BANGKOK – Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation and Cyber Police have taken apart a major illegal streaming network for English Premier League football. The group ran a covert website with more than 100,000 paying users and pulled in over $6 million a year.
Pol Capt Khemachart Prakaihongmanee, director of the Bureau of Technology and Cyber Crime, led a raid on a key site, a warehouse in the Pak Kret district of Nonthaburi. The facility sat on more than five rai, about 8,000 square metres, and operated as a signal interception and conversion hub.
Police seized equipment used for illegal live streaming, including racks of computer servers, signal decoding boxes, satellite dishes, and mobile phones. They also confiscated bank passbooks for mule accounts used to launder money.
Signals from other affected operators were detected, including MONO, Netflix, and TV Channel 3.
Investigators said the website had at least 100,000 members, brought in more than 200 million baht a year, and was tied to a major online gambling network with annual revenues from its various sites exceeding 1 billion baht.
Access to the site required an encrypted VPN and invite-only forums. Subscribers paid about $5 a month for ad-free HD streams of Premier League fixtures, Champions League ties, and Thai League 1 matches.
At its height, the platform had around 120,000 active users, many in Southeast Asia, where legitimate packages can cost up to 1,500 baht ($45) per season through services like TrueVisions.
Police Mapped Groups Command Chain
Investigators estimate the operation earned about 220 million baht ($6.5 million) last year. The cash moved through 150 mule accounts, avoiding tax and washing funds into property and cryptocurrencies. Forensics teams traced over 2,000 gigabytes of pirated material, with losses to rights holders, including the Football Association Premier League, put at more than 2.9 billion baht ($85 million).
The breakthrough followed a year-long undercover push that mixed cyber forensics with overseas tips. The Technology and Cyber Crime Bureau, acting on information from FAPL’s anti-piracy unit in Singapore, infiltrated admin chatrooms by posing as unhappy bettors. Deputy director Ratchapruk Choodam said officers gained trust by posing as fans struggling with buffering, then mapped the group’s command chain.
The bust brings a rare success in a fight that often feels uphill. Thailand has millions of Premier League followers, and many turn to free or low-cost streams as subscription prices climb. Surveys suggest 43 percent of fans in the region choose illegal sites.
The Premier League, whose Thai rights for 2025 to 2026 were recently acquired by TrueVisions, praised the DSI for disrupting a network that siphoned advertising income from licensed broadcasters.
Internet Piracy Cases
Yet the wider picture remains tough. The DSI, set up in 2008 to handle complex crime, faces tight budgets and turf disputes. The Royal Thai Police’s Economic Crimes Division can tackle street-level counterfeit goods, such as the 4,499 raids in 2011 that seized 2.2 million fake DVDs.
Online piracy, however, needs specialist skills that are still scarce. A veteran DSI police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said many officers were trained for an earlier era, while pirates now mirror sites with AI and use blockchain payments. Last year, the agency handled only 13 internet piracy cases. Four ended in settlements, a small number compared with an estimated 7 to 10 billion baht in yearly losses from film, music, and sports piracy.
Legal gaps make enforcement harder. Thailand’s 1994 Copyright Act allows fines up to 800,000 baht ($24,000) and prison terms up to four years for commercial infringement, yet penalties often drop to far lower sums. Some cases end with fines as low as 20,000 baht ($600), which fails to deter large groups that quickly regroup on servers hosted abroad, including in Cambodia.
The 2024 Special 301 Report from the U.S. Trade Representative criticized ongoing piracy in Thailand and pushed for reforms such as mandatory ISP takedowns and landlord liability. Proposed amendments remain stuck in parliament, slowed by lobbying from tech firms wary of overreach.
Money Laundering Charges
Corruption also clouds the field. Reports of leaked raid plans persist, giving suspects time to flee. In a 2023 scandal, a DSI officer was caught warning a Pattaya movie piracy ring in exchange for 500,000 baht in bribes.
Professor Seri Wongmontha of Chulalongkorn University said low pay, around 25,000 baht per month, leaves staff open to bribes. The Motion Picture Association puts yearly piracy losses at 3 to 5 billion baht, and the indirect costs, such as malware from risky streams, raise the total harm.
The group behind the streaming site also moved money across borders. Funds passed through gambling dens in the Philippines and data centres in Malaysia, echoing a 2024 DSI case with links to drug trafficking. The Anti-Money Laundering Office is now combing through the accounts and checking for ties to a Chiang Mai gambling ring seized in August.
For viewers, the outcome cuts both ways. Legal options like TrueVisions NOW deliver extra features, including multi-angle replays, but the price runs high at up to 999 baht per month. A 25-year-old mechanic in Bangkok, Somchai, said he would pay if it were cheaper, and admitted to using the site. Public campaigns, such as the DSI’s Respect IP workshops, aim to change habits, yet many doubt they will gain traction while budgets are tight.
With the 2025 to 2026 Premier League season kicking off and Manchester United playing this weekend, the DSI promises more action. Police Major Praedam said the agency has struck the first blow and now aims to break the rest of the network. Pirates keep adapting faster than the law, so Thailand’s fight against infringement still looks like extra time with high stakes and few clear wins.
