How ticket bots are changing concert and train ticket sales

Buying concert tickets has long been an expensive affair, with popular events often selling out within minutes.

Increasingly, however, fans are competing with automated ticketing systems, often called bots, that can snap up seats in seconds before reselling them at higher prices.

This has distorted access not only to concert tickets but also to everyday services such as train ticket booking.

Buying a ticket has always been “based on luck,” said Bryce Sng, a 23-year-old concertgoer. More bot competitions”you feel so wrong,” he added. Part of the fun when fighting for tickets is stress, says Sng, using the bot feels like it “takes away that experience.”

It’s a view shared by nearly 65% ​​of respondents to a December 2025 survey by the Consumers’ Association of Singapore, which said ticketing has prevented true fans from attending events. Focus group participants in the survey also cited bots that took tickets in seconds before reselling them at higher prices.

Governments, including South Korea and China, have responded by tightening laws against automated ticketing.

South Korea expanded its anti-fraud laws on Jan. 29 to target behavior that interferes with fair ticket purchases for resale, while Chinese regulators have repeatedly warned third-party platforms against using automated ticketing software.

On Feb. 12, Beijing market regulators met with 12 companies, including JD.com, Didi and Tencent, over the sale of train tickets that had drawn “strong public criticism.” In an announcement on April 10, regulators said seven third-party platforms, including Ctrip, AlibabaFliggy again Meituanthey are called control expressions.

In the first three months of 2026, China’s railway system handled more than 1.13 billion trips., according to the National Railway Administration.

Ticket discounts are “an inevitable function of supply and demand,” said Marc Hershberg, director of business and legal affairs at Music Theater International.

While banning bots can help to some extent, Sng said policies alone may not work.

“Knowing people, they will always find a different way [around the rules],” he added.

For companies that protect against bots, there iThere’s more to consider than “one brand,” says David Irecki, chief technology officer at data software company Boomi.

Detecting bots requires analyzing patterns in user data, including transaction and payment signals, purchase speed, purchase patterns and credit card activity, rather than relying on just one indicator.

To combat bots, Ticketmaster, the main ticketing platform for many concerts, blocks automated software, identifies and closes fake accounts and cancels orders that violate its policies.

“Brute force bot attacks… represent only one part of the battle against scalpers,” the company told CNBC in an email.

“These are very advanced networks that strive to mimic the behavior of human followers in order to connect.”

However bots are only one part of a much bigger problem. Hershberg said the limited number of tickets available to the general public often compounds the problem.

By the end of 2022, Long live the Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster have faced widespread backlash after mishandling ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s 2022 ‘Eras’ tour.

Several lawsuits have been filed against the company, alleging that it behaves in a monotonous manner and harms the interests of consumers.

Live Nation reached a $9.9 million settlement with the District of Columbia in April over allegations it advertised at deceptively low prices before adding mandatory fees and used misleading tactics that created artificial urgency. Live Nation has denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

“For at least a decade, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have maximized profits by charging victims, hidden fees – taking advantage of DC residents buying tickets for their favorite artist or band and charging others entirely,” said District of Columbia Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb.

Face value tickets for Swift’s “Eras” tour range from $49 to $450, while VIP packages start at $199 and go up to $899. On the secondary market, some tickets are listed for between $800 and $20,000 each.

The same issue extends to the entertainment industry, Hershberg said.

“Shows like Hamilton … have tickets sold on the resale market for, say, $2,000, but the top ticket price is about $800 on Broadway. That shows they’re not pricing it out of the market.”

However, demand far outstrips supply, and people are clearly willing to pay higher prices. But producers who still want to make shows accessible are unwilling to charge what they see as unreasonable prices.

Compounding the problem, some buyers don’t realize they’re buying tickets from online sellers. Hershberg pointed to Broadway.com, a ticketing platform whose name often leads many consumers to mistake it as an official Broadway ticket distributor. CNBC reached out to Broadway.com but did not receive a response from the company by press time.

The problem goes beyond one fix, says Boomi’s Irecki.

“It’s not just a single tool because you need a regulation or business policy, but it needs to be supported as well, with well-connected systems.”

Scalpers are the main beneficiaries of those markups, Hershberg added, rather than “the actual people who bear the risk and the artists and other people who work on the show.”