Anthony Nlebem
Liverpool have shut down 145,000 ticket accounts over the past two years as part of a major crackdown on ticket touting and racketeering, according to BBC reports.
The Premier League champions also imposed a record 1,114 lifetime bans last season after uncovering mass manipulation of software used to purchase tickets. Eleven of those bans were applied to season ticket holders.
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The club revealed that 500 fans were denied entry to Anfield in the past 12 months for attempting to access games using burner phones, a tactic widely deployed by touts to avoid detection.
The scale of the black market in Premier League tickets was highlighted by a recent BBC Sport investigation, which exposed how resellers use bots and fake identities to buy hundreds of tickets before reselling them at inflated prices. This has left genuine supporters paying extortionate rates or being scammed with tickets that do not work.
Liverpool’s investigators also shut down 162 social media groups with a combined membership of over one million people that were involved in fake ticket scams and resale activities. Almost 400 targeted matchday stops were carried out to block suspicious accounts at turnstiles.
The 1,114 lifetime bans mark a dramatic rise from the 75 imposed during the 2023/24 campaign. The club believes new measures, such as multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, and the use of advanced fraud detection tools, have significantly improved their ticketing security.
Most sanctions were linked to unauthorised sales of season tickets, memberships, or hospitality packages.
Arsenal and Chelsea have also stepped up anti-touting operations, with Arsenal cancelling 74,000 accounts this season and Chelsea blocking over 350,000 bot-driven purchase attempts.
Anthony Nlebem
Head of Sports at BusinessDay Media, a seasoned Digital Content Producer, and FIFA/CAF Accredited Journalist with over a decade of sports reporting.Has a deep understanding of the Nigerian and global sports landscape and skills in delivering comprehensive and insightful sports content.
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