Seatwave is in the business of getting passionate fans to the events they love by making it easier and safer to buy and sell tickets. As Europe's leading online ticket marketplace, we have more than 3,000,000 tickets on sale at any one time and each and every one is fully guaranteed. Since launch, we have established ourselves as market leaders, operating successful exchanges in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

We founded Seatwave in the belief that passionate fans needed a safe and secure way of buying tickets on the secondary market. Before now, fans have either had to navigate the murky world of dodgy touts in dark car parks, or the uncertainty of eBay with its lack of consumer protection. Furthermore, by creating an open and transparent marketplace, we believe that Seatwave can help bring down prices in the secondary ticketing market. We want to ensure that people can buy the tickets they want, when they want them, at the right price, with the very best consumer protection available; or can sell tickets they no longer need in a secure and professional environment.

Secondary ticketing is the resale of tickets that have already been purchased on the primary market. The secondary market exists as a result of the restrictive terms and conditions applied to tickets which mean fans often have no right to a refund on tickets they no longer need. With many tickets purchased many months before an event, inevitably not everyone can attend, and many people seek to recoup their costs by selling on their tickets to other fans. Restricted supply and lack of easy access to tickets in the primary market also leads to fans being unable to purchase tickets at the first point of sale, meaning they then look to the secondary market to help them go to the events they love.

We offer two market leading consumer protection products - TicketIntegrity™ and TicketCover™ free of charge with our service. TicketIntegrity™ gives consumers confidence that every ticket bought or sold on Seatwave is guaranteed. If not, Seatwave will find fans replacement tickets or will refund 100% of what was paid. All tickets bought on Seatwave are also covered by TicketCover™  which provides a full refund if an event is cancelled and even covers buyers for a range of other circumstances that may prevent them from attending their performance.

TicketIntegrity™ guarantees that buyers will receive the tickets they ordered in good time for the event. We tell buyers when the tickets will be posted and when they will get them in their hands. Sellers of tickets on Seatwave pay for replacement tickets, which we source, if they fail to deliver the tickets promised to their buyer. We do this to ensure our buyers are never let down. In the unlikely event that replacements can't be found, Seatwave refunds 100% of what was paid.

All tickets bought on Seatwave are covered by TicketCover™   which provides a full refund if an event is cancelled. This refund includes the full price of the tickets purchased, not just the face value, and the processing fee. TicketCover™ even covers buyers for a range of other circumstances that may prevent them from attending their performance, such as transport failure or severe illness.

No, Seatwave itself does not buy or sell tickets. We exist purely as a marketplace where people can find the tickets they are looking for or sell tickets they no longer need.

Anyone is free to sell legitimate tickets on Seatwave. We aim to offer the largest number of sellers possible in order to create competition and ensure that tickets are priced according to demand. This means that fans get the best deal. Seatwave is not affiliated with any ticketing agency.

Seatwave's figures show that 84% of sellers sold 6 or less tickets on the Seatwave exchange in 2008.

Seatwave sellers can list tickets at the price they choose, whether that's above, at, or below face value. Seatwave helps sellers to set reasonable prices for their tickets by letting them know the prices that tickets for the same events have been selling for on the site. Sellers generally use this information to set their ticket prices at the right level to make sure that they will sell.

Seatwave has more than 3,000,000 tickets on sale at any one time, which is 20 times as many as available on eBay. Comscore market share data reports Seatwave as the #1 ticket exchange across Europe, operating successful exchanges in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

The Seatwave model works by only paying the seller after a ticket has been delivered, the buyer has confirmed receipt and the event has passed. In this way, we can guarantee that buyers do not receive fake tickets and that no fraudulent activity can take place. It is this guarantee that sets Seatwave apart from eBay. In addition, our market leading TicketIntegrity™  protection ensures that both sellers and buyers have peace of mind when using Seatwave.

Joe Cohen founded Seatwave in May 2006 and the website launched in February 2007.  Seatwave is Europe's largest online fan to fan ticket exchange and is fully operational in the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

Seatwave was founded by Joe Cohen and is backed by investors: Atlas Ventures, Mangrove Capital Partners, Fidelity Ventures, Accel Partners, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Oliver Jung (Adinvest).

Seatwave operates market-leading ticket exchanges in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

The secondary ticket market is currently estimated to be worth around £1bn in the UK alone and £3.5 - 5bn Europe-wide (source Dow Jones News).

Seatwave was pleased to play a full role in the inquiry into ticket touting organised by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in the UK.  We provided written evidence to the Committee explaining our position and Seatwave's founder and CEO Joe Cohen followed this up with oral evidence to the Committee on 26 June 2007:

Full minutes of evidence can be found here.

The Committee published its final report in January 2008 - a copy of the report can be found here.