Sports piracy site Streameast returns after US government let domain expire

Popular piracy website Streameast is back to illegally streaming sporting events, just 13 months after Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) seized the domain.

In August 2024, HSI seized several domains belonging to the Streameast piracy network, including some backup domains. After the seizure, trying to access those sites resulted in a pop-up from HSI stating, “THIS DOMAIN HAS BEEN SEIZED.”

At the time, Streameast was one of the most well-known sites in the US for watching sporting events, including from the NBA, NFL, and MLB, illegally and even claimed LeBron James as a user.

HSI never issued a statement about shutting down Streameast. However, the banner that appeared on the seized sites stated that HSI had taken over the sites through a warrant from the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Still, it didn’t take long for the owners of Streameast to bring back the illicit service through alternative domain names, as reported by TorrentFreak.

Now, one of the domain names that the HSI took over is back in the hands of its original pirating owners. This happened without any litigation. Instead, the previous owners of the site were able to re-register Streameast’s primary domain name after it expired “earlier this year,” TorrentFreak reported this week. Some Streameast domains still show HSI’s seizure banner, but the original Streameast domain is streaming pirated sporting events again.

A curious turn of events

This is a surprising development considering the effort from HSI to take the site down. Streameast was still operating under alternative domain names, but the return of the original site will enable even more illegal sports streaming.