Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan has had a 90% success rate at blocking bots

Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program is being considered a success, according to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, after it was announced that the service has managed to see a 90% success rate when it comes to ticket bots.

As Billboard reports, Michael Rapino recently spoke to the KindredCast podcast, hosted by New York’s LionTree’s CEO Areyeh Bourkoff, in which he explained that Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program has seen an estimated success rate of 90%.

Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program was launched earlier this year and is marketed as a way to stop to ticket bots, scalpers, and other unethical purchasers. As Ticketmaster’s website explains, “We built a really big robot to protect fans from the thousands of little scalper bots trying to scoop up tickets.”

“Fans register ahead of time, and those who are verified and selected receive a code that unlocks the opportunity to purchase tickets.”

While some musicians, such as Taylor Swift have drawn criticism for their use of the program, which can offer fans the opportunity to increase their place in line by buying merch, the general attitude toward the program has been largely positive.

“The challenge is we don’t have a mile-wide front row – the old problem in the business is supply and demand,” explained Michael Rapino, before making reference to how 10 million people attempted to purchase tickets to Adele’s 2016 US tour, for which only 400,000 were available.

“There’s no nice way to tell 9.6 million people you can’t go,” he said. “The challenge though is being more transparent. We start having a better dialogue. So [the consumer] will feel better if you’ve registered and we tell you, you’re one of 100,000 that are registered. We have 50,000 tickets here. And here’s how you can now increase your spot in the line.”

Of course, anything that can claim to beat those nefarious ticket bots has to be good when compared to our current system. At least in Australia, there have been numerous attempts to have ticket bots banned, with both the Turnbull Government and the New South Wales Government getting behind movements to ban the unethical services.

Here’s hoping that Ticketmaster will be able to increase their 90% success rate to a 100% success rate in the future, thus giving ticket purchasers complete peace of mind when it comes to purchasing those precious concert tickets.

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