Twickets boss Richard Davies (pictured) has told TheTicketingBusiness that Ticketmaster’s move towards a fair value fan-to-fan marketplace “validates” his own company’s model.
The face value resale site, which currently partners with music artists Adele, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Foo Fighters and Kylie Minogue, said it welcomes the move but underlines the need to push back against “the growing number of secondary sites around the world, including, we now understand, new entrants to the UK market coming soon.”
Ticketmaster announced on Monday that it is to close GetMeIn! and Seatwave and launch a new fan-to-fan exchange after claiming “secondary sites just don’t cut it anymore”.
The ticketing giant’s ownership of the two resale sites has proved controversial, with many industry watchers and fans suggesting a cosy relationship between the primary and secondary sector. In particular, music fans visiting Ticketmaster for face value tickets have long complained about being redirected to GetMeIn! and Seatwave when concerts sell out in a short space of time.
Ticketmaster said it took the action after listening to the public, accepting people are “tired of seeing others snap up tickets just to resell for a profit”.
The Twickets chief executive told TheTicketingBusiness.com he believes fans will continue to use his company’s service, despite potential competition from the ticketing giant.
Davies said: “Overall, the reaction, appreciation and sentiment towards our model and brand has been overwhelming from our community and we fully expect them to continue to trade through Twickets.
“We welcome the move by Ticketmaster as a step in the right direction. Twickets remains the only ticketing platform that trades resale inventory for any event across the world at face value, regardless of who the primary ticketing agency was. This is important to both artists and the consumer in providing clarity to the market as a one-stop fair solution.
“It’s why we’ve received support from 100’s of global artists, festivals, venues, sporting organisations as well as ticketing agencies such as Eventbrite, The Ticket Factory, Gigantic and Myticket.co.uk. Therefore we welcome the opportunity to work with Ticketmaster in supporting this mission.”
Davies said Twickets is moving forward with confidence, and is close to inking new deals in the key North American market.
He said: “Our focus remains the same, to take the battle to the touts and their trading platforms in any territory where the secondary market is ripping off fans and the entertainment industry as a whole.
“We are making great progress in North America in particular and are set to announce a number of key partnerships there in the coming days.”
Image: Twickets
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