For many years, Vietnamese football fans looking for a free Premier League stream complete with localized commentary always knew precisely where to look. "Xoi Lac TV" and its extensive network of sister websites became household names, offering unauthorized broadcasts of all major football leagues. Whenever authorities or rightsholders managed to catch up with a domain and enforce a blocking order, the operators would simply switch to a brand-new web address, ensuring that the streams rarely skipped a beat.
What began as a network of informal pirate sites eventually evolved into a remarkably lucrative enterprise for the individuals running the operation. Prominent betting banners were plastered across the screens during every single match, generating substantial advertising revenue. However, that high-visibility business model ultimately drew the intense scrutiny of Vietnam’s cybercrime police, who initiated a series of high-profile raids against the operation in February and formally charged 30 individuals just a month later.
That enforcement action, significant as it was at the time, now appears to have been merely the opening chapter in a much larger legal saga with international repercussions. Police in Hung Yen province have officially concluded their comprehensive investigation into the piracy ring and have formally asked prosecutors to press charges against a staggering 74 people.
Massive Piracy Operation with its Own Commentators
The conclusions of the extensive police investigation, as detailed by local media outlets Dan Tri and VnExpress, paint a picture of two deeply intertwined piracy operations working in tandem. The primary pirate site, known as "90 Phut," was first established in late 2018. According to investigators, the venture was financed by Hanoi technology entrepreneur Pham Nguyen Dung, while programmer Nguyen Cong Dinh wrote the underlying code, with the two men agreeing to split the resulting profits.
By the time law enforcement authorities shut down the infrastructure in February, the network had grown exponentially to encompass a wide array of domains, including XoilacTV, 90PhutTV, VeboTV, ThapcamTV, BanhkhucTV, and CakeoTV. Furthermore, investigator findings indicate that Dinh simultaneously operated the "Cakhia" network alongside another co-defendant.
The 74 suspects recommended for prosecution are alleged to have filled various roles across the sprawling organizational structure. This expansive roster includes more than 30 Vietnamese commentators who were hired to provide live voiceovers for the matches, receiving a modest remuneration of 200,000 to 500,000 Vietnamese dong per match, which translates to roughly $8 to $20 USD. The remaining defendants were tasked with managing the technical infrastructure, including servers, streaming stability, and the complex financial apparatus underlying the venture.
The live commentary was effectively the brand’s primary selling point, cultivating a dedicated following through commentators who used colorful pseudonyms such as "Batman" and "Scarecrow." The person operating under the alias "Batman" turned out to be Dinh himself. Investigators allege that Dinh personally amassed more than 12 billion dong, equivalent to roughly $470,000 USD, directly from his involvement in the illicit operation.
During the course of the investigation, authorities discovered that the network’s sites had streamed a total of 1,529 matches without authorization, blatantly infringing upon the exclusive rights held by the Premier League and various local broadcasters. Simultaneously, the platforms generated immense revenue by promoting unauthorized betting brands, including 8XBET, LU88, Man88, and HBET.
Police estimates indicate that these illegal gambling advertisements brought in more than 130 billion dong, or approximately $5 million USD, between April 2025 and January 2026 alone. Rightsholders, meanwhile, maintain that the actual financial damages inflicted upon the industry are exponentially higher. Vietnam’s domestic pay-TV service K+ has preliminarily estimated its own commercial losses at more than $83 million, while the Premier League—which licenses its valuable broadcast rights to K+ for the Vietnamese market—estimates its losses at upwards of $4.6 million. These disputed financial figures will likely be scrutinized and finalized during an eventual court trial.
Gambling Charges Carry the Weight
The 74 defendants wrapped up in the investigation face a diverse array of criminal charges, including copyright infringement, organizing gambling, gambling itself, and the distribution of obscene material. Out of the total group, 51 individuals—including key figures Dung and Dinh—have been officially recommended for prosecution on both copyright infringement and organizing gambling counts.
While the network gained widespread notoriety primarily as a piracy operation, the gambling-related charges carry significantly more legal weight under Vietnamese law. The Vietnamese Penal Code strictly caps the maximum prison sentence for copyright infringement at three years, regardless of how financially lucrative the infringement scheme proved to be. Conversely, organizing gambling as a professional, large-scale operation carries a prison sentence of up to ten years.
This legal distinction means that the illegal betting advertisements featured extensively across the pirate portals will likely form the foundation of the harshest penalties handed down in the case. For the time being, however, the legal process remains ongoing and no judicial outcomes are final.
Under Vietnam’s legal framework, police conclude a criminal investigation by issuing a formal written conclusion alongside a proposal to prosecute, which marks the exact stage the case has now reached. The public prosecution office now has a window of up to 30 days to review the file, decide whether to issue an official indictment, return the case dossier to investigators for additional fact-finding work, or drop the proceedings entirely.
Thanks From London, Pressure From Washington
The sweeping crackdown on the "Xoi Lac" network has not gone unnoticed by international observers and foreign governments. In May, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security publicly announced that the British Embassy in Hanoi had dispatched an official letter expressing gratitude for the decisive enforcement action. According to the ministry, the diplomatic correspondence praised the country’s law enforcement efforts in protecting intellectual property rights and defending legitimate copyright holders.
At the same time, the response from Washington was decidedly more cautious and restrained. At the end of April, the Office of the United States Trade Representative designated Vietnam as a "Priority Foreign Country" due to persistent and widespread concerns over online intellectual property infringement. This marked the first time in thirteen years that any nation had been assigned that specific and concerning label.
Just a month following that designation, the USTR initiated a formal Section 301 investigation into Vietnam’s intellectual property enforcement practices, a regulatory process that carries the looming threat of punitive trade tariffs. The USTR noted at the time that while Vietnam had initiated certain enforcement measures, ongoing intellectual property infringement continued to undermine the competitive market position of U.S. innovators and creators.
Although the initial raids against Xoi Lac occurred mere weeks before the USTR’s consequential decision, Vietnamese authorities have increasingly utilized these enforcement actions as a defensive countermeasure. The country has explicitly referenced the Xoi Lac raids, alongside separate crackdowns targeting Rophim and Y2Mate, in its official July submissions responding to the USTR investigation, urging Washington to remove Vietnam from the priority watch list.
In its formal rebuttal filed in Washington, Vietnam’s response also highlighted the high-profile HiAnime case. The Ministry of Public Security notably announced criminal proceedings against seven suspects linked to HiAnime on July 2, matching the exact day Vietnam submitted its detailed defense.
Whether the recent decision to recommend prosecution for 74 defendants in the Xoi Lac case was influenced by mounting international pressure remains unconfirmed. For now, the decision rests entirely with prosecutors who must determine the next procedural steps. Meanwhile, a basic online search for "xoi lac" and its numerous associated brands continues to yield a lingering array of copycat websites, leaving the identities of their current operators shrouded in anonymity.
Leave a Reply