Monday 8 December 2014 17:25, UK
Ticket touting is making a comeback as the UK sports ticket market comes under fresh attack by the latest technology, writes Sky Sports News’ Amy Lewis.
Authorities have cracked down on street touting but now face the growing threat of online tools used to buy up tickets for sporting events to sell them on for hugely inflated prices.
Reg Walker, Britain's leading ticket-fraud expert, says touts are using software known as ‘Bots’ to control the market.
He told Sky Sports News HQ: "Botnets are computer programmes which are pre-loaded with different names, addresses and credit card details which are then programmed to target primary ticket agent systems. They then harvest tickets at high speed and that effectively blocks out genuine fans from being able to purchase tickets at face value.
"These tickets are then immediately re-sold on ticket tout platforms."
It's an arms race and effectively the genuine ticket agencies can no longer keep abreast at the speed at which the touts can come up with new innovative software to attack their systems.
Walker, who has been investigating ticket fraud for 16 years, has investigated 120,000 ticket sales for high-demand events this year and claims more than 30% went to touts who are selling them on secondary sites.
Walker says: "It's an arms race and effectively the genuine ticket agencies can no longer keep abreast at the speed at which the touts can come up with new innovative software to attack their systems.
"It's physically impossible. And we've had to go back to using the mark one human eyeball to manually go through to sells ledgers to weed out these false identities."
A Sky Sports News HQ investigation found Bots for sale on the website ticketsbots.net. One piece of software, which costs just over £600, checks for tickets for Rugby 2015 World Cup tickets. The site claims it can "reserve multiple tickets with a single click”.
We argued for new legislation - that didn't happen. Therefore we're doing what we can to ensure that those tickets get into the hands of fans at face value.
Sky Sports News HQ showed Debbie Jevans, England Rugby 2015 Chief Executive, the site - she warned fans against using secondary-selling sites.
"Just don't risk it," she says. "If you want to be sure of a ticket that will get you into the ground to see great rugby - buy official. We argued for new legislation - that didn't happen. Therefore we're doing what we can to ensure that those tickets get into the hands of fans at face value."
Ticketmaster, the largest primary ticket selling site in the world, have agreed not to re-sell Rugby World Cup tickets on their secondary reselling sites - but the fight against Bots is costing them millions.
Chris Edmonds, chairman of Ticketmaster UK, told Sky Sports News HQ: "Across our global businesses, to give you some sense of the scale, we're blocking about 15,000 IP addresses every week across out ticketing business. We're in talks with the Government in terms of trying to improve legislation. Bots should be one of the primary targets."
Lord Moynihan is trying to push through an amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill, which, if passed by government, would make it harder for touts to do business.
He says: "It would require the secondary market for tickets to make sure there is more information on tickets so you know which row you're in, which seat you're in, where you're buying the ticket from to legitimise the ticket and address the current position that £1.5bn of fraudulent tickets and activities comes through the secondary market."
Sharon Hodgson MP, who is co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse and who tabled a Private Member’s Bill in 2010 which would have limited how much more than the original price tickets could be resold for, has also spoken out about the problem of botnets.
“The secondary (ticket resale) market is worth in the region of £1bn,” she told Sky Sports News HQ.
“This is a huge industry and these botnets shovel up all of the tickets when they initially go on sale and stop ordinary fans from being able to buy them.
“They have no other option but to go to the secondary market to buy them and pay the inflated prices that touts insist upon.
“I think the secondary platforms should ask more questions about the provenance of the tickets and where the tickets have come from and whether bots have been used to obtain those tickets.
“If the bots were made illegal and more information was made available, people would know if they were buying a ticket had had been obtained legally by a genuine fan and was within the terms and conditions to be resold.”
Sky Sports News HQ have contacted Ticketbots.net but have not received a response.
