UK organisation bids for .ticket domain name in quest to combat ticket fraud

Industry could wave goodbye to ticket fraud thanks to a new bid by ILMC contributor Steve Machin and Andy Lenthall, general manager, Production Services Association. The duo has been working on new initiative The Dot Tickets Organisation, an independent company supported by some of the biggest players in the UK ticketing business, and has revealed plans to create a new top-level .tickets domain to help consumers buy tickets safely and securely.

The opportunity to create the .tickets top-level domain arises out of a plan by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to create new domains to sit alongside the existing .com and .co.uk designations.

Dot Tickets Organisation had passed the first hurdle in establishing the new domain but the organisastion has some competition with other parties also showing an interest. If Dot Tickets Organisation is successful, Accent Media, of which Lenthall is a director, will operate and market the .tickets domain name.

Dot Tickets proposes that new .tickets domain names should only be available to ticket websites which meet high standards of consumer protection and security to give consumers peace of mind when purchasing tickets.

Backed by a significant consumer-awareness campaign, the intention is that .tickets will become a gold standard of trust for consumers. With entertainment tickets, for instance, fans could seek out www.festival.tickets, www.venue.tickets or www.band.tickets for trusted ticket sales and information.

Steve Machin, founder, Dot Tickets Organisation, said: “Ticket fraud is the scourge of the live entertainment business, and causes great distress and hardship to the consumers who are caught out. We believe that our unique .tickets proposal, which is already attracting widespread industry support, is an independent and open structural solution that can be controlled, trusted and communicated simply and consistently to ticket buyers worldwide.”