British singer-songwriter Raye has taken the unusual step of manually reviewing ticket registrations for her upcoming concert at the Royal Albert Hall on October 23, after a surge in automated bot activity overwhelmed the sign-up process. According to her team, the event saw "hundreds of thousands of fake registrations" generated by artificial intelligence tools, forcing them to distinguish genuine fans from fraudulent entries by hand.
The issue highlights a broader challenge in the live event industry, where ticket touting—reselling tickets at inflated prices, often facilitated by automated bots—has become increasingly prevalent. Secondary ticket platform Viagogo, which also operates under the StubHub name in the United States, attributed the rise in bot-driven ticket buying primarily to primary ticket sellers, rather than the resale market itself. A Viagogo spokesperson argued that bot activity originates on primary ticketing platforms and called for a comprehensive government review of the market to address the issue at its root.
Viagogo advocates for an "open distribution" system, akin to the airline industry’s approach to ticket sales, where tickets for sports and live entertainment events would be available through multiple authorized sellers rather than confined to a single primary outlet. The company asserts that such a model would foster increased competition, lower prices for fans, and provide stronger defenses against bots and other fraudulent tactics.
The platform expressed support for UK anti-bot legislation and proposed collaborative industry efforts to combat ticket fraud. This includes sharing technology and ticketing data among authorized primary and resale platforms to better identify suspicious activity, verify ticket authenticity, and offer consumers greater choice and protection.
Meanwhile, Raye’s experience underlines the immediate impact of bot-driven ticket touting on artists and fans alike, as measures to curb the problem remain complex and evolving. The necessity for manual vetting of registrations reflects the ongoing struggle within the industry to balance access, fairness, and security in the digital era of ticket sales.