New Study: U.S. Event Goers Say Ticketing Process Flawed

11% of Millennials Have Fallen Victim to Ticket Fraud

Nearly One-Third of Respondents Have Bought Tickets From a Scalper

The event ticketing industry is rampant with fraud, hidden fees, scalping and sky-high secondary market resale prices. To examine this issue in depth, Aventus, an open-source blockchain-based ticketing platform, commissioned a survey and found consumers are frustrated with the current event ticketing process.

The results of the study suggest the process of purchasing event tickets is flawed. In fact, 11% of millennials said they’d fallen victim to ticket fraud. As digital natives, millennials tend to feel more comfortable providing information and purchasing items online, which can lead to an increased likelihood of being scammed.

An important pain point to recognize in the process of purchasing event tickets is extra fees added to already inflated prices. Unsurprisingly, roughly 89% of those surveyed find hidden fees during the checkout process frustrating, and 81% do not believe additional service fees are justified. It’s fitting, then, that ticket buyers are looking primarily to ticketing platforms (57% of respondents) to protect them from excessive prices, followed by event venues (14%) and the government (11%).

These flaws in the system have driven event goers to pursue other methods of purchasing tickets. Over 31% of respondents have purchased an event ticket from a scalper. If nearly a third of event goers have turned to a potentially illegal and dangerous method of purchasing tickets—with no guarantee of ticket authenticity, either—the existing structure clearly has major issues.

Advances in technology have led to an increase of computer programs called “bots,” which can perform any number of actions online. These bots have hijacked the ticketing industry, purchasing around 60% of major event tickets (according to Ticketmaster themselves) then listing them at a significant markup on secondary market sites. This process has become standard, but over 85% of U.S. consumers who have purchased tickets online feel it’s unethical.

Other interesting facts include:

• 60% of respondents have used the secondary market site Stubhub, where bots commonly list marked-up tickets
• More millennials (over half) have paid above face value for tickets than any other generation
• Respondents who had purchased tickets from a scalper were four times as likely to fall victim to ticket fraud than those who had not