Ian Mallon: World Rugby probes scalping of Ireland World Cup tickets
Host of issues: The Webb Ellis Cup after the announcement that France will host Rugby World Cup 2023 during the 2023 Rugby World Cup host union announcement at The Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington. Pic: PA Wire
WORLD Rugby is investigating how tickets for Ireland’s opening Rugby World Cup game in France ended up on a notorious scalping site, priced as high as €1,316 each.
Fans who forked out up to 14 times of the original value for their passes on the Viagogo website now face a double whammy of having their tickets cancelled.
An investigation by The Pitch found that a large number of tickets for Ireland v Romania were advertised on the resale site within minutes of the game officially selling out last week.
As fans were told on World Rugby’s RWC ticketing portal that tickets were no longer available, Viagogo began advertising Cat 1 and Cat 4 passes for the game at Stade de Bordeaux on September 9, next year.
Prices were inflated by between 11 and 14 times their original price.
A Category 1 admission - originally priced at €28 - was advertised for sale at €410, while Cat 4 passes were reselling for more than €1,300 after originally being put on sale for €116, on the official World Rugby ticketing platform.
Official ticket prices for the match in Bordeaux had ranged from €28, to €48 and €72 for Cat 2 and 3, up to the Cat 4 price of €116.
World Rugby told The Pitch it is currently investigating how tickets for the Ireland game were being advertised on external sites, and its spokesperson Dominic Rumbles said it continues to monitor the situation.
He said the organisation will “take action where possible”.
Rumbles warned that anyone purchasing from unofficial Rugby World Cup sources could see their tickets cancelled.
“As with previous Rugby World Cups, the France 2023 organising committee is monitoring third-party resale platforms and will take action where possible,” said the spokesperson.
“Fans are reminded that these tickets could be cancelled and that the e-tickets themselves are not physically available until much nearer the event.”
This would leave those who purchased tickets on Viagogo being left without admission and financially impacted by their ‘purchase’.
The Pitch’s investigation centred around the attempted purchase of Cat 1 tickets for the opening Pool B match v Romania, during pre-sale last week, September 13.
After gaining access to the RWC portal a message was posted almost immediately which advised: ‘The website is experiencing (a) high volume of traffic and a queue system is in place to enhance your experience.’ Within an hour the rate of ‘Queuing progress’ remained at 0% before we were advised that tickets were no longer available.
As tickets became unavailable on the official RWC a large number of passes suddenly became available on the resale sites, but at hugely inflated prices.
It appeared from our investigation that hundreds of tickets had been completely transferred from the official World Rugby platform to Viagogo.
The Pitch successfully accessed an option on the unofficial resale platform to purchase up to five tickets as part of a single purchase.
World Rugby said demand for RWC 2023 tickets has hit historic levels with more than two million tickets sold through public sales over the last 10 days.
“Demand for tickets has been unprecedented, even for a Rugby World Cup, with more than 450,000 visits to the ticketing website during the most recent ticketing phase, where 220,000 tickets were available," said the spokesperson.
“More than two million tickets sold to date (in total) across phases. We appreciate that fans may not have secured the tickets they desire, but our advice is to buy official – it is the only way to guarantee entry to a Rugby World Cup 2023 match.”
Supporters who resisted the urge to purchase from resale sites will have a further opportunity to get tickets, World Rugby added.
“There are still official opportunities for fans. The official resale platform, which provides a secure place for fans to sell to fans at face value, will launch shortly," they said. “There are still official travel and hospitality options available featuring a range of price points and experiences.”
While the IRFU receives an allocation of tickets for members and sponsors it has no control or input into Rugby World Cup ticket sales, nor does it benefit commercially or financially from sales.
Viagogo told The Pitch it does not respond to media queries and only communicates with customer inquiries.
When asked to detail how it purchased so many tickets from the RWC portal or its valuation of its advertised prices, it said it could not comment.
It added it would not take any further queries on the matter.
WE WON’T officially know until next Tuesday afternoon if attempts to loosen horse and dog racing’s grip on betting duty has succeeded - in all likelihood it won’t.
In a determined pre-budget submission, the Federation of Irish Sport (FIS) points out that the awarding of all gambling tax to Horse Racing Ireland and Greyhound Racing Ireland is disproportionate.
In an interview with The Pitch, FIS CEO Mary O’Connor said that racing is not the only show in town: “People bet on a number of sports and not just horse racing and greyhound racing.”
That’s certainly true - but just how much money is invested or staked on Irish sports, outside of racing?
Gambling operators don’t share breakdown figures on a per sport basis - but we have analysed that football (primarily Premier League) equates to around 40 per cent of all sports bets staked by Irish punters.
Horse racing rates similarly in popularity with approximately 40 per cent also invested by punters, with golf, tennis, US sports, rugby, GAA and other sports making up the final 20 per cent.
Interestingly, the fastest growing sector is gaming and casino betting, areas which are proving the most problematic for troubled gamblers.
So, is betting on Irish sports - excluding racing - as little as the 2.25 per cent of betting duty revenue being sought by the Federation?
It’s certainly around that ballpark.
Then there’s the question about how horse and greyhound racing is being measured along with other sports, when both member associations - Horse Racing Ireland and Greyhound Racing Ireland - are not considered sporting bodies.
There is a reason why HRI and GRI are considered industries all of their own — the combined €2.2 billion value they bring to the Irish economy.
It’s also worth remembering that the money paid to the Horse and Greyhound Fund is limited to €55m per year - betting tax revenues in total for last year stood at €92.5m, with that figure set to double over the next five years, despite regulation.
Currently, any amount greater than €55m must be approved by the Dail, and it’s likely a removal of this limit will take up most energy at Department of Finance level in the coming years, rather than a renegotiation of current arrangements.
Then there is the question of why would the Government allow FIS to form a gambling support programme when one of the first jobs of the Gambling Regulator will be to establish a social responsibility fund to aid problem betting?
Looking for a cut of betting duty looks like a well-meaning initiative by the Federation of Irish Sport, but the timing might just be wrong.
LEVY UK&I - the catering company which oversaw the giveaway of €500k worth of free drink at the Aviva Stadium last month - is facing a beer crisis.
The firm took the global news-breaking initiative to hand out up to 50,000 free drinks to US College Football fans after the firm’s payment system, SunUp, crashed on August 27.
Next Tuesday Ireland face Armenia at the Aviva in a match which will provide as much interest for what happens in the bars around the venue, as the action on the pitch.
It represents the first big test for Levy UK+I in the midst of its last big outing at Lansdowne Road.
Levy didn’t respond when asked if soccer fans could expect the same treatment as US College Football supporters next Tuesday evening should another systems collapse occur.
Nor did it confirm the steps it has taken to prevent another outage.
Time will tell.
