Industry News

‘Hamilton’ creator backs anti-bots bill

 

The creator of hit Broadway show ‘Hamilton’ has backed a New York Senator’s proposals to make the use of automated ticket bots illegal across the US.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has given his support to Sen Charles Schumer, who is pushing for legislation to impose a $16,000 (€14,300) fine on those who use automated ticket purchasing software to snap up tickets online.

While using automated ticket-buying software is already criminalised in New York State, a CBS2 news report found that tickets for this Friday’s performance of ‘Hamilton’ with a face value of $189 are going for as much as $2,184 on StubHub — a mark-up of more than 1,000%.

“The bot software that’s used right now basically makes the price range — even a special event price range — out of the range for most Americans,” Miranda said.

An earlier investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman found that third-party brokers resell tickets on sites like StubHub and TicketsNow at average margins of 49% above face-value and sometimes more than 10 times the price.

“If the starting price for a ticket to ‘Hamilton’ is $189, but the bots have been selling them from anywhere from $600 to $2,000 a ticket — just think how much money the people make,” Schumer said.

“Every time a bot should buy up a ticket and then sell it: a $16,000 fine. That will put them out of business.”

Posted in Industry News