About SeatlabNFT: Reduce The Impact of Scalping

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One of the most integral parts of blockchain technology, the public ledger, can reign in the ticket touts and help event organisers regain control of the secondary ticketing market.

The transparency a public ledger provides is a powerful tool that we are using to reduce the impact ticket scalping has on the events industry. With improved traceability comes the opportunity to limit how and when somebody can resell tickets.

Thanks to the blockchain, when minting tickets on the SeatlabNFT platform, you can choose whether to allow those tickets to be resold or not. If you decide to enable resales, you can still retain some control over what happens on the secondary ticketing market by setting royalty splits. But, more on royalty splits in a moment. 

We need a healthy secondary ticketing market, but it must be fair. Instead of being a place where people exchange tickets to events they can no longer attend, it has become the playground of professional ticket touts and scalpers. The touts are only there to sell their horde of tickets for as much money as possible. 

Smart contracts make it possible

We can programme these features thanks to smart contracts. When NFT tickets are created, event organisers can select which conditions to attach to them. This is where royalty splits come in. 

Setting a royalty split means beneficiaries will receive a percentage of the resale value if the ticket is sold on the secondary market. This takes money out of the pockets of greedy scalpers and puts it back into the pockets of those who truly deserve it: the artists and event organisers who make these events possible in the first place.

The blockchain revolution is opening up new ways of ticketing not previously possible.

And, what’s more, because all of the transactions on a blockchain are publicly available, event organisers can analyse secondary sales figures long after the event, giving them unrivalled insight into potential opportunities for growth. 

With public figures such as Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift vehemently denouncing the ticket touts for taking advantage of their fanbase, now is the time for the industry to move in a new direction. 

What’s next?

There’s no question that Web3 technology will revolutionise not only the ticketing industry but industries far and wide. 

Household names are starting to entertain the idea of associating themselves with Web3 and, in some cases, laying their cards on the table and diving in headfirst. The NFL has recently announced that they will issue all Super Bowl ticket holders commemorative NFTs to mark the occasion. This move by the NFL has attracted massive publicity, introducing a vast new audience to this revolutionary technology.  

Others haven’t been so quick off the mark. Many legacy Web2 players like Ubisoft have faced a fierce backlash from their stakeholders trying to launch new NFT projects. But, there is no question that Web3 and NFT are terms quickly becoming part of the common vernacular and aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

And, neither are we.