Viagogo calls for ticket market overhaul after Raye’s ‘absurd’ anti-bot measures

Secondary ticketing platform Viagogo has branded singer Raye’s move to manually review tickets as “absurd” and said bots will only be stopped if the primary market is opened up to create a “fairer” industry.

The group has blamed primary ticket sellers for the rise in touts using bots to buy up tickets, and called on the Government to review the entire market to help level the playing field.

Raye condemned ticket touts last week, saying they “overwhelmed” sign-ups for her live show at the Royal Albert Hall on October 23, creating “hundreds of thousands of fake registrations”.

The Where Is My Husband! singer’s team took the unusual action of manually reviewing the sign-up list to identify “real fans” and scupper the bots.

A Viagogo spokesperson told the Press Association: “It is absurd that artists and their teams have to manually sift through hundreds of thousands of registrations to identify real fans.

“Fans deserve a fair chance to access the events they love.”

They added: “Criticism of the resale market often frames bots as a secondary-market problem.

“However, bot activity occurs on primary ticketing platforms.

“We need an open and interconnected ticketing market to tackle the problem at its source.”

Viagogo is pushing for an “open distribution” model that allows sports and live entertainment tickets to be sold through more than one firm.

The company – which operates under the StubHub brand in the US – wants the industry to adopt an airline-style ticketing model, which it believes would boost competition for fans, help drive down prices and crack down on ticket-buying by bots.

The group told PA: “The ticketing system is broken and fans continue to face the same systemic issues.

“Bots target tickets when they first go on sale, on primary ticketing sites.

“Tackling this requires primary sellers to share information with regulators when their systems are breached.

“We strongly support UK anti-bot legislation and have proposed a solution built on industry-wide collaboration.”

Raj Berry is pushing to open up the ticketing market (Viagogo/PA)

It added: “Open ticketing would allow authorised primary and resale platforms to share technology and ticketing information, helping identify bots and suspicious activity, verify tickets and give fans greater choice and protection.”

It is already competing with primary ticket sellers in the US and markets globally, and is expanding this into the UK to shake up the market dominated by the likes of Ticketmaster.

Raj Beri, chief business officer of StubHub North America and Viagogo, told PA the group had already seen a 400% jump globally in events where it is the primary ticket seller over its third quarter.

The push comes ahead of a planned crackdown in Britain on reselling tickets for profit, with a proposed new law to make it illegal for tickets to be resold above face value, plus unavoidable fees.

While the Government has yet to come back with concrete plans for the ban and how it would work, Viagogo is urging ministers to review the entire sector and pave the way for reforms to allow more competition.

The firm said: “We’re ready to work with the Government on practical, pro-competitive reforms to create a fairer ticketing industry.

“Real progress means tackling the problem across the whole ecosystem, starting with open ticketing.”