UK Premier League wants tighter laws against pirate sites

London, Mar.1 (ANI): The Premier League in the United Kingdom has called for tighter laws against IT theft to stop the unauthorized online broadcasting of football matches, the Daily Star reports.

One website which links to unauthorized live broadcasts of Premier League and other matches now attracts more traffic than the sites of broadcasters such as ITV, according to a report by Radio 4's You and Yours program.

The site, based in the Netherlands, receives funding from online bookmaker bwin, which sponsors Real Madrid and AC Milan.

The Premier League said it was actively engaged in combating abuses of its rights, with legal notices sent to those found broadcasting matches to which they did not own the rights.

But as soon as one site had been stopped, another would pop up, said a spokesman.

"This kind of use of our rights is illegal and we take any abuse of our intellectual property very seriously," he said.

Bwin pays one such site for providing a link to it so that users can place bets. The bookmaker said it was not breaking any laws.

The legal implications are unclear, according to Akash Sachdeva of the law firm Allen and Overy. (ANI)