Premier League match between Fulham and Liverpool. Photo: Associated Press Three men have received sentences totalling 17 years for illegally streaming Premier League soccer games in the UK. Steven King, who masterminded the fraud, was given seven years and four months’ imprisonment, while Paul Rolston received a sentence of six years and four months and Daniel Malone a sentence of three years and three months. Trading under the names Dreambox (unincorporated), Dreambox TV Limited, and Digital Switchover Limited, the three men provided illegal access to Premier League football via websites at dreamboxtv.co.uk and yourfootie.com. Premium content from more than 20 broadcasters around the world was streamed to more than 1,000 pubs, clubs, and homes throughout England and Wales over a period of ten years, earning the fraudulent companies more than £5 million. They teamed up with various third parties in the UK and across Europe to create the illegal streams - one was Terry O’Reilly, who was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in 2016 for conspiracy to defraud the Premier League and its pay-TV providers. Handing down the sentences, the judge described the operation as a 'dishonest, dodgy business' and also described the pub-owners involved as 'profoundly dishonest'. "Today’s decision has provided further evidence that the law will catch up with companies and individuals that defraud rights owners and breach copyright. The custodial sentences issued here reflect the seriousness and the scale of the crimes," says Premier League director of legal Services Kevin Plumb. "The Premier League's investment into cutting edge technology, combined with wide-ranging anti-piracy actions such as the one here today and the continuing landmark blocking injunction, means that it has never been more difficult for football piracy to operate in the UK." Last July, the Premier League was successful in persuading a judge to reissue an order requiring the UK’s major internet service providers, including Sky, BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, plusnet and EE, to block and disrupt servers hosting illegal streams of matches. The previous year, it was able to block 5,000 server IP addresses that were streaming its content illegally. The Premier League recently opened an office in Singapore with the aim of cracking down further in the region, indicating that it would use the same blocking techniques; last year it was successful in winning an injunction against several Singaporean ISPs.
over two men have been sentenced to a total of The previous year in prison for illegally streaming IP coverage to pubs, clubs and other venues across the country. The enterprise, conducted Three websites, netted the trio £5m ( $6.6m ) over a decade.