Premier League ticket black market exposed

A BBC investigation revealed the existence of a black market that sold thousands of Premier League tickets.

Companies are behind it, including those based in a Swiss town with a population of 4,000.

They are thought to be using memberships and computer software to obtain tickets at scale through clubs’ online ticket platforms.

The Premier League lists the websites on an “unauthorised list,” which prohibit the sale of tickets in the UK.

Despite this, BBC Sport was able to purchase tickets for four of the games last weekend easily on the black market. The practice has been described as “endemic” in English football.

Although the Manchester derby on Sunday was sold out a few weeks ago, we purchased two tickets in the City on the day before the game.

Additionally, we made purchases for West Ham, Everton, and Arsenal fixtures.

At all four matches, our journalists were able to use the tickets to gain entry to the game.

However, this is not always the case for those who have used these websites, with some users reporting to BBC Sport paying for tickets that weren’t allowed them to attend games.

Some of the tickets were sent via UK phone numbers on Whatsapp, with strict instructions not to speak to stewards, and cost us two to four times the face value.

The findings have prompted calls for clubs, the Premier League and government to do more to crackdown on the black market.

The scale of the market is causing some to wonder if supporters can’t purchase tickets directly from official sources and whether strict segregation rules pose a safety risk.

Tens of thousands of Premier League tickets were listed for sale on the four websites overall.

For instance, nearly a third of the Emirates’ capacity was advertised for the match between Arsenal and Nottingham Forest, which generated more than 18,000 tickets.

BBC Sport was not able to verify whether all these tickets were genuine beyond the ones we bought.

Reg Walker, a renowned expert on ticket security, thinks that “speculative listings – tickets these websites don’t have” might explain the advertised numbers.

Only 10 to 25% of those tickets actually exist, he continued.

For context, 10% would mean thousands of tickets for each round of Premier League matches.

Prices we saw ranged from £55 to £346, frequently far above face value and frequently requiring a sizable booking fee.

A family of Japanese tourists purchased tickets for £2,200 with a face value of £87, according to Walker, who consults with Premier League clubs and has 40 years of experience in the ticketing industry.

Tickets were even listed for Arsenal’s exclusive Diamond Club and Manchester City’s Tunnel Club.

Our findings were described as “very concerning,” according to the Football Supporters’ Association.

It “confirms what we’ve been told anecdotally,” the statement read. this is becoming endemic across the game,” said FSA chair Tom Greatrex.

“Long-term supporters are having to purchase tickets through secondary organizations because of this.” ” “

All of our tickets were used as mobile passes when they were transferred digitally, in one instance the morning of the game.

Prior to the arrival of the tickets, seat numbers were not made public.

For Everton’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium, we ordered an upper tier, behind the goal seat.

A private concourse for £1,200-per-season members that included a free pint was actually delivered as a Club View ticket near the halfway point.

One digital ticket that appeared to be for the Champions League game against Napoli automatically changed in our mobile wallet after the Etihad game and displayed a different seat number.

Only two of the clubs we visited responded to a request for comment on our findings.

As part of “strong action against ticket touting,” Arsenal announced that they had suspended almost 74,000 accounts for trying to get tickets in unauthorised ways.

But the four companies used are registered abroad – in Spain, Dubai, Germany and Estonia – and beyond the scope of UK law.

Even so, they are all actively targeting UK customers through online ads, and sellers from Live Football Tickets, Seatsnet, and Football Ticket Net reached us via UK phone numbers.

Engelberg, a mountain resort resort in central Switzerland with a population of 4,000, served as the corporate headquarters for Ticombo, a company with offices in Germany.

It was the only company to respond to our findings, sending a statement from “Ticombo legal”, saying it is a “trusted resale platform” and highlighting “the important role of secondary markets in promoting consumer choice and competition”.

It stated in its statement that it vehemently refutes allegations of wrongdoing or potential illegal behavior.

According to Ticombo, “regulations that completely outlaw ticket resale are envisaged to protect consumers but, in reality, only grant the organizers a monopoly.”

It even asked us to leave the company a positive Trustpilot review if we had a “positive experience” at the London Stadium.

Greatrex, a former Labour MP, notes that there appears to be a legal gap where organizations are based abroad.

On the “unauthorised” website, which we used just before the game, we had plenty of options for the Manchester derby.

Opting for the cheapest ticket we could find, mine cost around three times face value and arrived via a link from a mobile phone a few days later.

It had clear instructions in its box.

I was instructed not to speak with security personnel, that I must “go inside the stadium for security purposes” and that I must “go inside the stadium one hour before kick-off (no earlier).”

Adding to the suspicion, I was advised – if challenged over the ticket – to lie and say it was a free gift, because stadium staff “have an incentive to invalidate tickets”.

My ticket was scanned without anything being flagged despite these warnings. Entry was surprisingly simple, with no questions asked.

The instructions also included a request not to wear away team colours.

Why is this advice given is obvious. A seat in the home section, behind one of the goals, was the price of the ticket. I was in with some of City’s most ardent supporters.

Opposition supporters who appear in home sections have gotten fans from a number of clubs to grow more frustrated.

None of the businesses involved would provide specifics about the method by which they obtained tickets at this level.

However, more often than not, scam artists purchase tickets through software bots and fake identities.

“You are talking about tens of thousands of memberships in the hands of touts at most clubs,” said Walker.

One of the directors of these resale sites allegedly held the control of over 900 Premier League club memberships.

It’s a war,” he declared. ” “

Figures released by some clubs last year show the breadth of the challenge:

The Home Office only recorded 12 arrests last season for tickets that advertised in English football’s top six tiers.

Manal Smith was Arsenal’s head of ticketing up until April.

She claims that the “disappointment of a supporter who turns up and is denied entry” was the hardest part of her job.

We spoke with a number of fans who paid hundreds of pounds for tickets purchased from “unauthorised” platforms but were unable to watch the game they had been anticipating.

A 50th birthday trip from Devon to Old Trafford was ruined.

A 79-year-old fan from Crystal Palace was unaware that his team had won the FA Cup at Wembley.