ATLANTA -- Twickets, a Europe-based face-value ticket platform supported by several popular music artists including Adele and Ed Sheeran, was launched last week in the United States.
Founder Richard Davies said fans will be able to buy and sell spare tickets at face value or less for concerts and live events at Twickets USA.
"We're looking to provide an alternative to genuine fans that want to look out for other fans potentially and not gain a substantial profit," Davies said. "We're not planning to be the solution to scalping. Fans deserve a choice. We don't want them to get ripped off."
Twickets, which was launched in the United Kingdom in 2015, has partnered with Adele, Sheeran, Mumford & Sons and Queen. The company said it has also handled about 6,000 tickets for One Direction.
Adele teamed up with Twickets for her sold-out Wembley Stadium concerts in 2016. This year, the company expanded its platform to Australia as Sheeran's resale partner.
Davies said Twickets users have saved other fans more than $20 million in inflated prices and fees for event tickets in the United Kingdom. He said he hopes his platform can reshape the ticketing landscape by allowing music artists to ensure face-value resale.
"It's been a mix of support from artists, event organizers and record labels," he said. "Outside of any artist endorsement, this has been purely word of mouth. We've never spent money on marketing. Word of mouth plays an important part of what we do."
Twickets said it has secured partnerships with Niall Horan of One Direction, Pixies and PVRIS for their forthcoming U.S. shows. It collects a 15 percent transaction fee from the buyer for each sale. The platform has more than 500,000 registered users, Davies said.
In Europe, Twickets has listed spare tickets for festivals, sports, comedy and theater, and arts shows. Davies said the company will initially focus on using the platform to resell tickets for music shows and hopes to incorporate sporting events in the United States in the future.
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