Javier Tebas, president of LALIGA, denounces the threat of audiovisual fraud to the future of the industry in LALIGA EXTRATIME Singapore

LALIGA Extratime is LALIGA's own event, which in recent years has become a benchmark for the international sports industry and is held in LALIGA's strategic markets.

This edition, presented by John Dykes, featured, in addition to the fight against audiovisual fraud, two other panels dedicated to strategic issues such as Technology and Fan Engagement. Javier Tebas opened the event with a speech that emphasised the importance of the fight against audiovisual fraud, followed by a panel where Louis Boswell (AVIA) debated the problems of this scourge together with representatives of LALIGA and BeIN Sports.

Piracy causes global losses in terms of new revenues of more than 28 billion dollars every year, according to data from a study by Synamedia with Ampere Analysis. Spanish LALIGA clubs, according to data recalled by its president Javier Tebas in his speech during the event, lose between 600 and 700 million euros per year.

This past season, LALIGA has relied on the latest AI monitoring technology, which is used to monitor registration patterns, track suspicious behaviour in traffic and amplify the capacity of teams working to detect fraud.

Likewise. LALIGA has reinforced its work at the legal level, the dynamic blocking of IPs and the creation of a specialised unit with multidisciplinary professionals who work intensively in this area. As a result, piracy has been reduced by up to 60% in the country, according to the organisation's president.

"Fighting audiovisual fraud has a high cost for LALIGA, but we choose to lead, because the cost of not doing so is much higher. We are facing highly organised criminal networks that cause unimaginable damage across the economy. The scale of the challenge means that there must be total commitment at the institutional level and between companies, both in the sports industry and technology. This fight is global and collaborative, and we must also act by denouncing the inactivity of some intermediaries, who are allowing criminal content to be shared through their infrastructures," said Javier Tebas, president of LALIGA.

The global scale of the problem, as highlighted in the panel on this topic at the event, is enormous: according to a report by the Live Content Coalition (LCC), 10.8 million illegal sports broadcasts were detected in Europe alone in 2024. In the football industry, experts said, the consequences for clubs are enormous, as they force them to make short-term decisions in the face of uncertainty: reducing sporting or infrastructure investments, or delaying internationalisation projects.

LALIGA participated in 2024 in Operation Kratos, led by Europol, which succeeded in dismantling a network of 22 million users in Europe. In this operation, weapons and drugs were also seized in searches. Legal milestones have also been achieved, such as the landmark ruling that allowed LALIGA to carry out dynamic IP blocking. In addition, LALIGA has strengthened its cooperation with responsible intermediaries such as Meta, YouTube or TikTok in recent seasons.

"We are very proud of this edition of Extratime in Singapore: we had a full house, more than fulfilling the objective of bringing together key industry players and offering high-level information and networking. The panels provided valuable industry knowledge and brought together top-level specialists, demonstrating the importance of Singapore and the surrounding region of countries within the LALIGA ecosystem," said Ivan Codina, Director of the Singapore Office.

Participants in the technology panel, meanwhile, highlighted LALIGA's role as a technology driver in sport globally: it is the first football league to launch an Artificial Intelligence department and also has partnerships with innovation powerhouses Sportian and Microsoft. GSIC (Global Sport Innovation Center of Microsoft), based in Singapore, participated in the panel highlighting joint projects with LALIGA such as Beyond Stats, which aims to bring data closer to the fans through television broadcasts or the digital environment. The data is extracted from Mediacoach, LALIGA's own tool that collects and processes more than 3.5 million data during each match of the competition thanks to the 16 optical tracking cameras installed in each stadium. Atlético de Madrid also participated by explaining its technological strategy via videoconference.

The last topic addressed at the event was Fan Engagement, where LALIGA has been growing exponentially in Asian countries thanks to projects such as LALIGA Adventure, LALIGA Show and its regional agreement with TikTok. During the panel, which included the special participation of EA SPORTS, title sponsor of the competition, it was recalled that LALIGA is the most followed football competition on social networks, with 250 million followers on 16 platforms and 20 different languages. Its digital strategy is particularly powerful, with a special focus in recent seasons on the creation of its own content for new audiences and collaboration with opinion leaders in each country.