Mobile ticketing application Dice has unveiled its new “Refund Tickets” feature that allows fans to return their tickets if they can no longer make the event.
The returned tickets will then be offered to fans that are on a waiting list, while those who originally bought the tickets will receive a full refund.
“If someone can’t make a show they either don’t turn up or are forced to put their tickets on secondary ticketing platforms,” said Dice chief executive and founder Phil Hutcheon, according to the Music Week website.
“Those tickets are often snapped up by speculators and sold at insane prices. We believe a fan shouldn’t be allowed to sell their tickets for more than they paid for it, but they have the right to get a refund. By being 100 per cent mobile we make it super easy for fans to do exactly that.”
Dice data shows 17 per cent of gigs are currently missed with tickets costing less than £10 most likely to see a no-show.
In a blog, Hutcheon said Dice has worked closely with the industry to introduce refunds, and initially will offer full refunds for sold out events on Dice.
Hutcheon added: “We spent the last two years learning from our Waiting List data. Firstly, we wanted to see if it worked (massively, we’ve had millions of requests) and how we could automate the entire process (until now fans have to return tickets via our customer support team).
“Technically this has been challenging. How do you instantly return a ticket and ensure someone else purchases it automatically? How is this affected by time, number of tickets and external factors such as weather etc? How do you make sure a scalper hasn’t bought the ticket (we have data routines running to identify them and, by being mobile, can instantly invalidate tickets).”
Dice, which launched in September 2014, generated $6m (€5.4m) in Series A funding in a financing round led by Evolution Equity Partners in 2016.
It claimed it would use the financing to support its expansion into Europe and North America, as well as to fund the continuing development of its technology platform.
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