Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club have announced that they successfully blocked over £100,000 worth of black market ticket sales during a single Premier League match day.
According to BBC Sports, the club revealed that it is taking a strong stance against ticket touting, deploying advanced technology and appointing its first-ever Ticket Investigations Officer to clamp down on inflated resale activity and protect loyal fans.
During their recent clash with Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton intercepted 285 illegally resold tickets, estimated at a street value of £100,000. One case involved a family who paid £6,000 for six Manchester City tickets, only to be turned away at the stadium gates.
Joseph Sells, the club’s Ticket Investigations Officer, explained that bespoke software is being used to flag suspicious activity. “We have identified hundreds of unauthorised resale tickets today. Based on black market prices, that’s around £100,000 worth of transactions we have stopped from falling into the hands of touts,” he said.
The system monitors resale sites, applies risk scores to purchases, and looks out for red flags such as prepaid cards issued abroad or bulk buying under fake identities. Fans caught with unauthorised tickets receive letters advising them to report the transactions as fraud, while Brighton sometimes offers replacement seats from last-minute availability.
The wider Premier League is also tightening measures, with encrypted digital barcodes being introduced to make illegal reselling more difficult. Brighton has urged its supporters to only purchase tickets directly from the club to avoid financial losses.
