Rugby: World Cup black market concerns

The Webb Ellis Cup pitchside at Twickenham Stadium in London. Photo / Getty Images

Massive over-demand for key World Cup tickets, including all the knockout matches and at least one All Black pool match, will leave punters susceptible to fakes and scams, say industry experts.

A burgeoning black market in Rugby World Cup 2015 tickets has been identified as one of the major worries ahead of next year's showpiece tournament in England and Wales.

A source yesterday told the Herald that tickets for the final had already been seen as for sale online for GB£8000 (NZ$16,400), several times over the asking price.

There are two strands to the black market: genuine tickets that have been procured in the ballot by those who have no intention of attending the matches, which they'll on-sell at greatly inflated prices on secondary markets; and counterfeit tickets.

London's Daily Telegraph recently reported that organised criminals with links to the arms and drugs trade were plotting to hijack the Rugby World Cup ticket launch, while senior police admitted the tournament would be targeted by gang touts who stood to make millions.

"It's going to be one of the handful of events that would be one of the most heavily targeted ever," Reg Walker, one of Britain's anti-ticket fraud experts, told the Telegraph.

"The amount to be made would certainly be seven figures."

Each applicant for the ticket ballot - the first was held in September, the final one will be held at the end of this month - could buy only four tickets.

However, touts have access to sophisticated software that has allowed them to harvest tickets by assuming multiple identities.

Fans are being warned that every time they buy on the secondary or on-sell market, they not only empower the touts, but are also at risk of buying fake tickets.

"You need to be really careful," said David Caldwell, general manager for All Blacks Tours. "You could find yourself being turned away at the gate.

"That would be incredibly disappointing."

The demand for tickets for this tournament has been unprecedented. Although there will be around 2.3 million tickets sold, only the capacity of the grounds is holding organisers back from selling more.

While some of the games between minnows in pool games will remain a hard sell - Namibia v Georgia in Exeter, anyone? - matches like New Zealand against Argentina at the massive Wembley Stadium, capacity 90,000, could have sold twice over.

The crunch games in the "pool of death", which includes favourites England, Australia and Wales, could also have sold several times over.

It's this classic scenario of under-supply and over-demand that has provided such fertile ground for ticket cheats - and which leaves the ordinary punter so vulnerable.