Ticketmaster has launched its ticket reselling website Seatwave in Finland and Sweden, bringing the ticketing giant’s resale platform to 16 markets.
Seatwave, which was acquired by Ticketmaster in 2014, joins the Ticketmaster Resale platform in Australia, Get Me In! brand in the UK, and TM+ and TicketsNow marketplaces in North America.
The website lists tickets that have already been purchased to be re-sold.
All tickets come with a fan guarantee, so customers are fully protected in the event that anything goes wrong with a purchase.
“As the demand for resale tickets grows globally, the launch of Seatwave in Finland and Sweden enables us to provide more fans with the safest and most secure resale platform available.”
mark yovich, ticketmaster
Discussing the expansion, Mark Yovich, President, Ticketmaster International said: “As the demand for resale tickets grows globally, the launch of Seatwave in Finland and Sweden enables us to provide more fans with the safest and most secure resale platform available.”
Alongside Stubhub and Viagogo, Ticketmaster has come under fire for its role in the secondary ticketing market and the sometimes extortionate prices listed on their re-selling sites – thanks in part to touts snapping up tickets when they go on sale for the sole purpose of making a profit.
In January, tickets for Adele shows were on sale for over ten times face value on Ticketmaster’s Get Me In!.
Owner Live Nation values the secondary ticketing market at approximately $8 billion.
Ticketmaster has said the secondary industry is simply down to the free market, arguing that any legislation will drive the practice further underground.
Some of those working in the industry aren’t happy with the fact billions of pounds is earned by resellers for shows they’ve had no hand in producing, and the risk of high fees pricing genuine fans out of the market.
Founder of UK-based Everybody’s Management, Adam Tudhope, penned a blog for MBW on the issue recently, describing the “mass scale of online ticket touting promoted by the big secondary resale platforms” as “a rigged market”. You can read it here.
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