Revealed: full scale of football tickets being resold on StubHub at huge profit
FootballArsenal said: ‘It has to be remembered that the ultimate losers are our fans who are forced to pay for overpriced tickets by using this platform
Unauthorised resale of football tickets became illegal in England and Wales in 1994 after the Taylor report into the Hillsborough disaster included a ban among recommendations to enhance fan safety. While small-time street touting has continued, the size of the practice online has remained secret so far because resale sites and professional touts with access to genuine sales data have little incentive to spotlight the matter. https://www.maxbetsbobet.org agen sbobet
When confronted by the Guardian, StubHub claimed most sales were by genuine fans. It said its UK website didn’t offer football tickets which StubHub.com, its international website, wasn’t subject to English and Welsh law. The international site’s servers are thought to be based overseas, meaning the sales technically don’t happen within the UK, but in test purchases performed by the Guardian, every other aspect of a transaction does.
Using UK credit cards and addresses, the Guardian was ready to purchase a ticket for Tottenham’s FA game against Southampton on 5 February then list it purchasable moments later. the location also uses software that detects and displays the user’s location.
Malcolm Clarke, the chair of the Football Supporters’ Association, said: “These companies are simply online touts seeking to take advantage of the loyalty of fans for his or her own commercial profit.”
The ticket information supplied during the test purchase also featured misinformation regarding the situation of the seat. The Competition and Markets Authority has previously warned StubHub that supplying false ticket data is in breach of consumer law because it means customers may find yourself with different seats from those they were expecting.
StubHub said it asked sellers to update ticket information if it’s informed it’s wrong.
The Guardian was also ready to advertise a ticket that indicated the customer would be sitting with the away fans when the ticket was for the house end.
Liverpool, who work with Merseyside police to clamp down on touting, warned that putting fans within the wrong end undermined efforts to stay them safe. A spokesperson said unauthorised resale “potentially compromises segregation arrangements also as undermining our attempts to make sure tickets are distributed as fairly as possible via a loyalty system”.
Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea, a club which has taken court action against 14 touts, one among whom was jailed, also condemned industrial-scale online resale. Manchester City declined to comment.
The Premier League said: “Individual clubs decide their own official secondary ticket arrangements and any sale of a ticket on unauthorised platforms is against the law .”
Separate evidence seen by the Guardian indicates that one person could also be behind an outsized proportion of transactions in English football. Internal StubHub data includes multiple listings with an equivalent “seller ID”. Only StubHub knows who they’re but they’re liable for nearly £2m of tickets advertised on at some point .
In a statement, StubHub said it “works diligently to suits the law” within the countries where it operates and doesn’t offer football tickets from its StubHub.co.uk website.
StubHub is within the midst of a £3.1bn takeover by its controversial rival Viagogo, which has been criticised by regulators, MPs and campaign groups, including for alleged breaches of consumer law.
Both sites were named during a 2018 Guardian investigation into football touting, amid concerns about security following a Europa League game at which thousands of FC Köln fans entered the house end at Arsenal.
