Episode 13: The Scourge of Sports Piracy Keeps Bubbling Away

 Here are the Show notes: The latest sub-Reddit for sports streaming has been shut down, this one is the NBAstreams subreddit. This follows on from the closures of the Soccerstreams and MMAstreams subreddits earlier this year. Staying with piracy, BeIN Sports has laid off a fifth of its workforce in Qatar, citing Saudi Arabian piracy and BeoutQ for a downturn in revenues. More than 300 staff have lost their jobs at the network’s headquarters in Doha. As reported by AdNews, the interactive games market is forecast to become the fastest growing segment in consumer media spending, driven largely by in-game microtransactions, according to PriceWaterhouseCooper. Their annual Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook forecasts that the games and esports sector will more than double to $7.1 billion in 2023 from $3.45 billion in 2018. In-game microtransactions, 5G and cloud-based technology are expected to be some of the growth drivers of the sector. ONE Championship have been spreading their production capability wings, now the UFC has done so with the  opening of a state-of-the-art 130,000 square-foot production facility in Las Vegas. Former NBA Commissioner David Stern has joined WSC Sports in an advisory role. The automated video highlights provider for the NBA and several other professional sports leagues has made a big move with this hiring.