Andrew Lloyd Webber’s LW Theatres has linked up with face-value resale ticketing site Twickets in a move designed to tackle touts in the West End.
Under the agreement, tickets bought at the box offices of venues such as The London Palladium and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane can be resold via Twickets for the original price paid. The deal makes LW Theatres the first UK theatre group to link up with Twickets and covers all seven theatres it owns.
The ticketing firm does, however, add a fee of 10 per cent to 13 per cent of the face value.
LW Theatres said the move would provide a “safer and more affordable” alternative to more controversial ticketing platforms that have “historically dominated this market”.
Rebecca Kane Burton, chief executive at LW Theatres said: “We continue to strive to not only offer our customers an incredible experience, but also help them when things don’t go to plan.
“Providing a safe, secure and easy way to resell tickets is best practice and yet another step LW Theatres is taking to innovate and improve theatre-going.”
The deal is the first for Twickets, which launched in 2015 with a focus on providing an ethical ticketing service, with a UK theatre group.
Twickets founder Richard Davies, said, according to the BBC: “The UK is in the midst of a market shift away from rip-off secondary ticketing platforms and towards capped consumer-friendly resale services.
“I am proud Twickets is at the forefront of this change, and delighted we can extend our service to theatre lovers via this groundbreaking partnership with LW Theatres.”
The move comes after he announcement in September that West End musical Hamilton is concluding its anti-touting paperless ticketing system from December 2, in favour of third-party retailers in addition to Ticketmaster.
Hamilton, which developed a ticketing system run by Ticketmaster to combat online touts and “unauthorised profiteering of third-party resellers”, is set to revert back to a more traditional ticketing operation, with paper tickets to be available later this year.
Image: Panhard
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