TheTicketSellers, an online platform for selling concert tickets, has adopted a new system aimed at combatting ticket touts. BitTicket makes use of the same technology employed by crypto currencies to track and store buyer information.
Ticket touting is worth around GBP1bn (€1.13bn) per year in the UK, with the Competition and Markets Authority already investigating its practices. Some touts use software to buy hundreds of tickets online at the same time, creating false demand. BitTicket will prevent this, as it will prove who purchased the ticket and where it has been transferred to since then.
The system has been developed by Phil Shaw-Stewart, who previously founded ethical ticket provider Citizen Ticket.
“We met the TheTicketSellers at Shambala and immediately knew we wanted to work with them,” said Shaw-Stewart. “TheTicketSellers are one of the UK’s most trusted independent ticketing sites … They will now be the first ever ticketing platform to implement BitTicket.”
TheTicketSellers currently manage ticketing for independent festivals including Boomtown Festival, Gala Festival, Shambala, and Nozstock: The Hidden Valley.
“BitTicket is the future of ethical event ticketing to benefit the ticket purchaser, event organiser and artist,” said Gala Festival director Jonathan Edwards. “It provides a transparent, safe and secure platform that is set to level the event ticketing industry for the good of all involved.”
More information on BitTicket, as well as an e-petition calling for action against ticket touts, can be found online at www.bitticket.io.
