SEATWAVE

Seatwave

Seatwave

Introduction

Seatwave is an online fan-to-fan ticket exchange operating in the European market It was founded in response to the lucrative 'secondary ticketing' market, whereby tickets to events are bought at face value by professional ticket touts or enterprising individuals, and resold at a profit - a practise already prevelant with online trading sites, in particular ebay. However for the commission charged, it claims to offer consumers a more transparent and safer way to buy and sell tickets to live events including music, theatre and sport.

To ensure that tickets sold on the Seatwave site are legitimate and accurately represented, sellers are not paid for their ticket sales until after the event has occurred and buyers have gained entrance. Seatwave's statistics show that 84% of sellers sold 6 or fewer tickets in 2008.

Seatwave, as a secondary market ticket supplier, has no way of verifying if tickets are valid, counterfeit, or genuine cancelled off tickets

Seatwave is also the official Ticket exchange for a number of major sporting clubs in the UK including two Premiership Football teams, and Grand Union who represent such acts as Reverend and the Makers.

Tickets can be sold at any price selected by the seller, including below and above the face value printed on the ticket. Seatwave charges buyers a 15% service charge and sellers a 10% success fee (although it doesn't charge listing fee) which, it claims, enables them “to deliver a safe and transparent marketplace”, to provide a dedicated customer service team, and to include their consumer protection guarantees.

The company offers two consumer protection guarantees. TicketIntegrity guarantees that all tickets come from legitimate sources only. Their TicketCover insurance, a joint venture with Mondial Insurance, refunds the full cost of tickets purchased on the site (including postage and packing) if an event is cancelled or if the ticket holder is unable to make it to the venue for a variety of reasons including motor breakdown, injury or jury service.

Part I: Business Issues

Seatwave and rivals such as Viagogo have been accused of encouraging the growth of "bedroom touts", who snap up tickets with the sole purpose of making a profit by selling them on. Although ticket prices on Seatwave, which takes a commission on sales between individuals, have fallen over the last year they are still, on average, higher than at the box office.

Over the summer, cricket tickets with a face value of between £60 and £90 were going for between £129.99 and £324.99 on Seatwave. The England and Wales Cricket Board has been one of the site's fiercest critics, arguing for it to be outlawed from selling tickets for the sport. Seatwave argues it is not designed for professional resellers and stresses that last year 84% of the sellers on its site sold six or fewer tickets.

Seatwave recently announced their appointment as the official ticket exchange for Portsmouth Football Club and Fulham Football Club. This will mean that season ticket holders of both clubs will be able to sell tickets to any matches they are unable to attend and registered ...