White Vows to Go After Illegal Streamers

Written by:
Mary Montgomery
Published on:
Feb/14/2021

UFC President Dana White has vowed to go after illegal streamers, though admitted one of the big one's sat out for UFC 258 Saturday night.

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From MMAFighting.com:

White laid a trap for a particularly vocal streamer who’d promised to pirate UFC 257, only to go dark when the pay-per-view event went life this past month. More affected were legal buyers on the West Coast whose feeds were frozen for the first two bouts of the main card, prompting broadcast partner ESPN+ to promise partial refunds.

On Saturday, White tried again to catch an illegal streamer into the act. But again, the intended target didn’t take the bait.

White claims that authorities were working with the UFC to catch thieves in the act.

Streamers have gotten especially popular with the new pay-per-view price tag of $69.99 introduced ahead of UFC 257.  This marked the second price increase since the promotion partnered with ESPN+.

White had previously threatened to shut down a specific streamer heading into UFC 257.  It did not launch then either.

“Let me tell you that story,” White told MMA Junkie. “You asked me at the press conference, right? I basically said, ‘This is what’s going to happen.’ I told you guys that we found the guy and we were watching him. He put out a statement that night. He said, ‘I will not be streaming the McGregor vs. Poirier anymore, but I will show you how to buy it legally.’ He put out this huge statement and his whole streaming service has been deleted and is gone. It disappeared.”

White claimed to have already shut down one streamer.

“One down and a (expletive) load to go,” White said. “I’m ready. Every event, I’m going to go after one of these guys – or more. We’ll see. And who you are, guy that did this? Good move. We had you, pal. I don’t know if he knew something or what, but we had you. All you had to do was pop up that stream and you were in big trouble. So he did the right thing.”

UFC 259: Jan Blachowicz +230 vs. Israel Adesanya -270 is the next big card taking place March 6.

- Ean Lamb, Gambling911.com

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