The English Premier League top-tier football club competition and other sports media rights-holders have successfully forced the closure of illegal streaming website Wiziwig.
The website offered illegal live streaming of thousands of games each week from events such as the league as well as other football competitions.
The league and other sports rights-holders launched action against Wiziwig, with the website being forced to shut down on January 1.
Wiziwig said on its website that it would halt its service.
“Today is a sad day for all fans of live sports streaming, as we at Wiziwig have to announce that we're forced to close our website, at least for now,” the website said. “This is due to new laws in Spain… Failing to comply with the new reform puts us at risks of fines being as high as €600,000 ($754,260) and also losing our domain, hosting and other necessary stuff to operate Wiziwig.”
UK pay-television broadcasters Sky and BT Sport currently have rights in the UK to the league. The auction for the next rights cycle, which will cover the three seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19, will take place early this year. Rights are expected to be awarded next month.