The Enforcement Directorate (ED), along with the Gujarat Police, conducted searches across multiple states as part of an investigation into money laundering connected to the alleged unauthorised streaming of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 matches by a “betting” website named “magicwin.games”.
ED officials along with the Ahmedabad cyber police department, conducted raids on 20 locations across Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru (Karnataka), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), and Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) in connection with the case involving the magicwin web portal, as per media reports.
The ED case, initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), arises from an Ahmedabad police FIR. The FIR alleges that the website magicwin.games unlawfully hosted, streamed, and broadcast matches during the World Cup.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) granted the broadcast rights for the tournament to Star India, ED mentioned.
Magicwin is a website accessible via any internet browser on mobile phones, Smart TVs, and computers. It offers the company’s paid content and enables viewers to watch matches at no cost, as stated by ED.
ED has alleged that the portal unlawfully streamed the T20 World Cup matches between Canada and Ireland on June 7 and India and Pakistan on June 9. By broadcasting these games via a link that accessed content from the OTT platform Disney+ Hotstar, the portal caused substantial financial losses to the company legally authorised to air the tournament, reports stated.
During the searches, ED reported the seizure of “incriminating” records and digital devices, along with Rs 30 lakh in cash. Rs 2 crore had been frozen, and crypto wallets holding deposits amounting to Rs 12 crore were identified. The agency has directed crypto exchanges to refrain from “liquidating” the cryptocurrencies held in their wallets, as per the reports.
