In today’s high-demand, low-access event landscape, fans often struggle to secure tickets at fair prices due to the pervasive problem of ticket scalping. ANDOPEN’s SNAPPASS introduces a revolutionary approach that fundamentally changes how tickets are purchased, verified, and used—creating a future where tickets remain in the hands of real fans at fair prices, and that venues and artists get their fair cut of the ticket sale price. This innovative biometric ticketing solution addresses the root cause of scalping by making tickets non-transferable through identity verification, ensuring that only the original purchaser (or originally intended user) can enter the venue.
The Growing Problem of Ticket Scalping
Ticket scalping has evolved dramatically from street-corner transactions to sophisticated digital operations. At its core, scalping involves purchasing large amounts of tickets with the sole intention of making a profit reselling them at inflated prices, creating artificial scarcity and driving up costs for genuine fans. Recently, these operations have grown to an unprecedented scale, involving custom scripts, stolen identities, and even hacker teams reverse engineering ticketing platforms.
Common Scalping Methods
Modern ticket scalpers employ increasingly sophisticated methods to secure large quantities of tickets:
- Automated Bots: Specialized software that can search for, reserve, and purchase thousands of tickets within seconds of their release
- Professional Broker Networks: Organized groups that operate ticket reselling businesses, sometimes with international reach
- Online Marketplaces: Secondary market platforms where tickets are resold at substantial markups
- Identity Manipulation: Using multiple accounts, payment methods, and even fake IDs to circumvent purchase limits
Real-World Impact of Scalping
The consequences of ticket scalping extend beyond mere annoyance, creating significant problems for both fans and event organizers:
- In 2025, more than 50,000 Oasis concert tickets were canceled after being identified as purchased through unauthorized channels
- During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, one scalper alone spent ¥230,000 (approximately USD 34,000) to book 527 tickets using stolen identities
- A Quebec resident was exposed in the 2017 Paradise Papers for using bots to purchase 310 tickets to Adele concerts, reselling them for $52,000
- For Hamilton on Broadway, scalpers managed to secure approximately 40% of available tickets, dramatically reducing access for regular theatergoers
These high-profile cases demonstrate how scalping creates artificial scarcity, drives up prices, and ultimately prevents genuine fans from attending events at fair costs, leading to industry advocates calling for regulation.
Current Anti-Scalping Measures and Their Limitations
The event industry has implemented various strategies to combat ticket scalping, each with its own challenges:
Fan Verification Systems
Many ticketing platforms have introduced fan verification processes that require purchasers to provide personal information to confirm their identity. While this adds a layer of security, determined scalpers can easily create multiple accounts with fabricated, stolen, or borrowed information.
Purchase Limits
Restricting the number of tickets any individual can buy seems logical, but is easily circumvented through multiple accounts, different payment methods, or collaborators.
Ticket Lotteries
Events like the Big Day Out music festival and Coldplay (DHL) have implemented ballot systems where prospective attendees apply for tickets with no guarantee of success. This randomizes access but doesn’t prevent scalpers from entering the lottery with multiple identities. A big part of concerts and events is going with family or friends. Randomized ticket lotteries make this difficult or impossible, taking away a key attribute that makes these events enjoyable.
Personalized Tickets
The Glastonbury Festival introduced photographic ID requirements on tickets as early as 2007. While effective for that specific event, the system requires manual verification at entry points, creating bottlenecks and long wait times. Professional ticket scalpers can also circumvent such systems by taking ticket pre-orders, many of which often go unfufilled.
Dynamic Pricing
Some vendors adopt auction-style pricing models that adjust ticket costs based on demand. While this captures some of the value that would otherwise go to scalpers, it often results in substantially higher prices that many genuine fans cannot afford. The policies regarding revenue split between the ticketing platform, venue, promoter, and artist is also far from transparent, with the ticketing platform taking a much larger cut than the artist initially agreed to.
Legislative Approaches
Legislation such as the BOTS Act of 2016 in the United States aims to penalize those using automated systems to circumvent security measures on ticketing websites. However, enforcement remains challenging, particularly with international operators. Furthermore, as the name implies, instead of solving the problem at the roots, it focuses on detecting and stopping bots and scripts from scalping tickets, which can only be done retroactively by monitoring for botting behavior.
Each of these approaches addresses symptoms rather than the fundamental problem: tickets remain transferable between individuals, allowing for unauthorized (and in some jurisdictions, illegal) resale and profiteering.
SNAPPASS: A Biometric Revolution for Ticketing
ANDOPEN’s SNAPPASS technology represents a paradigm shift in ticketing security by creating truly non-transferable tickets through biometric authentication. Unlike traditional methods that attempt to restrict scalping behaviors, SNAPPASS eliminates the possibility entirely by linking tickets directly to the physical identity of the purchaser.
How SNAPPASS Works
The foundational principle of SNAPPASS is simple yet revolutionary: when tickets are purchased through the system, they are securely linked to the buyer’s biometric data stored on either a SNAPPASS Card or QR Code. This creates a secure, non-transferable ticket that can only be used by the original purchaser.
The system implements this through a unique two-factor authentication approach:
- Biometric Enrollment: During purchase, the buyer’s facial biometric data is securely encrypted onto their SNAPPASS Card or digital QR code ticket
- Local Biometrics: Unlike conventional biometric systems, SNAPPASS stores no information in centralized databases. Biometric information is held offline by the ticketholders and processed offline without exchanging information with external sources.
- On-Site Verification: At the venue, attendees simply present their ticket while the SNAPPASS authentication tower briefly scans their face, confirming the match between the presented ticket and the person holding it.
This process creates a fundamental barrier to scalping: even if someone purchases a ticket with the intent to resell it, the buyer cannot use it because the biometric data encoded on the ticket will not match their face.
Privacy-First Approach
SNAPPASS stands apart from other biometric systems through its privacy-first architecture:
- Biometric data remains encrypted on the individual’s card or ticket, never stored in central databases
- No personal information is transmitted over networks during verification
- All biometric processing happens locally between the user, their card, and the reader
- Data is immediately destroyed after each authentication, leaving no trace
This architecture addresses the privacy concerns often associated with biometric systems while maintaining the highest levels of security, including being compliant with GDPR recommendations for biometric processing.
The SNAPPASS Authentication Tower: Engineering Excellence
The hardware component of the SNAPPASS system is engineered specifically for high-traffic event environments where speed, accuracy, and reliability are paramount.
Advanced Multi-Camera System
The SNAPPASS authentication tower features a sophisticated triple-camera HDR array with wide-angle optics designed to:
- Capture facial features accurately even in challenging lighting conditions
- Provide robust liveness detection that prevents presentation attack attempts
- Ensure consistent performance across diverse user demographics
Unprecedented Processing Speed
What truly sets SNAPPASS apart in venue operations is its processing capacity:
- The system can authenticate up to 60 attendees per minute (theoretically 0.3 seconds per attendee)
- This translates to one verification every second, dramatically reducing entry bottlenecks
- Even at large-scale events with thousands of attendees, SNAPPASS can process the entire audience efficiently without compromising security
Seamless Integration
SNAPPASS is designed for rapid deployment across existing infrastructures:
- The system can be easily integrated with current ticketing platforms
- It functions independently of network connectivity, making it ideal for venues with limited infrastructure
- The solution scales effortlessly from small venues to massive stadiums
- Our expert team will coordinate with yours to ensure smooth operations
Real-World Benefits for Stakeholders
The implementation of SNAPPASS creates substantial benefits throughout the event ecosystem:
For Event Organizers
- Guaranteed Ticket Integrity: Eliminates unauthorized reselling and ensures all tickets remain in the hands of intended buyers
- Pricing Control: Maintains the intended ticket price structure without secondary market inflation
- Brand Protection: Enhances reputation by ensuring fair access to events
- Revenue Protection: Prevents revenue leakage to unauthorized third-party sellers
- Streamlined Operations: Automated verification reduces staffing needs and entry management costs
For Venues
- Faster Processing: With 60 authentications per minute, venues can process attendees quickly and efficiently
- Reduced Entry Congestion: Fast verification minimizes lines and wait times, allowing staff to focus on enhancing the attendee experience
- Enhanced Security: Positive identification of every attendee improves overall venue security
- Operational Efficiency: Automated systems reduce manual verification requirements
- Revenue Opportunity: Automate age verification and reduce payment friction for alcohol and merch
For Genuine Fans
- Fair Access: Equal opportunity to purchase tickets at their intended price
- Protection from Fraud: Elimination of fake or invalid tickets
- Streamlined Entry: Faster venue access without extensive ID checks or paperwork
- Price Stability: No artificial inflation due to scalper markups
Looking Ahead: The Future of Secure Ticketing
While the industry has implemented various methods to combat ticket scalping, most represent temporary fixes to a persistent problem. SNAPPASS offers a fundamental solution by verifying ticket ownership through biometrics, ensuring that tickets remain in the hands of genuine fans at fair prices.
For event organizers, venues, and performers committed to creating fair, accessible experiences for their audiences, SNAPPASS represents the clear path forward—combining cutting-edge technology with a user-friendly experience to create a ticketing ecosystem that works for everyone.
By addressing the root cause of scalping rather than just its symptoms, ANDOPEN’s SNAPPASS is revolutionizing the event industry and restoring integrity to the ticketing process.
Considering methods to curb ticket scalping? We can help.
