Free livestream links of the fight between YouTube stars Logan Paul and Olajide ‘KSI’ Olatunji are flooding the internet for the Saturday night rematch of the event that’s being called by organizers the “biggest internet event in history”.
The first boxing match, which ended in a controversial draw and caused many viewers to feel ripped off was broadcast as a $10 pay-per-view live stream on a dedicated YouTube channel.
At the time, the stream had a peak audience of around 780,000 live viewers. But just like with most sporting events – and even more so with events that draw a more internet-savvy crowd such as this one – pirated livestreams of the event were abundant.
The free pirated livestreams were shared on Twitch and were viewed by at least a million people, and pirated links could be found on Twitter and Reddit.
However, for today’s event, YouTube isn’t hosting the match. This time, global rights were purchased by DAZN.
Since the platform doesn’t offer free trials, the only way for people to legally watch the stream is to sign up for a monthly subscription of $20 or get an annual membership for $100.
Those in the UK can watch the match for just £9.95 on Sky Sports.
However, even this is more than some would be willing to pay and is the reason why dozens of pirated streams have been popping up.
While piracy is not encouraged, security company Avast has warned that with pirated streams, 17% of such pirated content contains cybersecurity threats including “worms, trojans, adware, and downloaders” and users would be encouraged to use precautions such as blocking ads and trackers when on such sites.
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