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Are black market tickets out of control?
A BBC investigation has revealed the ease with which Premier League tickets can be acquired on the black market.
Undercover, we purchased tickets from four websites the Premier League has designated as “unauthorised,” subsequently using them to attend four separate matches last weekend.
While these platforms boast tens of thousands of tickets, experts suggest these figures are likely inflated.
Reselling football tickets is illegal within the UK; however, these companies operate from abroad, with bases in Spain, Dubai, Germany, and Estonia, thereby circumventing UK law.
Who are these entities, and what else did our investigation uncover?
The Premier League and its clubs only authorise ticket sales through their own platforms and official partners.
Many clubs, for instance, maintain a partnership with Ticketmaster.
When a supporter cannot attend a game, they are expected to resell or transfer their ticket via the club’s official exchange.
These exchanges typically prioritise members and cap resale prices at face value, with sellers usually receiving credit on their club account.
Nearly 33,000 tickets were listed for the four games we attended across these four websites.
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Inside the Manchester derby with black market tickets
The Premier League maintains a public list of websites it considers “unauthorised.” , external
From this list, we selected four sites with a significant number of listings and accessibility for UK-based customers.
Specific seat numbers were seldom provided; instead, generic descriptions such as “longside lower tier” and “shortside upper tier” were common.
Almost every ticket type, including hospitality packages, was available, priced in pounds, and ranging from £55 to £14,962. A service fee of approximately 25% was added to each purchase.
Upon completing our purchases, sellers promptly contacted us. A representative from Seatsnet, for example, called us mere seconds after payment.
They informed us that a ticket, complete with a barcode, would be sent via email or WhatsApp in the coming days.
Later that week, all tickets arrived, including the Everton ticket on the morning of the match. Each was a digital ticket, accessible via an online link and ready for scanning at the stadium entrance.
One might question the problem with secondary ticket sites, especially when they provide access to sold-out events like the Manchester derby just days before the match.
However, our findings indicate that tickets are being sold at inflated prices, disadvantaging fans.
Furthermore, these companies claim to possess thousands of tickets, effectively removing them from general circulation and making it harder for fans to purchase tickets at standard prices directly from the club.
Thirdly, concerns arise about segregation and safety.
No background checks were conducted to ascertain our allegiances. During the Manchester derby, we could have been Manchester United supporters seated among City fans.
“Legislation is in place to minimise the risk of disorder, with football clubs responsible for implementing their own strategies to prevent ticket sales to unauthorised resellers,” the UK government stated.
“While the law applies only to domestic resales, it covers any element of an unauthorised sales chain that takes place within England and Wales.”
The four internationally registered sites we used are as follows:
Live Football Tickets – Spain
Seatsnet – UAE
Ticombo – Germany
Football Tickets Net – Estonia
Reselling Premier League tickets appears to be a lucrative business for them.
Madrid-based Livetix Group, the company behind Live Football Tickets, reported revenue of 19 million euros in its last public accounts.
Seatsnet is registered in one of Dubai’s ‘free zones,’ offering tax exemptions and facilitating the transfer of profits overseas.
Thousands of Premier League ticket listings can be traced to the town of Engelberg in the Swiss Alps.
These websites all describe themselves as “ticket marketplaces,” ostensibly connecting buyers with sellers.
Only Ticombo regularly discloses the identities of its sellers.
One seller, NGO Events, boasts over 14,000 listings on the site.
However, company records reveal that NGO Events is not an independent trader but is, in fact, managed by Thomas Senge, the managing director of Ticombo Switzerland.
Senge and Ticombo’s chief executive, Atle Barlaup, also previously served on the board of WorldTix, another major seller on Ticombo.
All three companies appear linked and are registered in the same small Swiss town of Engelberg.
Ticombo stated that NGO Events and WorldTix are “partners of Ticombo” but adhere to “the same obligations” as other traders.
Barlaup is a well-known figure in the ticket touting world.
In 2011, he admitted to BBC Panorama that he had paid Fifa vice-president Jack Warner 242,000 euros in cash for 820 World Cup tickets.
Ticombo asserted that Barlaup spoke to BBC Panorama to “highlight corruption within Fifa.”
Football Ticket Net also has a questionable history.
While currently registered in Estonia, its shareholders are from Israel.
Under a previous parent company owned by one of the current shareholders, it was fined 600,000 euros by a French court for infringing Uefa’s trademarks and selling tickets for European finals.
Live Football Tickets, Seatsnet, and Football Ticket Net did not respond to our requests for comment.
Football Ticket Net is registered at this building in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn.
Despite our successful entries, gaining access with resold tickets is not always guaranteed.
We received numerous reports of supporters being denied entry.
“It’s Wild West stuff,” said Crystal Palace fan Matt.
He paid £400 on a separate site, Fanpass, so his 79-year-old uncle could attend May’s FA Cup final, only to have him turned away at the gate.
Wembley confirmed that a duplicate ticket had been scanned 20 minutes prior.
In messages seen by the BBC, the seller boasted about sneaking 200 other people into the match.
Fanpass stated: “Our priority is to ensure that every customer is able to attend the event for which they have purchased tickets. Cases in which a customer is denied entry are extremely rare.”
A Ticombo buyer, Alister, experienced a similarly distressing situation.
When his ticket failed, a tout met him outside the Emirates Stadium and personally scanned him in with a replacement.
Alister, a Nottingham Forest supporter, had intended to be in the away section. However, upon entering, he realised his new ticket placed him among home fans.
“The Arsenal fans didn’t want us there,” he said. “It was uncomfortable, inappropriate and completely unacceptable.”
Arsenal told us they “take strong action against ticket touting.”
These two tickets for Stamford Bridge are likely to have been obtained using fake identities.
Many tickets are acquired by touts using bots and fabricated identities. We cannot confirm whether any of the companies mentioned employ this practice.
Some tickets bear the name of the original holder, providing clues to their origin.
Five tickets purchased from “unauthorised” sites and shared with us by fans displayed names absent from the UK electoral register, English and Welsh birth records, and social media:
Nerissa Penhaligon
Marigold Ormond
Miri Wend
Connor Trot
Ariel Balal
“At least a couple of them appear to be wholly synthetic,” stated ticket security expert Reg Walker.
“There’s strong reason to suspect they’re being used to attack Premier League football ticketing systems.”
An archived version of this company’s website shows ticket bot software in action.
Despite their illegality, ticket bots remain a significant concern.
These computer programs automate the official ticket purchasing process, enabling touts to acquire multiple tickets simultaneously.
Posing as a potential customer, we contacted a company selling this technology.
They offered us software designed to target the ticket platforms of five Premier League clubs: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham.
The bots were priced at $2,500 per club or $9,900 for a comprehensive package.
While valid club memberships were required, the software would allow us to join an online ticket queue up to 25 times simultaneously with a “basic licence.”
The company pledged that “upgrades are included in the price” should the clubs update their security systems.
The company offered a “larger package” for those wanting to join a ticket queue more than 25 times simultaneously.
The Premier League is already implementing new rules for digital ticketing, including the introduction of “encrypted barcodes.”
They claim this will complicate touting efforts.
Banking app-style ID verification and limiting the number of times a ticket can be transferred are additional solutions suggested by Manal Smith, former head of ticketing at Arsenal.
The government has announced plans to cap the price of resale tickets across various sectors.
However, the Football Supporters’ Association believes lawmakers must take further action.
“There seems to be a loophole where agencies are based abroad that needs to be looked at in terms of legislation,” stated FSA chair Tom Greatrex, a former Labour MP.
Walker also advocates for legislation targeting foreign-based companies.
“The legislation is not supranational. If you’re outside the UK, you don’t commit an offence – a simple amendment could rectify this.”
Walker described the battle between football’s biggest clubs and ticket resellers as an “arms race.”
Our investigation suggests that the clubs and regulators are currently losing this race.