Brighton & Hove Albion say they stopped more than £100,000 worth of black market tickets from being used during a single Premier League game.
The club revealed that 285 tickets were blocked from resale during their recent home match against Tottenham Hotspur. Brighton said the crackdown was part of its new strategy against ticket touting, which includes advanced monitoring tools and a dedicated ticket investigations officer.
“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,” said Joseph Sells, the club’s first Tickets Investigation Officer.
The club warned fans to avoid buying tickets from unofficial sources. Sells explained that one striking case involved a family who paid £6,000 for six tickets to see Manchester City, only to be denied entry at the turnstiles.
“Stories like this underscore the growing risk fans face when buying from unofficial platforms,” he said.
Brighton said it now uses custom-built software to detect suspicious activity. The system flags bulk buying, fake names, or purchases made with prepaid cards from outside the UK. Each flagged ticket is then checked and, if necessary, cancelled.
Fans caught with fake tickets at the stadium are handed a letter explaining the situation and advised to report the scam to their banks. Sells added that, where possible, Brighton tries to help by offering genuine last-minute tickets or hospitality seats.
The Premier League is also tightening its rules, introducing encrypted digital barcodes to make illegal resales harder.
