These types of ticket sites or ticket “exchange” sites are just ticket tout sites.
Criminal gangs will have hundreds of people on computers ready and waiting for a gig’s ticket release. When they go on sale throusands of tickets are bought by these criminal gangs, none with any intention of going to the gig, and then forwarded to these ticket tout sites and are sold at a huge upscale in price to the face value of the ticket. Earning both the criminal gang and the ticket tout site a percentage of that upscale in price.
Also, say a gig is on at the 21000 Manchester Arena; 21000 tickets are never sold through the Arena, the record/promotion company, the artist’s website or reputable ticket sites. A few thousand tickets will always be held back and passed on to the ticket tout sites and a few hundred will also be passed on to criminal gangs who will have physical touts stood outside the gig shouting “tickets,, anyone buying or selling tickets?” Earning any of the record/promotion company, the artist and the ticket tout site a percentage of that upscale in price.
This also happens at football clubs. It happens at City! I guarantee that City hold back tickets and pass them on to these sites. Ever wondered how fans of other clubs get tickets for our games in the home end, sat together, for a big game that City have said has sold out?! Ever wondered why there seems to be so many empty seats for games that City have said have sold out (it’s because the tout sites have failed to sell the tickets at £250 a pop)?! Earning the City and the ticket tout site a percentage of that upscale in price (unless it didn’t sell of course).
Spurs away last season at Wembley, an American woman with her Son (never been to a football game before) were stood next to my mate and they got talking at half time and he said she turned white when he told her he paid £30 for his ticket as she’d paid £300 for her’s and her Son’s.
If anyone ever sent an email to a record company or football club about it they would plead complete innocence or outright denial that it goes on. But it definitely does.
And I guarantee that some of the top Loyalty Points earners at City have never set foot inside a football ground. They will have got themselves a supporter number back in 2001 and bought a ticket for every single game since but sold the ticket on.
There was a Channel 4 Dispatches programme about all this earlier this decade.
The ticket tout sites will also sell fake tickets (that they may or may not know are fake) or offer to sell tickets that they haven’t even been given or faked yet or will never even materialise.
Anything to squeeze that bit extra money out of people!
