Brits sent warning letters by police in dodgy Fire Stick crackdown as 17 UK areas targeted | OneFootball

The clampdown on the illegal use of Amazon Fire TV Sticks to watch live football matches without paying for it is continuing into the new year.

The clampdown on the illegal use of devices such as Amazon Fire TV Sticks to watch live matches without paying for it is continuing into the new year.

More than a thousand people across 17 areas of England and Wales could be receiving letters regarding illegal streaming early in the new year, after details were seized of individuals who'd bought modified hardware which allows them to watch live football matches without having paid for a subscription.

The use of Amazon Fire TV Sticks and other devices to bypass the need for subscriptions to view live matches has long been a thorn in the side of rights holders. There have been sporadic attempts to clamp down on this for many years, but over the last twelve months this has accelerated, with focus broadening from those who sell what are commonly known as "fully loaded" TV boxes to those who buy them, as well.

More than a thousand people sent warning letters over illegal streaming

The Sun reports 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 details of households which have purchased such devices have been seized.

The reports confirm that the details were seized by Merseyside Police after the arrest and imprisonment of a Liverpool-based seller of such devices. Jonathan Edge was sentenced to three years and four months in prison in November 2024 after pleading guilty to three offences under the Fraud Act.

Anti-piracy group FACT has now sent caution letters out to those who used devices supplied by Edge to warn them that they’re breaking the law, as well as of the dangers of fraud, since such devices can also be loaded with software which compromises such critical information as bank account or credit card details.

As reported by The Sun, DS Adam Dagnall of Merseyside Police's Cybercrime Unit said: "Not only is it a criminal offence, but the 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."

17 areas in England and Wales are to be targetted by this fresh clampdown. Teesside Live has reported that these areas are: London, Kent, Sussex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Midlands (East & West), Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, South Wales, North East England and North West England.

The illegal streaming of matches causes a major potential issue for leagues themselves

Amazon Fire TV Sticks are among the most popular devices used to allow people to view streaming services on their televisions, but they also have a less legitimate use for the purposes of watching media which is otherwise behind a paywall. In recent years, boxes with the software required to do so pre-installed on them have been sold on the black market.

And this causes a huge potential issue, not only for the broadcasters but also, in turn, for leagues themselves. The fewer people are paying for subscriptions to channels such as Sky Sports or TNT Sports, the more the value of lucrative broadcasting contracts will be degraded, which could lead to lower income streams for clubs from broadcasting themselves.

For many years, those who purchased these devices were largely left alone, with anti-piracy organisations and the police largely focusing on those who sold them. But the sellers aren't the only people in this scenario who are breaking the law, and with previous measures having failed to stop the piracy of matches, attention has started to switch towards the end-users themselves.

It remains the case that, if figures relating to the watching of illegal streams is anything to go by, this round of letters is a drop in the ocean. A poll carried out by The Athletic in 2025 found 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 equates to around 4.5 million people.

But one thing does remain clear from this fresh reporting, which is that the police and anti-piracy organisations only seem set to step up their action against those who stream matches illegally in 2026.