Industry News

A third of resold ticket prices are inflated between 30 and 700% – GUTS

More than one in three tickets are resold for mark-ups between 30 and 700 per cent, according to the head of ticketing blockchain GUTS.

Maarten Bloemers, chief executive and co-founder of the Amsterdam-based company, claims that its GET token is an important first step towards eliminating the fraudulent side of the secondary ticket-market.

The platform is built around the GET protocol that is fuelled by its native GET tokens, which are used to process the event ticketing.

“The GET protocol registers the ownership and properties of event tickets in the blockchain,” said Bloemers.

“The decentralised network then makes it impossible to change the properties of a ticket, meaning that if tickets need to be sold on, ownership will be transferred transparently and without any price increases. Our ultimate goal is for all tickets to be sold to actual fans, not re-sellers, at the price they are supposed to be.”

GUTS said its mission is to create a “worldwide honest ticketing market.”

GUTS has been selling tickets through the blockchain since 2016, and has since entered into several partnerships. The firm struck a deal with theatre Hekwerk in Holland, as well as enlisting the manager of top DJ Martin Garrix, and Chris Payne from Adele’s booking agency ITB.

With the current deals in place, the blockchain ticketing firm is on track to sell more than a million tickets in 2019.

GUTS Tickets chief executive and co-founder Tom Roetgering said: “For event organisers, GUTS provides certainty that all tickets are authentic, and the mobile-first platform means organisers, promoters, music artists and venues can use the product without investing in expensive scanners or hardware.”

“The interface of the GET ticket application works in such a way that interaction with the GET-protocol is completely obscured from the ticket holder. At no point in the ticket-flow is the user required to have any knowledge of blockchain or tokens.”

The company began the first phase of its main ICO in mid-November and collected more than 10,000 ETH, worth approximately $5m (£3.7m/€4.3m). GUTS was seeking to raise $17.5m through the sale of about 36.9 million GET tokens before the sale closed on December 14.

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