Canadian concertgoers are becoming fed up with ticket scalpers’ innovative use of computers to buy tickets in bulk immediately upon release, according to an Insights West survey.
Almost nine in 10 (87%) people would welcome fines or jail time for scalpers who use computers programs such as bots to purchase tickets, says the survey. One third of Canadian concertgoers want to revert from digital to analog: they want a return to a pre-Internet system of lining up outside a venue to buy tickets
More than one quarter of Canadian concertgoers, 28%, have unsuccessfully attempted to buy tickets through a primary ticket outlet like Ticketmaster. This problem gained national notoriety when the Tragically Hip announced that they would be performing their final tour. Tickets on Ticketmaster sold out within minutes and reappeared and secondary market sites at a premium.
B.C. and Alberta concertgoers have the hardest time in the country purchasing tickets from primary ticket sites, with 35% saying they have unsuccessfully attempted to buy.
According to Insights West, one of the problems often cited was scalpers’ use of “bots" -- computer algorithms that are used to buy high volumes of tickets online the moment they go on sale. Bots allows the scalper to diminish supply and resell the tickets at a higher price.
The state of New York is currently considering legislation that would level severe fines or jail time for scalpers caught using bots.
B.C. also had the most amount of people resort to secondary marketplaces at 25%. Secondary marketplaces, like StubHub are what allow scalpers to sell tickets at a premium.
