The crackdown on the illicit usage of gadgets like Amazon Fire TV Sticks to view live matches without paying for them will continue throughout the new year.

More than a thousand people in 17 areas of England and Wales may receive letters regarding illegal streaming early in the new year, after information was seized on individuals who purchased modified hardware that allows them to watch live football matches without paying a subscription.

The usage of Amazon Fire TV Sticks and other devices to watch live matches without a subscription has long been a source of frustration for rights holders. There have been periodic attempts to crack down on this for many years, but in the last twelve months, the focus has shifted from those who sell “fully loaded” TV boxes to those who buy them as well.

Over a thousand people sent warning letters regarding unauthorized streaming.

The Sun makes the claim that “more than a thousand Brits have been sent warning letters after they were caught illegally streaming Premier League games with dodgy devices” . They report that the information of households that purchased such gadgets has been confiscated.

According to the sources, the information was obtained by Merseyside Police following the arrest and incarceration of a Liverpool-based vendor of such devices. Jonathan Edge was sentenced to three years and four months in jail in November 2024 after pleading guilty to three Fraud Act charges.

FACT, an anti-piracy organization, has now sent caution letters to those who used Edge-supplied devices, warning them that they are breaking the law as well as the dangers of fraud, as such devices can be loaded with software that compromises critical information such as bank account or credit card details.

According to The Sun, DS Adam Dagnall of Merseyside Police’s Cybercrime Unit stated, “Not only is it a criminal offence, but unauthorised streaming services frequently contain malware that can compromise personal devices and lead to the loss of information such as banking details, or be used to commit identity fraud.”

This new clampdown will target 17 locations across England and Wales. According to Teesside Live, the following areas are included: London, Kent, Sussex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Midlands (East and West), Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, South Wales, North East England, and North West England.

The unlawful streaming of matches poses a significant potential challenge for leagues themselves.

Amazon Fire TV Sticks are among the most popular devices for viewing streaming services on televisions, but they also have a less legitimate usage for watching media that would otherwise be behind a paywall. In recent years, black market sellers have sold boxes pre-installed with the necessary software.

This raises serious concerns not only for broadcasters but also for leagues themselves. The fewer people pay for subscriptions to channels like Sky Sports or TNT Sports, the less valuable lucrative media contracts become, perhaps leading to smaller revenue streams for teams from broadcasting itself.

For many years, those who acquired these devices were largely ignored, with anti-piracy organizations and authorities focused mostly on those who sold them. However, vendors aren’t the only ones breaking the law in this scenario, and with earlier steps failing to prevent match piracy, attention has shifted to end-users.

It remains true that, if numbers on unlawful stream monitoring are any indication, this wave of letters represents a drop in the ocean. A poll conducted by The Athletic in 2025 discovered that “nine percent of the UK’s adult population had watched sport via an illegal stream in the six months up to October 2025,” which translates to approximately 4.5 million people.

However, one thing is certain from this new reporting: the police and anti-piracy agencies appear to be stepping up their enforcement against people who illegally watch matches in 2026.