Delhi High Court Orders Blocking Of Websites Illegally Streaming F1 Racing, ATP Tennis, Saudi Pro League

The Delhi High Court has recently ordered the blocking of four rogue websites accused of illegally streaming Formula 1, ATP Tour and Saudi Pro League events in India, for which FanCode has exclusive broadcasting rights.

Justice Jyoti Singh passed the order on September 10, granting Sporta Technologies, which owns and operates FanCode, an ex parte ad interim injunction.

The court found that Sporta had made out a prima facie case, that the balance of convenience lay in its favour and that it was likely to suffer irreparable harm if the injunction was not granted.

Sporta told the court that an investigation in September 2026 found four rogue websites making sports livestreams available for free in India. They were WeStreamF1, nine subdomains of Cloudflare's pages.dev service, Stream East and Live TV.

The company specifically found all four making available Practice 1 of the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 4. The material before the court also showed the websites offering or promoting streams of other events covered by Sporta's exclusive rights, including Saudi Pro League and ATP Tour events.

Sporta's counsel argued that the websites were not legitimate platforms where an isolated instance of infringement had occurred. Their primary purpose was to provide access to unauthorised sports streams while earning advertising revenue from the broadcasts.

The court found that Sporta had exclusive broadcasting rights in India under agreements covering Formula One, the ATP Tour, the Saudi Pro League and other sporting events. It observed that the material on record prima facie showed that all four websites were making available the same Italian Grand Prix session in India. In several instances, the streams also carried FanCode's registered trademark, which the court observed indicated that the websites had pirated Sporta's own signal.

The court restrained the four websites, their operators, other persons identified as John Does and those acting on their behalf from making available content that infringes Sporta's broadcast reproduction rights in ongoing and forthcoming events covered by its agreements. They were also barred from using the FANCODE marks or deceptively similar variants in domain names, URL paths, websites or promotional material.

The court also granted a Dynamic+ injunction.

Relying on its earlier ruling in Universal City Studios LLC v. Dotmovies Baby, it observed that injunctions must keep pace with the “dynamic nature” of infringement by “hydra-headed websites."

The order therefore extends to mirror websites, redirect links, and alphanumeric variations of the blocked websites where they are found making the protected events available.

The court directed the entities responsible for the specified domains to suspend and lock them within 24 hours of receiving the order. Internet Service Providers were also directed to block access to the listed websites and any mirror, redirect or alphanumeric variants found to be making the covered events available within 24 hours.

The court also relied on Section 37 of the Copyright Act, 1957, which gives broadcasters broadcast reproduction rights in relation to their broadcasts. It held that Sporta's exclusive Indian broadcasting rights gave it such rights under Section 37 and that the material before the court prima facie showed infringement of those rights.

The injunction application will next be heard by the court on February 3, 2027.