Undercover investigation reveals Ticketmaster are hiring ticket touts to boost resale business

Toronto Star and CBC journalists went undercover as Canadian ticket scalpers at this year's Ticket Summit held in Las Vegas' Caesars Palace.

During the Ticket Summit, Ticketmaster's "sales staff pitched a proprietary Ticketmaster software program designed to help bulk buyers resell thousands of tickets,"

A sales executive from Ticketmaster explained to the undercover reporters, “I have brokers that have literally a couple of hundred Ticketmaster accounts." The salesperson later added, "It’s not something that we look at or report."

The investigation reveals Ticketmaster to reportedly be turning a blind eye to ticket touts, as the profit behind the inflated resale prices is said to benefit the company through extra fees.

CBC also reported on a closed conference held by Casey Klein, Ticketmaster's Resale director. The audience were told that Ticketmaster had launched TradeDesk, a professional reseller program which allows touts to buy, and re-upload large quantities of tickets, reselling them in quick succession for a higher price.

The TradeDesk tool is impossible to find through Ticketmaster's site. CBC state that you can only gain access to the tool through a registration request.

Another presenter revealed to the journalists that the company isn't too fussed on how touts get hold of large quantities of tickets, whether it's through a fake identity or through using automated bots. He said, "If you want to get a good show and the ticket limit is six or eight ... you're not going to make a living on six or eight tickets."

Ticketmaster has previously denied to be interviewed by CBC, and made no comment of the program in their replying statement, "As the world's leading ticketing platform, representing thousands of teams, artists and venues, we believe it is our job to offer a marketplace that provides a safe and fair place for fans to shop, buy and sell tickets in both the primary and secondary markets."