Surge in Online Ticket Trading for Professional Sports Sparks Calls for Urgent Countermeasures

Recent data reveals a significant increase in online ticket trading for professional sports, particularly baseball, prompting demands for immediate action to address the issue.

According to data obtained by Min Hyung-bae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea and the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the number of ticket scalping cases reported to the Professional Sports Online Ticket Scalping Reporting Center reached 51,405 from January to August this year alone.

This figure is equivalent to the total number of reports for the entire year last year (51,915 cases), and represents an increase of more than eight times compared to 2020 (6,237 cases), four years ago.

An analysis of last year’s reporting status reveals that professional baseball (KBO League) accounted for an overwhelming 96.6% of online black market tickets in Korea.

Within this, regular season tickets accounted for 31.8%, while postseason tickets accounted for 64.8%. In contrast, the percentage of black market tickets traded in professional volleyball (1.7%), professional soccer (K League, 1%), and professional basketball (0.7%) was significantly lower.

Online black market tickets are primarily traded on second-hand trading platforms, with the most reported cases this year occurring on Joonggonara (34.7%), Carrot Market (25.2%), Beonggae Market (24.4%), and Ticket Bay (9%).

Rep. Min pointed out that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has confirmed 4,713 cases of black market ticket transactions from 2020 to August of this year and has taken measures to cancel reservations and send warnings, but has not requested an investigation by an investigative agency.

Rep. Min emphasized that the government needs to take a more proactive approach to eradicating ticket scalping, stating, “There are increasing cases of purchasing tickets in bulk using macro programs and reselling them at a premium, but the government is lukewarm about eradicating ticket scalping.” He added that he plans to revise relevant laws to address the issue.