Sportfix taps GeoGuard for sports anti-piracy

[Len]

Sportflix, an over-the-top (OTT) platform offering live sports in Asia, is using GeoGuard’s anti-fraud toolkit to protect its platform from the growing threat of geo-piracy.

As more content becomes available online, the industry is also seeing a rise in geo-piracy: where viewers use circumvention methods such as virtual private networks (VPNs) or domain name system proxies (DNS proxies) to fake their IP address and location to gain illicit access to content and evade detection.

The newly launched Sportfix live sports OTT platform incubated by TSA, Asia’s leader in sports content, operates in South East Asia and aims to appeal to 600 million sports-mad viewers in the region. GeoGuard’s geo-piracy protection solution will verify and block attempts made by viewers to access content illicitly.

“Premium content drives consumers to seek out cheaper - or even free - ways of accessing that content online,” said David Briggs (pictured), chairman and co-founder of GeoGuard. “Live sports is one of the highest value genres of premium content and a big draw for subscribers, therefore protecting digital rights in each region is a priority for TV providers and content owners. We are confident that our third-party tested and studio-approved solutions will offer Sportsfix the high level of protection it needs to pinpoint and prevent viewers from attempting to access content which is geographically restricted.”

Marcus Luer, CEO of Sportfix, added: “Asia is a huge market for sports and so there is an appetite from our subscribers to gain access to live showings of the most popular sporting events. To secure rights to these live events we need to ensure this content is thoroughly protected on our platform. In bringing GeoGuard on board we can ensure that our content is available for subscribers to watch and enjoy legitimately.”