Vietnam court sentences 14 over ‘Bún Chả TV’ pirate football streaming site
At a glance
- A Bắc Ninh court has sentenced 14 people who ran the pirate sports-streaming site “Bún Chả TV” under Vietnam’s copyright offence, Article 225(2).
- Eleven received prison terms of eight to 12 months and three received suspended sentences. This is a first-instance judgment.
- Police say the site drew hundreds of thousands of visits a day, earned from ads that steered viewers to gambling sites, and hid behind foreign domains and crypto payments.
A court in Bắc Ninh, northern Vietnam, has sentenced 14 people who ran the pirate sports-streaming website “Bún Chả TV” for infringing copyright and related rights under Article 225(2) of the Criminal Code, VTC News reported on 29 October. Eleven received prison terms: four were given 12 months, five 10 months and two eight months. The other three received 10-month suspended sentences. The judgment was given at first instance by the Bắc Ninh City People’s Court. [1]
According to the indictment, as reported, the manager of a company called S24 directed staff and hired collaborators to build and run the site, which illegally live-streamed sports, especially major football tournaments, to attract viewers and earn advertising revenue. The work was split into programming, operations, content and commentator teams. The operations team set up broadcast links taken from broadcasters, and the content team posted match previews mixed with football-betting content. Illicit gains reported for individual defendants ranged from about VND14 million to more than VND480 million. All 14 admitted the offences. The man the indictment names as organiser is not among those the report lists as sentenced. [1]
Bắc Ninh provincial police detected the site around February 2026, broadcasting several tournaments whose rights had been bought in Vietnam, according to a May report. Police said it drew hundreds of thousands of visits a day and carried advertising that steered viewers to online gambling sites. The group registered domains abroad, hid IP addresses behind layers of intermediaries, ran the site through fake accounts, talked over encrypted apps and paid wages in cryptocurrency. On 15 May officers searched homes and workplaces and seized 38 computers and 42 mobile phones. At that stage police reported prosecuting 10 people. [2]
The case is separate from Xôi Lạc TV, in which prosecutors in Hưng Yên have indicted 74 people; no trial date for that case has been reported. [3]
Sources
- VTC News. 14 bị cáo vận hành website bóng đá lậu ‘Bún Chả TV’ lĩnh án. Published 2026-10-29 17:18 Vietnam time. Vietnamese. Byline: Văn Chương. Accessed 30 October 2026. Working English title translation: 14 defendants who ran pirate football website ‘Bún Chả TV’ sentenced (working translation).
- VTC News (republishing Tiền Phong). Khởi tố 10 đối tượng liên quan website bóng đá lậu ‘Bún Chả TV’. Published 2026-05-27 18:46 Vietnam time. Vietnamese. Byline: Tiền Phong. Accessed 30 October 2026. Working English title translation: 10 people prosecuted over pirate football website ‘Bún Chả TV’ (working translation).
- Công an Nhân dân (Ministry of Public Security newspaper). Truy tố các bị can vụ phát bóng đá “lậu” gây thiệt hại hơn 2.200 tỷ đồng. Published 2026-10-21 15:07 Vietnam time. Vietnamese. Byline: Nguyễn Hưng. Accessed 30 October 2026. Working English title translation: Accused prosecuted in “pirate” football broadcasting case causing over VND 2,200 billion in damage (working translation).
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