Two companies are working together to curb ticket scalping

Despite encouraging new legislation, grossly overpriced commercial ticket resales remain a huge issue for the events industry, with tickets to sold-out events regularly fetching exorbitant amounts through unauthorised sites.

A new partnership between event technology platform Eventbrite and face value ticket reseller Twickets is taking a proactive step to mitigate the impact of overpriced resales and enable fans to resell or purchase secondary tickets fairly.

The integration – now live across Australia, New Zealand the UK – is an opt-in service for organisers and promoters who are using Eventbrite to sell tickets.

“The way we’re doing it is we have an open API – Eventbrite’s API is called Spectrum and we have over 180 integrations with technologies like Salesforce and Surveymonkey, and Twickets is the latest,” Laura Huddle, Head of New Business at Eventbrite Australia/NZ, tells TIO.

The world’s leading event technology platform, Eventbrite powers nearly three million events each year – with organisers using the platform to boost ticket sales, promote and manage events, handle onsite operation and analyse results. Twickets, on the other hand, is a ticketing platform that enables fans and organisers to trade tickets for gigs, festivals, sports, theatre and arts events at face value.

For consumers, ticket holders who have purchased an event ticket via Eventbrite but are no longer able to attend will be able to list that ticket by logging on to their Eventbrite account within the Twickets platform. Once a ticket has been resold, the original ticket is cancelled and a new one is issued to the buyer.

Danny Hannaford, managing director of Twickets Australia, outlines how the integration works on a consumer level

“A seller links their Eventbrite account to a Twickets account, so when they go to list a ticket they can only see tickets that are already in that account. So, the ticket information is already there – we know what the face value is, we know what the fees are,” he tells TIO. “With us being a face value ticket reseller, it’s very important to us that that information is stored correctly.”

The consumer simply selects which ticket they want to sell, and after a moderation process, buyers are then able to purchase the ticket directly from the Twickets site, at face value (plus a 10% booking fee). Once it’s been purchased, the information goes back to Eventbrite, the old ticket is cancelled, the seller is informed it has been sold, and the buyer receives an email confirmation and their new ticket immediately over email.

“It’s a really good way of making sure there’s no foul play within the event itself, and it keeps it secure for fans and gives peace of mind for event organisers and fans alike”, says Hannaford.

Eventbrite’s Laura Huddle hopes the partnership encourages further action across the board to deal with the problem head-on

“Reselling is an industry issue,” she says. “If a ticket lands on a resale site with a grossly inflated price the whole industry – ticketing companies, but also organisers, fans, artists – everyone loses out. The thought behind our partnership was to work together to address the issue.”

Huddle explains that the partnership is possible through Eventbrite’s open API, Spectrum, with Twickets being the latest of the 180 integrations the platform uses.

New Zealand’s Rhythm and Vines festival, which boasts a lineup including the likes of ScHoolboy Q and 2manydjs, will be the first to take advantage of the partnership. “I think Rhythm and Vines are quick and eager to adopt new technology, and so we had a previous relationship there”, says Huddle.

The integration reflects a growing need for the industry to address how the digital age has impacted the way tickets are sold – and to take regulation into their own hands. Huddle and Hannaford both acknowledge that the resale market is likely always going to exist in some form, however, the partnership is an example of how working together and taking advantage of technology can address the issue.

“Years ago, of course, you’d have to go the theatre, hand over your cash and get a ticket,” says Hannaford. “But we’re in such a fast-paced environment now, with technology changing constantly – it can be tough to keep up with things like people using bots to hit primary ticketing websites and scooping up loads of them. I think it’s a great step forward to be able to integrate our two sites, having that co-operation is a great thing and I think we need to see more of it across the industry.”

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.