Let’s face facts; ticket reselling has gotten a bad rap in the digital age, with practices such as scalping or touting at football matches considered to be both unfair and unscrupulous.
However, it should be remembered that ticket reselling is broadly legal and well regulated, while it also underpins a huge and fast-growing marketplace.
In fact, the global secondary ticket resale market was valued at a staggering $5.24 billion in 2020, while it’s expected to peak at £9.7 billion by 2027 and grow at a CAGR of 9.2% in the next four years.
With these points in mind, it’s possible to resell a broad array of tickets as part of a highly profitable and lucrative business. But what steps can you take to optimise your chances of success in this sector?
Understand the Law and Its Impact
As I’ve already touched on, there are plenty of laws in place to regulate ticket reselling, although many of these were passed with the primary objective of cracking down on touting at sports matches (especially football).
For example, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 was primarily constructed to help crackdown on football hooliganism, by prohibiting fans from reselling tickets to rival fans in the same section.
Similarly, the 2006 Violent Crime Reduction Act evolved from the creative attempts to circumnavigate the 1994 legislation, such as selling a matchday program with a free ticket thrown into the deal.
Understanding such legalities is key if you intend to sell a broad range of tickets successfully and compliantly, regardless of the volume or quantities you initially deal in.
Make Use of Reputable Reselling Sites
If you do want to sell sports tickets as part of your business model, it’s highly recommended that you use reputable and licensed reselling sites.
The reason for this is simple; as such sites are heavily regulated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and compelled to follow all relevant local and national laws. So, the best and most established platforms have the full trust of buyers, while they allow reputable vendors to become trusted sellers and operate profitably.
Currently, for example, reputable resale sites like Liverugbytickets.com and Ticombo are advertising available tickets for most of the published RWC23 fixtures. Conversely, the official RWC site is only offering limited spaces for 12 of the tournament’s 48 games, so fans are flocking to reselling platforms to make a purchase.
As a result, resellers who are able to sell at market value will be able to access a huge and motivated audience through such sites, especially if they’ve earned a reputation as a trusted vendor and operate with complete transparency.
Get a Handle on Your Margins
Ultimately, being a profitable ticket reseller depends on your grasp of your margins, as not all tickets sell equally and some are capable of driving much higher prices than others.
At the same time, the more profitable tickets will be more costly in the first place, so it’s important to deploy a bulk buying strategy where possible and be precise when setting your resale prices.
To provide an example, concert tickets may deliver an approximate return of £40-£50 per ticket, whereas major sports matches can deliver profits of £250 and upwards depending on availability and demand. These differences must be factored into your buying and pricing strategies, or you’ll find it hard to bank any kind of sustainable profit.
This is also one of the reasons why you should look to start small before scaling your efforts organically over time, in line with your profitability and the experience that you’ve gained selling different types of tickets.
