For many sports watchers, illegal streams such as Crackstreams, Buffstreams, and Sportsurge were paramount in being alternative to mainstream sports streaming platforms. The NBA, NFL, MLB, and more have their own apps where you can view games but are often expensive and region locked. The biggest one of these illegal streams: Streameast was known for allowing many to watch their favorite teams and sports without paying a subscription. It allowed a generation of sports enthusiasts to actually watch content without using cable.
Unfortunately, the end times are here and it looks like higher ups are cracking down on illicit streaming sites.
Just last week, Egyptian authorities had arrested two men in connection to Streameast. This arrest transpired due to The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) shutting down soccer focused streaming group, Livehd7. ACE is making a huge deal shutting down all piracy sites.
Although associations such as NFL don’t count illegal streams, Streameast was reported to host 1.6 Billion visits across 80 associated domains the past couple of years. So, you can see why it’s a big threat to the mainstream sports association apps.
This might force people to pay for expensive sports league apps in order to watch their favorite teams. Thankfully many are not willing to be trapped in a subscription that doesn’t even have any attractive incentives. Expensive, poor UI, and region locked games as the start of those problems.
Regardless, the internet as we know it, will never be the same. Streameast got me through those hard times during the pandemic. A sad end to an excellent alternative.
RIP Streameast.
