Olympic Tickets Sell For 20 Times Face Value On Secondary Market

Ticket prices for sold-out events at the London Olympics "have climbed as high as 20 times face value on the secondary market," according to Erik Matuszewski of BLOOMBERG. The highest prices were for the opening and closing ceremonies, the men’s basketball final and the last track-and-field session, which were all going for at least £1,000 ($1,500) a seat. Tickets to the opening ceremony "are the most expensive and most scarce." The prices for opening-ceremony seats range from £2,000-£7,000 ($3,100-$11,000), up from the face value of £1500-£2,012 ($230-$3,100). Online resale ticket market aggregator TiqIQ CEO Jesse Lawrence said, “It’s a marquee event. Part of what’s driving demand here is that it’s a six-hour flight from the U.S. and people are coming from the U.S. more for this Olympics as opposed to Beijing.” The biggest markup is for the last day of the track and field competition on Aug. 11, with list prices ranging from £2,000-£2,300 ($3,200-$3,600), up from a face value of £50-£725 ($79-$1,100). The price for closing-ceremony tickets on Aug. 12 is up an average of 454% over face value. The listing prices on the secondary market ranges from £1,300-£3,620 ($2,000-$5,700) (BLOOMBERG, 6/20).

TICKET SCAM: Meanwhile, REUTERS' Keith Weir reported that British police are investigating around 30 unauthorized websites illegally selling Olympic tickets and "warned fans they risked being ripped off" if they use them. Detective Superintendent Nick Downing said, "At this time when the majority of tickets have been sold, the public need to be more wary than ever about buying from an unauthorised source. If they are tempted to do so, they run the risk of being ripped off for non-existent tickets or having their personal details stolen and used in other crimes" (REUTERS, 6/20).