Australian F1 Grand Prix partners with Tixel to mitigate ticket fraud and scalping

With the Australian F1 Grand Prix being an official ‘major declared event’, the organisers have appointed Tixel as a preferred resale platform to help fans buy and sell unwanted tickets in the lead up to the event and to mitigate ticket fraud and scalping.

Following on from the record crowds at this year’s event, Phase I and II tickets to the Australian F1 Grand Prix 2023 are selling fast. Phase II tickets went live yesterday morning and Race Day and 4-day tickets sold out before the day ended.

The event has been categorised by the Victorian government as a ‘major declared event’, (per the Major Events Act 2009) to protect fans from fraudulent ticket sales by scalpers and ensure that tickets to major events are available for everyone. When the government declares an event as a major event, it becomes illegal to sell or advertise for resale tickets for more than 10% above face value to protect fans.

Samantha O'Hearn, Australian Grand Prix Corporation Senior Manager Product and Customer Experience advised "In 2022 we saw grandstand seats sell out in record time and with the 2023 event on track to follow suit, make sure you jump online nice and early to avoid missing out."

The 2022 Australian GP drew what was a record crowd of the Melbourne era with a four-day attendance of 419,114. That eclipsed the previous four-day record of 401,000 set in 1996, the year the AGP moved from Adelaide to Melbourne. In response to the record, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation has announced that grandstand capacity has been bolstered for 2023.

The seated capacity will increase from 39,000 to 44,000 across the 16 grandstands within the Albert Park precinct thanks to a redesign of the grandstand areas.

The success of the Australian F1 Grand Prix is (yet) another great indicator of heightened demand for live events in addition to the rise in popularity of racing events. In anticipation of a repeat of demand outstripping supply, the Australian F1 Grand Prix organisers appointed Tixel as a preferred resale platform in order to safeguard ticket holders and abide by legislation around major declared events - Tixel offers a fair, safe, and easy system for fan-to-fan resale of tickets and starting today, fans will be able to list tickets they no longer need, and buy tickets that are no longer needed on Tixel.

Why is this important? In live music, around 30% of tickets can trade hands between fans before a show, driven by everything from a simple change of plans, to illness, to a desire to make decisions more in the moment.

Tixel anticipate next year’s Australian F1 Grand Prix will see similar levels of trading. There are countless stories of people being scammed with fake, duplicate or overpriced tickets and while having a safe and fair resale approach in place is important, so is consumer awareness that it exists.

What can fans do? Anyone that missed out on a ticket can join the Tixel waitlist to be notified when resale tickets become available. Any ticket holder no longer needing their ticket can list it on Tixel.

Resale left unregulated (e.g. on the open market, people posting on their social channels or on sites that allow grossly inflated prices) can create an environment where bad actors can:

• Easily advertise fake tickets for sale,

• Sell a ticket more than once, and/or

• Charge exorbitant prices over the face value.

The following outlines some of the ways by which consumers can recognise and avoid scammers and fraudsters when buying tickets:

• If the ticket is listed on social media, the seller’s social media profile doesn’t look legitimate. Maybe they don’t have a profile picture, their page is full of stock photos or their number of friends is zero or low. If something about their profile looks scammy, go with your gut here, it’s likely right.

• If the seller won’t show you the ticket or they’re saying that they don’t have it yet, but promises to send it when they get it, there could be something fishy going on.

• The seller wants payment before handing over the ticket or proving that the ticket is legit. Selling in a non-regulated way means putting a lot of trust into a stranger, whether it’s paying for a ticket before you’re able to test its legitimacy or handing over a ticket before you’ve received payment.

• If the payment method seems odd, or if the seller is very particular or inflexible about how you should pay them, something might be up.

• If someone refuses to sell/complete the transaction through the preferred resale platform (aka, in this case Tixel) it’s a pretty safe bet that something is up.

This summer is offering an array of sold out arena shows and huge sporting events and it’s going to be tempting for would-be fans to try to score themselves ‘a golden ticket’ if they missed out in the initial on-sale (think of all the parents of die-hard Taylor and Harry fans trying desperately to not disappoint their children) - but the sad part of digital ticketing today is that if a ticket deal really feels like it’s too good to be true, it probably is.