The scale of digital sports piracy and its dangerous link to unlicensed gambling in the United Kingdom has been laid bare in a stark new report, revealing an epidemic that has more than doubled in just three years.
An Explosion in Illegal Streaming and Betting
According to the Campaign for Fairer Gambling's (CFG) national 2024-25 report, produced by intelligence platform Yield Sec, the number of illegal streams of sports events in Britain has skyrocketed from 1.8 billion in 2022 to a staggering 3.6 billion last year. This alarming growth is happening alongside a parallel surge in black-market gambling.
The report details a symbiotic relationship between the two illicit industries. It found that a remarkable 89% of illegal sports streams in the UK feature advertisements for unlicensed bookmakers. This pipeline has helped illegal betting operators capture a 9% share of Britain's £8.2 billion online gambling market in the first half of 2025, a huge leap from just 2% in 2022. Their revenue for that period reached £379 million.
Organised Crime Targets the Mainstream
Ismail Vali, founder of Yield Sec, warned that illegal gambling is now the primary commercial driver behind sports piracy. "For the first time, illegal gambling’s focus upon two core audiences in Great Britain – the underage and self-excluded gamblers – looks set to shift into mainstream audiences via the gateway of illegal streaming," he stated.
Vali explained the criminal logic simply: "When illegal gambling becomes the commercial engine behind the theft of premium sports content, the explanation is clear: it is because crime can make money from it." The report argues this ecosystem was initially built to target vulnerable individuals but is now deliberately pushing into the mainstream.
Regulatory Challenges and Industry Concerns
Despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves announcing £26 million in funding for the Gambling Commission in last autumn's budget to combat the black market, the CFG accuses the regulator of having long underestimated the problem. Derek Webb, founder of the CFG, claimed "Britain is becoming a soft touch" and that authorities have allowed sport to be "infected by organised criminality."
The Premier League, whose global TV rights are worth around £12 billion, is on the front line. Its anti-piracy team removed more than 230,000 live streams from social media and over 430,000 infringing links from Google in the 2024-25 season alone. Yet, these efforts are dwarfed by the report's findings, highlighting the immense challenge.
There are also fears within the licensed gambling industry that upcoming tax changes, specifically an increase in online gaming duty from 21% to 40% in April, could inadvertently drive more punters towards unlicensed, untaxed black-market operators, further exacerbating the crisis.
