‘Concerning’ illegal streaming report exposes amount of people using devices in UK

A report into illegal streaming in the UK has found that a majority of Brits who are sports fans consider it 'socially acceptable' to break the law if it means they get to watch their team.

According to the Telegraph, the Sport Industry Report 2026 warned that about four million people in the UK had used illegal means to watch sport in 2023, and dodgy devices such as cracked Fire Sticks were a big part of the industry.

Police are cracking down on the devices, going after people selling them while warning those who illegally stream with them that you can actually go to jail for using one.

Amazon themselves are also trying to tackle the apps which get loaded onto the dodgy devices, but the report notes that most of the people using them think what they're doing is fine.

58 percent of fans and 66 percent of professionals think it is 'now socially acceptable to use pirate streaming services', which comes as other results highlight the number one concern for sports fans in the UK is 'affordability'.

Millions of Brits have watched illegal streams with a dodgy device (Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)

Two-thirds of sports fans think watching live sport will become a luxury within the next five years as rising prices make it harder for them to show up in person.

However, watching along at home is also very expensive, with a report from The Guardian last year warning that between 2020 and 2025, fans were 'paying almost 60 percent' a year more to watch the most popular games and competitions.

If you were a Premier League fan in the UK and wanted to make sure you didn't miss a game, you'd need to pay for several monthly subscriptions and you still wouldn't be able to see them all as the 3pm blackout would stop you from doing so through legal means.

Tech expert James Bore spoke to LADbible about the changes in the streaming market, saying it started out as 'convenient' when 'there were one or two providers of it'.

He said things had gone from people thinking 'this will make illegal streaming disappear' to the market starting to 'fragment and balkanize' so people were left with multiple streamers that would 'fight over content' and need their own subscription.

A growing number of Brits think it's become 'socially acceptable' to watch something with an illegal streaming device (Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)

If lots of people are using illegal streaming devices and public attitudes are turning towards them being 'socially acceptable' that's a big problem for efforts to crack down on the dodgy market.

Thousands of streams have been shut down and warnings have been issued to those using them but it's a running battle where the audience for illegal streaming is strong and the people doing it don't think they're in the wrong.

If you have a few million people using dodgy devices to watch things they're not allowed to see then it's going to be an uphill struggle.

Those trying to crack down on illegal streaming have warned that you might not just get in trouble with the law, but also anyone who collects the data you input on the dodgy device.