LaLiga on the fight against piracy and AI technology

The Gen-Z short-form video platform, TikTok, has introduced new challenges in LaLiga’s fight against piracy, revealed a LaLiga exec, with increasing illegal content broadcasted on the app. During an international press conference at the LaLiga headquarters based in Madrid on Saturday September 30, Miguel Angel Leal Góngora, chief technology and innovation officer at LaLiga, revealed the Spanish sports league was working closely with the youth-skewed social media service in identifying, analysing and removing illegal broadcasts of LaLiga content on the app.

Commenting on pirated content via TikTok, Leal Góngora said, “TikTok is currently corroborating with us, but there are so many people using the app in the wrong way, so it not easy for TikTok to block illegal content instantly.”

He added, “Right now it is one of the platforms most used for that (pirated content) and right now for us it is a challenge. We are working with the team at TikTok on the tech side to directly support them and to check how using our services we can start that process to remove content quickly.”

AI technology

The LaLiga exec also noted AI technology has played an instrumental role in combatting piracy and protecting its content. The football body uses Computer Vision AI Technology to monitor video content of the games on suspicious websites. The AI tool then detects illegal content and generates automatic reports that are sent in real time to Carriers, Hosting Providers, messaging applications and social networks asking for illegal content to be removed.

LaLiga also leverages Natural Language Processing AI technology to monitor keywords such as “LaLiga” or “football for free”, Leal Góngora highlighted. Then they are able to identify suspicious websites in messaging platforms such as Whatsapp or Telegram, as well as, across social networks like Facebook and TikTok.

Miguel Angel Leal Góngora

“We then run the system looking for the linked addresses,” said Leal Góngora.”You can imagine if there are  thousands and thousands of places where you can find this information (pirated content) we become more dependent on these services to find and shut down illegal content because the value for us is high.” He added, “For us this is very important, if we are not able to protect this content it would be a disaster.”

This week the business’ solutions provider for the sports and entertainment sector, LaLiga Tech, unveiled its new rebranded identity, Sportian. The tech outfit launched in 2021, becoming a joint venture the following year in partnership with the digital technology firm Globant, after it acquired an 51% majority stake in LaLiga Tech. Sportian’s services consists of products such as its OTT platform, fantasy gaming, app and web design, Mediacoach, and content protection antipiracy tools, as well as consultancy services for data analysis and global fan engagement.

At the press event, the LaLiga execs revealed to ensure content protection more than 46,000 IPs and 143 million IPTV channels are monitored, with over 10 million messages analysed by its services. According to Leal Góngora, during the LaLiga season 22/23 more than 702,000 of illegal videos on YouTube was removed, with more than 468,000 videos removed from other social media platforms and over 34,000 social media profiles taken down.

Praising the use and development of AI technology, Leal Góngora said “AI is moving so fast, its something that is amazing and is sexy that offers a lot of productivity for the company.”

LaLiga+

The top-flight football league launched its streaming service LaLiga+ in 2019, followed by the launch of its FAST channel by the same name in partnership with The Channel Store in August. Along with football programming, LaLiga+ broadcasts international football events such as South America’s Copa Libertadores, CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Asian AFC Champions League. It also features matches from other national championships such as the Brazilian Barsileirao, Peru’s Liga 1, the Austrian Bundesliga and Taça, the Portuguese Cup. Other sport competitions are showcased on the service, such as Spain’s handball competition ASOBAL league; Spanish basketball competition LEB Oro league, European Volleyball Championship, Volleyball Champions League; Sail GP and the Spanish Petanque Championship.

José Luís Quintero

“A very important asset we have is LaLiga TV, LaLiga Sports TV and LaLiga+ which have become a combined offering as LaLiga+” said José Luís Quintero, head of customer success at Sportian. “For us this is very important because we are working on our direct to consumer approach. ”

“With LaLiga+ we are getting information on people who love sports which is our target. We are also using this to understand our customers and what works best and to compare our offerings across markets, he added.

In addition, Luís Quintero revealed the football manager simulation app, LaLiga Fantasy, which launched in 2015 has driven engagement, with more than 5.4 million downloads. The exec expressed the company has more plans to introduce more gamification features to LaLiga’s offering.