Why you can't get tickets: The Ticket Game (CBC Marketplace)

This is the market This is your favorite concert It was really sold out The solution was ready from the beginning The truth about

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s Prime Minister How did you get your

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Why were you excluded? I was the baddest guy who got all the

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. It's criminal. it's legal because of your government the odds are absolutely stacked the fan begins how to get the best seats at the best price this is your market everyone's excited to see the canadian rock gods his tragic farewell, her hips have been killing it the nation he shot the rebel Wan Gore Downey is fighting cancer so everyone wants to say goodbye everyone was from miles around bah boys tickets tonight in Kingston the band will take the stage it could be the last time they have reached the majority of age with these guys he kind of grew up with that music, you know, it was like a really important moment for me and I would just like to be here when it's over, but Geoff Cameron doesn't have a ticket, he's not alone, what do you have, I think?

It sucks, it's annoying, it's really annoying, no one got tickets. Jeff was ready on the Ticketmaster site, but the entire tour sold out in a matter of minutes, obviously where there's a lot of demand it's going to be harder to get a ticket, but I think I think. It should be easier, if there is too much demand or something else is happening. Peter McClatchy thinks that just a few minutes after selling out, those same sold out tickets show up on resale sites like StubHub selling well above face value, everyone said there are 1500 tickets on StubHub or thousands. of tickets on StubHub all uploaded, what does that tell you?

House tells me the solution was in the fee from the beginning, it is the solution, we are not just talking about concerts, we are talking about high demand sports theater, so many Canadians try it. To buy affordable tickets, take the time to find out why we've come to Las Vegas, a place that knows a thing or two about playing odds and we're talking to experts to find out what your chances are of getting that ticket on the Strip. Las Vegas we need a high roller who has lived the high life Ken lotion is a famous scalper I know how to get your tickets ken dice in the ticket

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the deck is stacked against the fans all the systems are rigged now these sharks are sharing their secrets and They are honest for the first time I was the baddest guy who took all the tickets and broke all the girl's dreams.

Yeah, I was that guy. So how did he do it with a special software called BOTS? Virtual robots are programmed to buy from official ticket sellers like Ticketmaster, the moment the sale starts the BOTS swoop in to beat the humans to the seats, a big reason why you remove bonuses, our system was set up to reach 50 shows in an hour and buy all the tickets in less than two minutes. put me first in line um sure and that allowed you to buy tickets faster and buy a lot more tickets than most people, a lot of other factors for that, but yeah we made it so you only had to press one button and you could buy a hundred . two seats at a time, you know we had the capacity to buy 15,000 tickets in two minutes.

Ken gets the best seats for big events like the Rolling Stones and Barbra Streisand and then resells them at huge margins, sometimes up to a thousand percent. I was worth like Fifteen million dollars or thirty-five, he was living a rock and roll lifestyle, spending the money, all at the expense of the fans, don't you get in the way of the fans who really want to see something and your heart breaks when they can? It wasn't at all when I feel terrible about it, right? Yes, really, so I sobered up. I'm a different person than I used to be.

I'm not in the bot business anymore. Ken says it's time to make things right if you eliminate the BOTS which is what I think you need to do you're on top then the fans will have a chance but the BOTS aren't the only reason you don't have any possibility. Ken shows us where to find the pros who have other ways to steal the edge. seats this is the biggest convention there is another this room in Las Vegas is full of brokers it is the difference between speculation and brokerage and you are nothing brokers make a living betting on tickets they buy at face value and then we sell online at highest bidder Hello guys, how are you?

I'm David with CBC Erick Garland and Rafi Aguilar know how to play the odds How do you get your tickets? I get tickets like everyone else gets tickets. You know, you wait until 10:00 a.m. m. on any day and the ticket, okay no when a show is on say like you know I know about the pre-sale and yeah I bought tickets man but wait they know about the pre-sale that the pre-sale is supposed to be reserved for fan clubs and certain credit cards. headlines another reason you take out the racers they storm sacred territory to outrun the fans The Tragically Hip yeah that was a great show last tour like they were ever going to do the biggest thing a racer knows how to do is when tickets are undervalued because, you know, because of the demand for the show, a lot of people wanted tickets, couldn't get them and they disappeared like that, what's going on there?

Well, you can, I mean, yeah, I'm broken, yeah, but how do those work? The runners get the tickets. I mean, I use iPads and computers. You know he's a good surfer. If it's a full-time job, you'll be sure to do everything you can to get as many tickets as you can. Did you get tickets to be comfortably fashionable? any of those tragically, yeah, it took me a few to exchange how many tries it took you to get those tickets, well, I mean, I feel like I'm, oh no, it's like that, yeah, you already sold all your fashion tickets, maybe yes, Moriya maybe to a lot of fans it seems like that's not fair for me to get tickets, but you have to be quick, you have to be ready to go, you know, people are safe, but it's quite difficult to be intermediaries when it's their time work time full to find out if the ticket giant is looking out for the little guy we've come to Los Angeles we're talking to the owners of Ticketmaster Live Nation the biggest promoter on the planet hello David Joe Burke told me to meet here Joe Burke told his boss of operations Officials fans are frustrated because tickets appeared to sell out within seconds of general sale.

They can't understand what is happening. Yes, well, there is a big problem and the big problem starts with the bots. Every year we block around 5 billion BOTS. trying to attack our Ticketmaster system even if we are 99% effective, that's a hundred a minute to get through our system, yes a hundred a minute, get Ian and buy, do you have any idea how many tickets to The Tragically Hip to our? The BOTS got, so we think that for The Tragically Hip tour the bots probably got about a third of the tickets, other runners about a third of the tickets, and the fans ultimately only about a third of the tickets. tickets, but a third of those tickets are actually available to people.

I guess the BOTS and the runners are resting, yes, so the odds are absolutely against the fan because a lot of it goes to the runners. Have you canceled any tickets that you thought were purchased through BOTS? I don't think we've canceled a ticket and generally speaking, we didn't make the decision, we just can't identify which were the bot purchase tickets, which were the fans purchase tickets, would it charge? Lee hip knows this, yes, yes, I mean, I know the exact numbers, but yes, we were on them daily. In talking to them about what was going on, we all shared the frustration, but they were also very clear that they wanted to make sure they didn't do anything that would harm any of their true fans and instead shoot and take the risk that it meant. that there were no tickets we could count, so Live Nation can't beat all the robots, what are the political power brokers doing about the robots and the agents?

It's time to get some answers. This is your market. Get more markets. Sign up. our weekly newsletter on cbc.ca slash market kills the ticket

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this is your market robots and ticket brokers are hitting fans by buying up the majority of seats for big events like The Tragically Hip the game feels so rigged on Kingston that Geoff couldn't get him a ticket at face value, but look who made the night perfect, cheers guys, now he has a ticket, but you don't exactly have it. Alright. I'm pretty sure you didn't buy your ticket from resellers and that's fine, let's find out Prime Minister how.

Did you get your ticket? I played for them like everyone else. Who did you buy it from the Prime Minister? Ticketmaster. Did you get your ticket through Ticketmaster? Jeff clearly doesn't have the connections, but if he really wanted a ticket, he could buy it on sites like StubHub is a

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where anyone can resell their tickets at huge margins, at least in the case of moderns who take advantage of something that is so tragic that You know it makes it that much more unpleasant. He refuses to pay the principal, but Peter McClatchy is desperate and he buys you out.

You're there, right there, what's the face value of that ticket and is it $90, let's say $90, okay and you're paying? I paid for 33 of us the last thing I wanted to do is pay these guys this money but I had no choice I have to be at the show so I bought the tickets yeah hello guys can I ask you a quick question? Did anyone pay four figures for a ticket? You paid four figures for a ticket. Can I ask how much someone else should pay? three high figures for a ticket 1200 seats give us 750 I know how many times the face value seven seven times when resellers raise it to thousands then that prevents a lot of people from being able to see their favorite band or see art or when you take away the art from people, that's the number one problem, so how do those prices compare to old school resellers?

Jeff checks it out. I've seen someone looking for fifteen hundred. I don't think he can. make 1500 papa ray better than that but some entries on StubHub go even higher check it out up to thousands of dollars for one entry people are being robbed, they are being scammed it's criminal it's actually criminal except it's not actually it's quite legal is That's right, yes, reselling tickets for profit is legal in Ontario and most provinces have made it very lucrative and very easy for online resellers to enter the market and purchase them so the average person doesn't have to bear a possibility that there is no way to tolerate that, you're right, so let's talk to the political power brokers who open the floodgates in the first place back in 2015, the Ontario government changed the ticket resale law to allow Anyone can resell them for a profit, so as long as you can prove the entry is real or offer a money-back guarantee, you'll be set.

We have come to the Ontario legislature to meet with Attorney General Yassir Naqvi. I think many fans would be surprised that it is legal to do something that for many for a long time was illegal and is legal thanks to their government, well, it is ensuring that there is protection, that there is a tent, occasionally tickets, that there is a money-back guarantee. money. What I want to make sure is that we face this challenge of technology. We have to look at these bots and see how we can prevent them from happening, so we are looking at those policy options or trying to stop them, but what about the middlemen, the ones that basically prevent fans from getting those tickets? and then charge those same fans double, triple or many times more.

Well, we're looking at those policy options and I've asked for that kind of analysis to see what kind of options are available to us, since something that you're looking for is, well, of course, do you think that your legislation is working by doing what it does? what was I supposed to do? Clearly, that example shows that there is no need to do more and I am committed to doing so. Two weeks later, Naqvi announces that it is going to ban those Ticket Bots that we want to use to sell tickets, but since they can operate from anywhere, surveillance will be a challenge. .

I can even have fun in the meantime at the ticket conference in Las Vegas. Don Vaquero is tired of the runners carrying all the load. There is a big mistake. that middlemen are the reason fans can't get tickets. Don runs his own resale site, the Ticket Network, and says it's time for the music and ticket industry to come clean about what's going on, that one minute after tickets go on sale, they're gone. all. Honestly, that's where the fallacy begins, everyone in the industry knows that most of the best tickets for most shows are never sold to the public, it's the industry itself that holds the tickets, yes, the best seats arethey retain VIPs like the band and promoter the next tickets go to fan clubs and certain credit card holders; all consumers want to know is where the tickets are going and how to get good seats, yet another reason why the average concert-goer is being eliminated who is the last one to choose former Ticketmaster boss Nathan Hubbard surely shed light on why fans are screwed, he wrote all about it online and says that by the time the actual sale goes out to the general public, 90% of the tickets could be sold out, so what did his former Live Nation colleague Joe Burke tell him ?

That would be a really extreme situation, but it has happened, but for a third of the tickets to be sold out, we are sure that there are absolutely a huge amount of scrubs being sold through the various son sales, so In our opinion, pre-selling a fan club is generally an open option. for the public event, if I look at that 20,000 seat stadium, I'm sure how many tickets the average fan has a chance at normal time, they might have a chance to get 10 to 15 thousand of those tickets, but our concern is that they don't necessarily You even have a good chance of getting them because you have the box behind those same tickets at the time, but for their job, the robots that maybe only shoot half the stadium can do it, depending on the show, yes, chasing the truth, this is your market.

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, so plan hours before the hottest show on Toronto Street. The scalpers would be the only ones selling it in my face, but apparently not inside, people are lining up at the box office trying to get tickets for weeks and suddenly they released all these tickets. I'm very confused, we're confused, so our researcher Sara Hobson said, to our surprise, that the show everyone thought was sold out may not be. A lot of my friends are telling me right now that you're wasting your time down there.

All the tickets are sold out while I'm standing in line to get face value tickets that are available and no one knows they're available. It seems they have won. more tickets after waiting in line for over two hours were the next Danny tickets left, that's good too, all the seats are selling at face value, there, thanks, yeah, open the stub, it was like 700 bargains, hurry up the balcony, crazy, okay, finally we are. It's not a moment too soon but outside they're still selling out obviously it's sketchy how they did it you know what I'm here I'm getting hmm what's going on it's sold out but again they always keep me seats find me I'll stay on top, maybe.

What 200 tickets for tonight's show and check it out. There are still good seats available. More than an hour after the show started, they are still selling out. If you knew there were tickets, wouldn't you be here? What does Live Nation say about the tragically modern website not having more tickets? available for the Toronto show, but tickets were on sale at the box office, so no more seats means they are sold out or Kenmore seats are available. It happens that every day with every tour we have there are seats available or due to others. distribution channels if an artist has reserved 20 seats for family and friends and then it turns out that for that show they are not going to come and those seats are not released in large quantities, but that happens every day.

I guess I was the guy who paid $1,000 and I see someone walking around with a $50 ticket that he just bought for the night off. I'd be a little mad, sure "out of stock always means out of stock" so "out of stock" always means 95% out of stock. Indeed, there are last minute seats in Kingston. Hello, can you hear me? Jeff didn't get one of those but he doesn't need it anymore. Oh thank you very much. I can't even begin to thank you. His wife didn't listen, she bought him a ticket anyway. I'll send you pictures, okay, thank you very much, okay, bye, I'm so amazing it's time to say goodbye to the Canadian rock gods.

The Tragically Hip Sun outside the nation observes a strange moment, remember that most fans who go on strike never understand this. opportunity next week in the dumpster at the market, okay, this will discuss with some people what your supermarket doesn't want them to see as a large amount of food. Canadians throw away $31 billion worth of food we hear from big box stores in their shopping cart. I'm going to throw it up front. No, no, why is seemingly good food thrown away?