by Richard Kastelein

OP/ED - The BBC is reporting that Ticket Touts in the United Kingdom make an average of 59 per cent above face value and earn close to £30,000 per year - more than the average salary in the UK. They are taking data from a company called G4S - which 'touts' itself as a security firm providing CCTV, access control etc. But it seems they have no idea how the ticketing market operates. The big problem with the research is they are assuming that one person buys tickets via normal channels at face value and resells directly to the consumer at a profit. While this certainly is the case at times, there's no mention in the research for when tickets are bought via the back door from a promoter, manager, artist or venue, that are inflated above face value already? At least 20 percent of all event tickets in the music industry are sold via these kinds of channels before the fans even have a chance to start buying. Same with sports.

Then there's touts selling to other touts and others selling via others to online marketplaces - sometimes tickets go through multiple hands before they get to the consumer.

Based on these facts, the 'research', clearly biased as well as completely incorrect - seems to be more of a PR tactic for their services than valid intelligence. It's a shame that the BBC is disseminating bad information based on bad research.

The report is right about one thing - prices are falling in the secondary market due to competition. Which is what the free market is all about and exactly why the monopolization of the ticketing industry is not good for consumers.  

"Fans continue to pour thousands of pounds into the wallets of the touts," said Mark Hamilton, managing director G4S Events. "But, fans should be aware that in buying tickets from unauthorised outlets, they could find themselves barred from entering events if their tickets are found to be fraudulent, or their identification does not match up with the ticket purchaser."

In other words, Hamilton makes money selling technology that tackles the secondary market. 

I am not sure who their researchers are - but perhaps they should read the ticketing industry press (ticketnews.com and euticketnews.com) and pick up some undertanding on the mechanics of the Secondary Ticket Market.