A diplomatic row means Saudi Arabia will be pirating all 64 matches of the World Cup after banning the sports channel in rival Qatar, which owns the broadcast rights.
The extraordinary situation arose following a spat between the two countries last June which led to beIN Sports being caught up in a trade ban between the two countries.
As well as the World Cup, the Doha-based channel owns the rights to broadcast the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup final across the Middle East.
Shortly after the dispute started the Saudis banned the sale of beIN broadcast boxes and stopped existing customers from paying subscriptions to the channel.
Instead it managed to pirate the channel using a rogue satellite service, called beOutQ, which is ‘geo-locked’ so only internet users in the desert kingdom who pay £80 for decoder boxes can access it.
beOutQ broadcasts exactly the same transmission as beIN, with the same studio pundits, only with a ten second delay and the beOutQ logo superimposed.
Bosses at beIN have spent £120,000 trying to find out how the Saudi-based station is tapping into the footage so they can cut off the supply.
But so far all they have been able to do is trace the BeOutQ signal to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Tom Keaveny, Managing Director of beIN said: “The pirated signal is being transmitted by the Riyadh-based satellite provider Arabsat, whose largest shareholder is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Keaveny added that the BeOutQ operation “takes industrial scale knowledge and ability and multimillion dollar funding. This isn’t someone in their bedroom”.
Representatives for the Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture and Information did not respond to messages from The Independent seeking comment.”
It’s thought that the Saudi channel is able to re-broadcast content delivered to a legitimate beIN subscriber.
Each customer has a unique identification number, called a fingerprint, and normally this can be detected if fraud is being carried out and the supply cut off.
But the BeOutQ operation has found a way of hiding the finger print.
Kieron Sharp, CEO of FACT, a British anti-piracy company who assist SKY with its prosecutions, said: “We are aware of the immense frustration and anger that comes out of beIN who are unable to stop what appears to be in-effect state-sponsored piracy.
“For beIN to lose market share to an illegal operator is causing them huge problems. Even though some may feel it’s not what it was, the FA Cup Final is still a massive thing around the world.
“In the past the Premier League has taken action against piracy in places like the Far East, where they’ve worked with law enforcement operators in the country.
“But it gets difficult when there could be a government involved. Everyone says it’s state-sponsored piracy. But it’s difficult to counter, because the powers are pretty limited.”
An FA Spokesperson said: “beIN are a valued international broadcast partner of The FA. We take issues of piracy seriously and support beIN with their anti-piracy efforts.”
As well as the FA Cup the last few months of the 2017-18 Premier League season were also pirated by beOutQ.
A Premier League spokesman said: “The Premier League operates a significant anti-piracy programme in a range of countries to protect the copyright of the League and our clubs.
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