The Mystery of Mobdro’s Shutdown Clears up as Spanish Polish Announce Arrest
Published on March 11, 2021
- A Spanish citizen believed to be involved in the operation of Mobdro was arrested in Valencia.
- Another three individuals were taken in for questioning in Andorra, and more arrests may follow soon.
- This solves and mystery of Mobdro’s sudden disappearance and answers all questions regarding whether it’ll return online.
When Mobdro went offline about two weeks ago, users started questioning what happened, wondered whether they should uninstall it or wait for the platform to come back online, and we gave you five good alternatives to consider for your streaming and VoD needs. Now, Eurojust has announced that the Spanish law enforcement authorities have actually arrested one suspect in Valencia who is believed to be involved in the operation of the pirating platform, while three more individuals have been taken in for questioning in Andorra.
As the EU Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation details, Mobdro was being used by about 43 million people worldwide - a very impressive number, no doubt. These internet users were paying for a subscription on Mobdro, making the illegal platform operators an estimated profit of at least 5 million euros. The Spanish police launched an investigation back in 2018, when the Spanish Professional Football League (La Liga Española de Fútbol), the Premier League, and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) submitted relevant complaints about the illegal and unlicensed transmission of content through Mobdro.
The action day was coordinated by Eurojust. It involved the simultaneous search on four separate locations where the platform’s servers were hosted, in Spain, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. While infrastructure in these countries was found and seized, the arrests were limited to Spain and Andorra for now, from what we can deduce. The subsequent investigations supported by the ongoing interrogations may lead to more arrests soon.
This explains the sudden departure of Mobdro from the online world and the pirate TV broadcasting space specifically and also answers all questions about whether it will come back at any time in the future. If you see anything pretending to be a continuation or a reboot of Mobdro, it is obviously a scam, and you stay away from it.
And while we're on the topic of avoidance, we would advise you to stay away from pirating platforms in general, as these raids, seizures, and arrests automatically mean subscription amount losses for the users. Most importantly, though, they could mean legal trouble, as user identification details may be stored on these platforms' servers, and rightsholder groups could seek action against a sample of people just to make an example out of them.
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