Ticket scalping refers to the practice of buying event tickets with the intent to resell them for a profit. Scalpers typically use specialized software and bots to buy large quantities of tickets the moment they go on sale, making it difficult for regular fans to purchase tickets at face value. This allows scalpers to corner the market on tickets and resell them at inflated prices on secondary market sites.
Some of the key questions around ticket scalper software include:
What features do these programs have?
Ticket scalper bots often have capabilities like:
– Quick checkout: Automatically fills in checkout info and submits the order in seconds to beat out other buyers.
– Multi-threading: Runs many concurrent checkout processes simultaneously across different accounts.
– Ticket quantity setting: Allows configuring how many tickets to buy in a single order.
– Event page monitoring: Constantly refreshes event pages to spot when tickets go on sale.
– Proxy rotation: Switches IP addresses to avoid detection by ticket seller websites.
What are some popular scalper bot platforms?
Some well-known examples include:
– Ticketmaster Toolbox
– Ticket Brokers Tools
– Ticket Monster
– Wiseguy Tickets
These platforms offer scalpers pre-built bots or scripts to automate ticket purchasing. Some also include access to proxy servers and checkout accounts.
Are ticket bots legal to use?
Ticket bots are illegal to use for ticket scalping in many jurisdictions, including under the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act in the United States. However, enforcement is uneven and bot use remains widespread.
How much do ticket scalper bots cost?
Bot software pricing can range from around $500 for basic tools up to $5,000+ for more sophisticated bots that offer advanced features. The bots are seen as investments by scalpers to automate profit generation on high-demand events.
Main Ticket Scalper Bot Features
Here is a more in-depth look at some of the key features found in popular ticket scalper bots:
Lightning Fast Checkout
The speed of ticket bots allow them to grab tickets before regular fans even have a chance to enter their checkout info. For example, Ticketmaster Toolbox claims its Lightning Checkout feature can complete a purchase in under 1.2 seconds.
This speed comes from auto-filling forms and skipping captcha screens. Ticket bots will automatically input all buyer info, payment details, and any other required fields when purchasing tickets. This shaves crucial seconds off checkout time.
Multi-Threading
Top ticket bots leverage multi-threading to run many parallel ticket buying sessions. Each thread acts as a separate browser session that goes through the ticket purchasing process at the same time.
This allows a scalper to use a single bot to buy dozens or even hundreds of tickets simultaneously across many accounts. It greatly multiplies their odds of grabbing tickets in competitive on-sales against thousands of other buyers.
Scalable Ticket Quantities
Another main feature is the ability to configure ticket purchase quantities. Most bots allow setting how many tickets to buy in a single order, up to 6-8 typically.
Scalpers can use this to buy tickets in bulk by running the bot with different quantity settings across many threads. With the event and account limits, this helps them monopolize ticket supplies rapidly.
Event Page Monitor
Having a system to spot exactly when event pages shift into ticket on-sale mode is critical. Ticket bots use page monitoring techniques like repeated refreshing and element tracking to detect when the buy buttons become active.
This allows the bot army to swarm within milliseconds, outgunning human buyers. Some tools even support monitoring multiple event pages at once to cover more bases.
Proxy Rotation
To avoid easy detection, most scalper bots route traffic through proxy servers and periodically rotate IPs. This prevents the ticket seller from easily blocking their automated traffic.
Some tools come packaged with access to pools of thousands of proxies to enable smooth rotation. Others offer integration with proxy services to achieve the same result. This evasion tactic is key to sustaining bot ticket purchases over time.
Popular Scalper Bot Platforms
There are a handful of dominant players in the ticket bot industry catering to scalpers. Here are some details on a few of the top platforms:
Ticketmaster Toolbox
Ticketmaster Toolbox offers afull-featured ticket buying bot for automating Ticketmaster purchases. It costs around $500-$1500 depending on desired features.
The bot runs in Windows and uses proxies to mask traffic. It supports multi-threading with individual quantity settings per thread. The platform also offers extensive bot customization abilities for advanced users.
There are cheaper Toolbox Lite options available lacking some features like page monitoring. But the basic version still automates checkout.
Ticket Brokers Tools
Ticket Brokers Tools provides two tiers of ticket bots. The Main Bot costs around $1200-$1400 and contains features like a captcha solver, multi-threading, page monitoring, and proxy support.
Their Hitter Bot starts around $3000. It rotations IPs after every ticket purchase and runs each thread through a private proxy for maximum stealth. Ticket Brokers Tools offers a 3-day trial to test it out.
Ticket Monster
Ticket Monster pitches itself as the “world’s most powerful ticket bot” with prices starting around $2500. It boasts an intense focus on evasion capabilities.
The bot automatically rotates thousands of residential IPs after each ticket purchase. It also uses header and user-agent spoofing to mimic human traffic. These tactics help avoid ticket site blacklisting.
Ticket Monster also supports creating unlimited buyer accounts and offers VIP modes for increased multi-threading power. There is a 3 to 5 day trial available to test capabilities.
Wiseguy Tickets
Wiseguy Tickets retails ticket bots from around $500 to $3500 depending on the intensity of features desired. Even their basic bot automates Ticketmaster purchases with auto-fill forms and page monitoring.
Higher-end versions offer advanced modes like “blaster” to attempt ticket purchases without any browser. This skips traffic bottlenecks for ultra-fast 10ms order speeds. Wiseguy also operates their own data center.
Are Ticket Scalper Bots Legal?
Despite their prevalence, the legal status of ticket bots remains controversial in many places. Here is a look at some of the laws around bot use:
US BOTS Act
In 2016, the US passed the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act which bans bypassing ticket seller controls via bots. Violators can face fines up to $16,000 per ticket.
However, enforcement has largely targeted only the most egregious and public bot users. Many scalpers continue operating bots without issue. Critics argue the law has loopholes like only applying to “ticket sales events”.
New York BOTS Law
New York enacted its own BOTS Act in 2017 after issues getting tickets to Hamilton. This expanded the ban to cover any software circumventing ticket purchase limits. Offenders can receive fines of up to $1000 per ticket.
But the New York law faced early legal challenges from ticket resellers. Critics again argued it does not apply broadly to secondary market sites.
UK BOT Ban
The United Kingdom banned the use of ticket bots under the Consumer Rights Act in 2018. Offenders can be fined up to £5,000 per ticket.
The UK law explicitly covers any software or service circumventing limits on quantity, access, or other ticket controls. Industry groups praised the decisive legislative action to curb scalper bots.
Case Against Ticketmaster
Some of the only actual charges brought under BOTS laws targeted Ticketmaster itself along with a reseller. The Trade Desk platform they operated was found illegally using bots to acquire large ticket inventories.
Ticketmaster paid a $4.5 million settlement while also shutting down the Trade Desk service. This highlighted how even primary ticket sellers break their own bot rules.
Ticket Bot Pricing
The pricing for ticket scalper bots can range quite a bit based on the features included:
Entry-Level – $500 to $1000
At the low end, ticket bots cost around $500 to $1000. This typically offers a basic autofill checkout bot without some advanced features. But even these cheaper tools can automate snapping up tickets.
Mid-Tier – $1500 to $3000
The mid-range for scalper bots is around $1500 to $3000. This adds capabilities like multi-threading, mobile support, better page monitoring, and some proxy integration. The bots become significantly more capable at this tier.
High-End – $3000+
At the top end, ticket bots can cost $3000 or much more. These high-powered bots offer large proxy networks, intense multi-threading, order speed metrics, and advanced evasion tactics. This elite software evades blocks for sustained bulk ticket orders.
Of course, experts can also use bot APIs and languages like Python to build customized tools. But pre-packaged bots provide convenience for less tech-savvy scalpers.
In the end, ticket bots represent major investments for scalpers to automate profits from high-demand events. The costs pay for themselves through the bulk resale markups.
Conclusion
Ticket scalper bots enable resellers to buy inventory in bulk before regular fans using tactics like lightning fast checkout and multi-threading. Major scalper platforms like Ticketmaster Toolbox and Ticket Monster offer sophisticated bots starting around $500.
These bots often violate laws against circumventing ticket purchase limits. However, actual enforcement remains inconsistent in many areas. Ultimately, the controversy persists around the ethics of bots snatching up ticket supplies. But as long as profits incentivize mass scalping, bot use will likely continue being a thorny issue for popular events.