Wimbledon’s Battle With Scalpers Continues

Written by: Staff on 2nd July 2013

Wimbledon’s Battle With Scalpers Continues |

The All England Club’s campaign to stamp out illegal ticket deals is now bordering upon historic, whether it be with scalpers trying to ply their trade to naïve or desperate fans from overseas on Church Road or Somerset Road outside the gates, or recognized companies that use the Internet as a way of doing business.

But this year things have really got tough. First, as reported on Daily Tennis News, the All England Club clamped down on the activities of StubHub (one of the major online exchange traders in Wimbledon debenture tickets) who had set up shop in the Garden Tennis Club, just a few hundred yards towards Southfields train station, maintaining they were trading on an irrelevant agreement with the Lawn Tennis Association and demanding £1,500 for a pair of tickets for Centre Court when the face value was less than £100.

Now Viagogo and Seatwave, two of the major online secondary ticket operators that have been involved in the re-sale of Wimbledon tickets to the ‘keen-to-watch tennis’ public have been apprehended by the All England Club for breaching regulations by trading non-debenture seats.

Debenture seats are effectively a business investment with the owners buying them for a five-year period in the knowledge re-sale to ticket agencies and corporate entertainment companies is legal. The last issue of Centre Court debentures cost £27,750 each while No.1 Court debentures covering the 2012 to 2016 Championships cost £13,700.

Non-debenture seats are a completely different matter and re-sale for profit is against regulations. Therefore Viagogo’s reputation may be severely damaged as the company has official partnerships in place with the French Federation de Tennis for ticket sales at Roland Garros and the organizers of the year ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at London’s 02 Arena.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the All England Club have contacted the two companies, demanding any mentions of the sale of offending tickets were immediately removed from their websites. An All England Club spokesman said: “They were discovered selling tickets apart from debentures and we have taken immediate action.”

Before the Championships began the All England Club described the secondary ticketing issue as a ‘massive concern’, mindful of the fact overseas tennis fans were duped into buying more than £20,000 worth of fake tickets before this year’s Championships from fraudulent sites posing as official suppliers.

The fact established and respected companies such as Viagogo and Seatwave are trading in non-debenture tickets has gone down extremely badly behind the ivy-clad walls of the All England Club offices as the regulations clearly maintain all trading should be confined to debenture seats.

A spokesman for Viagogo insisted: “It is perfectly legal to re-sell Wimbledon tickets in the United Kingdom. All tickets bought through us come with a guarantee.’

But a Seatwave spokesman confirmed: “We co-operate with Wimbledon and the LTA in any inquiries about the sale of non-debenture tickets.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: All England Club, grsss court tennis, Sports, Tennis News, Wimbledon Championships