A score app that doesn't stream live, yet users complain about stream lag: how Yala Live Pro survived its ninth takedown
What it is The latest stand-in for the Arabic free sports streaming brand "يلا لايف برو" on Google Play: the store listing only calls it a score app, while the real streaming is distributed through an APK on the official site and an iPhone player.
Why it took off Fans were already searching Play for the brand name, and the old same-name packages were taken down one by one, so it became the one still alive. Dense season scheduling plus a low bar on the Saudi sports chart put it on the chart with a few thousand installs a week.
DWhat you could do instead Don't copy the pirate shell. If you want this demand, build a legit, Arabic-first live scores and schedule app, make "which legal channel is showing this match" the core feature, and go after small-country sports charts like Saudi Arabia with Arabic ASO.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-08-15 · 11-07 installs 20,409
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.Android · Ratings count (cumulative) Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
On Google Play there's a football app called "Yala Live Pro: يلا لايف برو". The store listing calls it an English scores tool with no ads. Saudi fans install it to watch games for free. It launched Aug 15, reached 20k installs by Nov 6, added 6,494 in the last week, and ranked #29 on Saudi Arabia's sports free chart. It isn't growing because of its product. It's riding an Arabic pirate-streaming brand name that Google has pulled many times. Below: what it is, why it's growing now, who's behind it, and why I wouldn't follow it.
A "too many ads" review
On Oct 31, a Saudi user named مصطفى الازرق left a review on the store page: "برنامج رائع جدا بس الإعلانات كثيره" (very good app, just too many ads). On Sep 19, another user gave 3 star with just two words: "تاخر البث" (stream lag).
But the store description calls it an "English-language football scores app" with only schedules, scores, favorites, and dark mode. The data safety section says no ads. So an app that only shows scores and claims no ads is getting complaints about lagging streams and ads. The store version most likely turns on streaming and ads through remote config once installed (inference, not verified by installing it).
What it actually is
The real product isn't on Google Play. The site yalalive.pro is titled "شاهد كرة القدم مباشرة بجودة عالية مجانا" (watch football live in high quality for free). The page has three paths:
- Android: download the APK directly (1.1.0 version), with a guide on "allowing installs from the browser";
- iPhone: first install a video player called "YLP Player" from the App Store, then paste the "official link" from the site;
- TV: a separate TV APK for Android TV and TV boxes.
Unpacking the off-store APK, the interface text matches the store version exactly ("Personalize Yala Live Pro", light/dark modes, lineup graphics). It also has remote toggles and a module called "unlocked". So the Play version is most likely a "clean" build of the same code: review sees only scores, and whether you can watch games is decided server-side after launch (inference).
There's also an iOS app with the same name. Its description says "The app does not stream or broadcast", and it has 1 ratings.
Why now: the old packages got pulled
"يلا لايف / Yalla Live" is a free sports-streaming brand that has circulated for years across the Arabic-speaking world, with dozens of same-name sites and Telegram channels. Users aren't looking for a good scores app. They search Play for the name and install whichever package is still alive.
And on Play, this name keeps getting pulled:
| Package / name | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Yalla Live Pro: Live Sports | Removed 2023-08, listing said "Stream live soccer matches" (appfigures) |
| app.yallalive.tv | Removed around 2024-01 (AppBrain) |
| com.urlvideoplayer.app | Live for 8 months, 21k installs, then removed 2024-06 (AppBrain) |
| com.yaallalivepro.app | Live for 11 days, then removed 2025-04 (AppBrain) |
| com.yallaliveprov9.app | Removed. The v9 in the package name means at least the ninth shell |
| app.yalalivepro.app (this one) | Launched 2026-08-15, still live |
This package went up in August and filled the gap. The earliest Sep 4 review on the store page reads "الحمد لله التحديث الجديد ممتاز" (thank God, the new update is great), which sounds like an old user finding a new home.
The curve backs this up. By AppstoreSpy's estimates, cumulative installs were around 3,000 on Sep 11, around 7,000 on Oct 1, and about 13.9k by Oct 28. By Nov 6, Google Play showed 20,409. Daily installs in late October rose from a couple hundred to five hundred or a thousand, right when European leagues, the Saudi league, and Champions League group matches were piling up (timing matches, causation is inference).
Another factor: the Saudi sports free chart has a very low bar. It gained 6,500 in a week and ranked #29; Yacine TV, ranked #9 on the same chart, gained 266k in a week.
Who's behind it
The trail is messy, and the people change every generation. The developer on the store page is "Yala Live Pro: Football Scores", with a Gmail contact and a privacy policy from a free termsfeed template. As of Nov 6, the developer info on the Saudi store page listed a Lahore, Pakistan company, SRZ IT SOLUTIONS, but the phone number had a Yemeni area code. The iOS version is by someone else, with a seller link pointing to an Egyptian Arabic outsourcing firm. The iPhone player is a third developer, released in January 2025.
The brand, copy, and site form one line. The accounts and outsourced teams change every time. That's how you come back after a takedown: accounts are consumables, the brand and the site are the assets.
Where users come from and where the money comes from
- Searching the brand on Play: the title stuffs in the Arabic "يلا لايف برو", and that's its biggest entry point.
- Sites and social shares: two sites distribute the APK and iPhone guides; Facebook groups share the download link "for watching the World Cup"; the Telegram channel @yallalivestv has 2,700 subscribers.
- APK download sites: Softonic, CNET, FileHippo, and various "cracked" sites list it. The Softonic page gets roughly 6,500 downloads a month. (Note: the "113k downloads" floating around online is the count for the old v9 package, not this one.)
- Ratings: the US store page shows 383 ratings, all five stars. The Saudi store shows 4.7 stars with text reviews from 1 to 4 stars. Ratings are about 1.9% of installs, which is high and may reflect nudged positive reviews (unverified).
- Paid acquisition: no evidence found.
Money: the store version has no in-app purchases, so revenue can only come from ads inside the app and from the off-store site and APK ads. No public revenue figures exist.
Who it's competing with
This is a category that's long been crowded. In the top 40 of Saudi Arabia's sports free chart, there are at least 8 "scores shell plus streaming" apps:
| Product | Launched | Cumulative installs (11-06) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yacine TV | 2026-07-25 | 1.72M, 7 days +266k | The largest of the same playbook, the old package 7.93M |
| Drama Live / دراما لايف | 2026-01 to 07 | Three packages 840k / 930k / 93k | Also repeatedly relisted under new developers |
| سوريا لايف | 2026-09-09 | 290k | Launched after this one, #3 in Saudi sports |
| Yalla Shoot | 2023-04 | 20.8M | Same pirate-streaming brand origins, now built into a major scores app |
| Yala Live Pro | 2026-08-15 | 20k | This one |
On the legal side: 365Scores, Sofascore, and Kooora are real scores apps, and beIN, TOD, and ثمانية are paid broadcasters. This app's users want neither. They want free live streams.
Compared with peers, Yala Live Pro is two orders of magnitude smaller, with no functional difference. Its only asset is the old brand name. And that brand is borrowed, so this package could end up like its predecessors, with nothing left but 404.
If it were you
The verdict: don't follow it. It rose on a pirate brand name you can't get, plus a gray "swap the shell when pulled" playbook. The category is already filled with big players like Yacine TV, and each generation of packages lasts from 11 days to 8 months.
Who it suits: strictly speaking, no one should copy it. The only people who can take something from this are developers wanting to build legal sports tools for the Arabic market. It shows how big the demand is and how low the chart bar sits.
Who it doesn't suit: anyone building a long-term product, anyone unwilling to touch copyright, anyone without a stack of spare developer accounts. Copyright complaints and Play policy takedowns of pirate apps are routine, and the account-linked risk lands on you.
How to do it (the legal half): build an Arabic-first scores and schedules app, make "which legal channel and app is showing this match" the core feature, add kickoff reminders, and cover the Saudi league, Egyptian league, and the big five European leagues. Use local Arabic terms for titles and keywords, not just English.
How to get users: rely on ASO and small-country category charts. A few thousand weekly installs on the Saudi sports free chart can put you in the top 30, and charting itself brings exposure. Get keywords and screenshots ready before major tournaments and dense seasons.
When to get in: the European and Saudi leagues run all season, and the real peak comes during the big cup competitions and the knockout stages in early 2027. Launch before that to catch the wave.
Signs you're reading it wrong: if this package survives past mid-2027 without being pulled and installs climb into the hundreds of thousands, Play tolerates these shells more than expected, and the window for this playbook is bigger than I think. Conversely, if an Arabic scores app that only covers legal "where to watch" can chart at a few thousand installs a week, the legal path is the better bet.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Yacine TV(com.yacinetvllc.yacinetv.livescores) Android 2026-07-25 1.72M installs, +7k in 266 days, #9 Saudi sports; old package com.yacinetvapps.sportlive 7.93M Same playbook (scores shell plus streaming), two orders of magnitude larger; this case only adds a different brand name Drama Live / دراما لايف (three packages) Android 2026-01 to 07 840k / 930k / 93k installs Same repeated relisting under new developer names; different brand سوريا لايف(com.syrialive.news) Android 2026-09-09 290k installs, #3 Saudi sports Launched after this case, yet growing much faster Yalla Shoot - Live Scores Android 2023-04-19 20.8M installs, #8 Saudi sports Same Arabic pirate-streaming brand, now a large sports-scores app 365Scores / Sofascore / Kooora Android since 2012 tens of millions to 100M+ installs A real scores app that doesn't stream; this one's users want free live streams beIN SPORTS / TOD / ثمانية Android Years TOD 9.51M, beIN 42.9M Licensed paid broadcasts; this app's pitch is that it's free Past removed Yalla Live Pro builds (com.urlvideoplayer.app, com.yaallalivepro.app, com.yallaliveprov9.app, etc.) Android 2023 to 2025 One was listed for 8 months with 21k installs, another for 11 days It's the predecessor; this app is the latest-generation stand-in - Where users come from
- Confirmed Play brand-name search / ASO: the title stuffs in the Arabic brand 'يلا لايف برو'; it gained only about 6,500 in a week and still reached #29 on the Saudi Sports free chart
- Confirmed APK and iPhone player distributed off-store: yalalive.pro and yallalive.pro promote 'free HD live streaming', offering an Android APK, a TV APK, and a YLP Player plus playlist link
- Confirmed Facebook groups, personal accounts, Telegram links: FB posts link to app.yallalive.pro/home and apps.yallalive.pro/apps; Telegram @yallalivestv has 2.7K subscribers
- Confirmed Seeding on APK download sites: Softonic, CNET, FileHippo, apktodo, bzoukasoft and others list the Yalla Live Pro APK
- Confirmed Re-skinning after removal, moving old users: 2023-08, 2024-01, 2024-06 and 2025-04 were all same-name packages that got removed; the package names carry a v9 suffix
- Inferred Incentivized or fake reviews: all 383 ratings in the US-store histogram are five-star
- Inferred Paid acquisition: none found
Yala Live Pro: يلا لايف برو (app.yalalivepro.app): why it's climbing
In short: this is the Nth stand-in app for 'يلا لايف / Yalla Live Pro', an Arabic pirate-streaming brand, on Google Play. The listing says 'English football scores app', but users come for free live streams. It's growing not because of the product, but because of search demand the brand name already carries + re-listing under a new package name right after removal.
1. Basic data (our googleplay database, 2026-10-29 to 11-06)
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Store launch | 2026-08-15; the developer is listed as 'Yala Live Pro: Football Scores', email [email protected], no website; the privacy policy is a TermsFeed template |
| Total installs | 20,409 (11-06), +6,494 over the last 7 days |
| Install curve (AppstoreSpy estimate, app_day_ext) | 9-11 3,032 → 10-01 7,072 → 10-17 10,399 → 10-28 13,915 → 11-05 20,409. Clear acceleration in late October, daily installs rising from a couple hundred to roughly 500–1,000 |
| Charts | Saudi Sports free chart 57 (10-29) → 29 (11-06); Turkey 93–181, UAE 115–197, Germany 147–198 |
| Rating | 383 ratings, 5.0 average. The US store's detail-page histogram is [0,0,0,0,383], meaning all five-star; the Saudi store shows 19 text reviews, with 1, 3 and 4-star ratings all present |
| Version | 1.0.2,10-20 update; the release note reads only 'Bugs Fixed.'; no in-app purchases; the store listing says 'No ads, no data collection' |
The bar on the Saudi Sports free chart is low: it gained only about 6,500 in a week and reached #29. Yacine TV, at #9 on the same chart, gained 266k in a week.
2. What it actually is: a store shell plus off-store streaming
- What the store says: the description reads 'English-language football scores app', with only schedules, scores, favorites and dark mode. The iOS version (id6822740097, developer Nathan Pascal Semeny, listed 10-15, only 1 ratings) even says in its description: 'The app does not stream or b[roadcast]' (App Store). The iOS developer's sellerUrl points to edxcode.com/ar, an Arabic-language outsourcing firm.
- What users say in reviews (google-play-scraper, Saudi store, in Arabic): 'تاخر البث' (stream lag, 9-19,3 stars), 'من افضل التطبيقات للمشاهده' (one of the best apps for watching), 'برنامج رائع جدا بس الإعلانات كثيره' (very good, but too many ads, 10-31). An app that claims to show only scores and says it has no ads, yet users complain about stream lag and ads. From this I infer that once the store version is installed, streaming and ads are probably switched on via remote config. I did not verify this by installing the app; it is unconfirmed.
- Official site yalalive.pro (the single-L spelling in the Play package name): the homepage title reads 'شاهد كرة القدم مباشرة بجودة عالية مجانا' (watch football live in high quality, free). It distributes three ways: Android users download the APK directly (assets/yallalivepro_1.1.0.apk); iPhone users first install a 'video player' (App Store id6741074187 'YLP Player', developer Hamdi Mohamed hedi, listed 2025-01, Photo & Video category, 22 ratings), then paste the 'official link' (yallalivepro.online/api/playlist) from the site into it. There is also a separate TV APK.
- I unpacked the off-store APK (56MB, Flutter): package name com.example.yallalivepro. The code contains modules such as
services/hostname_backend.dart,services/legacy_api.dart,watch/external_player_handoff.dart,unlockedand_verifiedInstallUri. It uses Firebase Remote Config, with the backend at api.apipremiumcdn.xyz. The project path isDesktop/store app/YallaLivePro_Flutter_Website, and the UI strings match the store version ('Personalize Yala Live Pro', light/dark mode, lineup graphics). So the store version and off-store version are very likely the same codebase, differing only in whether 'unlock' is available. - There is also a main site, yallalive.pro (double L), which redirects to appp.yallalive.pro/apps and reads 'بث المباشر بتأخير أقل من 15 ثانية' (live streaming with under 15 seconds of delay), with GA and histats analytics. On Facebook, people share download links to app.yallalive.pro/home and apps.yallalive.pro/apps, saying they're for 'watching the World Cup' (FB post).
3. Key finding: the same brand has already been removed from Play several times
| Package / name | Status | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Yalla Live Pro: Live Sports | 2023-08-31 removed; the description reads outright 'Stream live soccer matches' | appfigures |
| app.yallalive.tv 'Yalla Live: Live Football' | Removed around 2024-01-16 | AppBrain (search summary) |
| com.urlvideoplayer.app 'Yalla Live Pro: يلا لايف برو' | Listed for 8 months, 2024-06 removed, 21k installs | AppBrain (search summary) |
| com.yaallalivepro.app 'Yalla Live Pro يلا لايف برو' | Listed for 11 days, 2025-04 removed | AppBrain (search summary) |
| com.yallaliveprov9.app 'YalaLive Pro: يلا لايف برو' (developer hjmahmortdah) | Removed (Play returns 404). The v9 in the package name means at least the ninth re-skin; this is the one Softonic indexes | Softonic page, Play 404 |
| com.app.yalalive | Play returns 404 | Tested |
| app.yalalivepro.app (this app) | Launched 2026-08-15, still live | — |
The summary on the Instagram hashtag page also says 'Earlier versions by different developers were removed from Google Play in 2025, but the current release remains active'. A post on Reddit's r/SneakyApps (which collects apps disguised as something else) also names the iOS Yalla Live Pro (developer Kian Lorven) (link; I did not read the post body, 403).
Correction to the recall card: the card said 'Softonic channel had 113k downloads'. That figure belongs to the old package com.yallaliveprov9.app, not this one. Softonic now shows about 6,529 downloads per month for this page.
4. Competitors (same play: free football for Arab fans)
Listing 'free football viewing' disguised as 'scores / schedules' is a crowded, old category in the Arabic market. At least 8 of these shells appear in the top 40 of the Saudi Sports free chart:
- Yacine TV (com.yacinetvllc.yacinetv.livescores): listed 2026-07-25, 1.72M installs, +7 days +266k, #9 in Saudi Sports. The same brand's older package com.yacinetvapps.sportlive has 7.93M installs. This is the biggest in the same play.
- Drama Live / دراما لايف: three packages (840k / 930k / 93k), relisted repeatedly under different developer names.
- سوريا لايف (com.syrialive.news): listed 2026-09-09, 290k installs, #3 in Saudi Sports.
- تلفاز - بث مباشر (54k), Fati Score (com.yassin.pro.tv203M), MajedSports (12k), Alostora / الأسطورة (3M).
- Licensed and genuine scores apps: Yalla Shoot (20.8M; itself a brand that grew out of a pirate site), 365Scores, Sofascore, Kooora, beIN / TOD (paid licensed), DAZN, Shahid, and Thmanyah (Saudi league broadcasts).
- Name-piggybacking: Yalla Score, Yalla Sport, another iOS 'Yalla Live Pro' on yallalive.dev (id6763546538, no longer findable), plus a flood of 'يلا لايف' SEO pirate sites (yala3live.tv, livetodaytv.com, etc.).
Compared with these, this app is much smaller (20k against Yacine TV's 1.72M), and its only asset is the brand name 'يلا لايف برو'.
5. Growth tactics
- Brand-name search (confirmed): 'يلا لايف / Yalla Live' is a free football-viewing brand that has circulated in the Arabic-speaking world for years, with dozens of same-name SEO sites and Telegram channels (e.g. @yallalivestv with 2.7K, @yalla_live). Users who search the brand name on Play land on whichever package is still alive. Stuffing the Arabic brand 'يلا لايف برو' into the title is the core of the ASO.
- Official site and word-of-mouth distribution (confirmed): yalalive.pro and yallalive.pro both distribute the APK and iPhone player, with tutorials. Facebook personal accounts and groups are sharing the download links. Softonic, CNET, FileHippo, apktodo, and assorted "مهكر" (cracked version) download sites are all hosting the APK.
- Rebranding to survive (confirmed): after takedowns, it changes package name, developer account, and outsourced team, then relists. Old users migrate over via the official site and Telegram.
- Ratings (suspected): 383 ratings in the US store histogram are all five-star, and the rating-to-install ratio is about 1.9%, which is high. Ratings may have been prompted, unverified.
- Seasons / schedule (inferred): late October ramps up, right when European leagues, the Saudi league, and the Champions League group stage are dense. The afterglow of the World Cup (summer of 2026) keeps demand for "free matches" going.
- Paid acquisition: no evidence found (ad libraries only track products on their list; TikHub searches returned nothing that day, so nothing could be checked).
Where the money comes back: the store version has no in-app purchases. Monetization runs through ads inside the app (reviews say "too many ads") and ads on the sideloaded APK and website.
6. Verdict
- Why it took off: users come not because the app is good, but because they were already searching for "يلا لايف" to watch free matches, and this package is the same-named shell that is still alive on Play. Demand from fans without broadcast rights is constant and spikes with seasons or big tournaments. The Saudi sports chart's bar is low, so a few thousand installs a week is enough to reach the top 30.
- Differentiation: compared with similar apps, the only difference is that it carries the old pirate-broadcast brand name "Yalla Live Pro." The features themselves (scores, plus possibly hidden live streams) are no different from Yacine TV or Drama Live. The brand is why it grew, but it's a borrowed brand, not a moat.
- Can it be learned from: the playbook of a clean review build + remote switch + APK distribution from the official site + rebranding after takedowns can indeed be copied, and it already has been, widely. But it rests on piracy and violations of store policy, and its lifespan is measured in months (past packages lasted 11 days to 8 months). Not recommended. What can be legitimately learned: ASO using brand terms and local languages, small-country category charts with low barriers, and seasonal rhythm.
7. What's uncertain
- Whether the store version actually opens live streams remotely after install: inferred from reviews and off-store code, not verified by installing it.
- Whether the ratings were manipulated: not verified.
- Which countries the installs come from: no per-country data. Judging from the charts, Saudi Arabia dominates, followed by Turkey, the UAE, and Germany (Arabic-speaking diaspora).
- Whether this case and the past taken-down packages are the same group: the brand, copy, and website are one thread, but the developer accounts and outsourcing companies changed every time.
Sources
- Our library googleplay: app_profile, app_day, app_day_ext (AppstoreSpy estimates), chart_rank, app_snap (2026-11-06 lookup)
- Play page: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.yalalivepro.app
- Official sites: yalalive.pro, yalalive.pro/apps, yallalive.pro (→appp.yallalive.pro/apps); off-store APK yalalive.pro/assets/yallalivepro_1.1.0.apk (unpacked locally)
- iOS: id6822740097, id6741074187 (iTunes lookup)
- Past takedowns: appfigures 336724451936; AppBrain com.urlvideoplayer.app / com.yaallalivepro.app / app.yallalive.tv / com.yallaliveprov9.app (Jina search summaries); Softonic yalalive-pro-yl-lyf-brw.en.softonic.com/android
- Social: Facebook group posts, Instagram hashtag page www.instagram.com/popular/yalla-live-pro/; Telegram @yallalivestv