlike the Premier League, Matchroom’s injunctions against the major ISPs did not receive any response. Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, and British Telecom did not represent themselves in court which led to the court order being deemed valid on paper as there was no opposition.

According to Justice Arnold, the injunctions of the Premier League and Matchroom Sport are very similar. He stated “Although the criteria are very similar, they are to be applied by a particular form of monitoring carried out in a seven-day period prior to each Event. The details of this are confidential, in order to prevent circumvention. While it creates a theoretically greater risk of over-blocking, Matchroom’s evidence is that in practice there should be no real difference.”

Boxing matches usually do not have a fixed schedule which makes it difficult for Matchroom to communicate blocking orders to ISPs. The court order requires the sports promoter to notify ISPs at least 4 weeks in advance to successfully block pirate streams. Matchroom expects the measure to be effective and expects a large number of pirate streams to be deterred.

Do you think Matchroom Sport will be able to stop pirate fight streams in the UK? Let us know in the comments below. We’d also love to hear back from you so feel free to follow us on Facebook or Twitter.