World Cup Ticket Swap

Are your match tickets really what you wanted?

Fans worldwide that have been lucky enough to get World Cup tickets via the FIFA balloting system have found a way to see the games of their choice, rather than the ones that their tickets relate to.

Those World Cup goers who ended up with inappropriate or surplus tickets due to schedule mis-matches, team mis-matches or just bad luck in the random draw are avoiding the perils of the black market and swapping their tickets like-for-like with other fans.

The frustration caused by the reluctance of FIFA to allow official transfers between fans, and the high cost and risk of using the black market to sell and re-buy the right tickets has sparked a rush of ticket holders to pursue a ‘like-for-like’ exchange of tickets direct with other fans in the same situation.

The stumbling block is how to find those fans who want to swap tickets.

TicketSwapShop, which launched its World Cup service in early March, has resolved this issue by creating a community website where worldwide fans can register their tickets as available for swapping. Unlike standard forums or bulletin boards, the system is fully functional allowing users to declare their tickets, state what they are looking for in return, search the database for any tickets that they may be interested in, receive email notifications of new ‘matching swaps’ and ultimately arrange a like-for-like exchange direct with another ticket holder.

The site has been inundated with people looking to swap tickets, with over 1,200 tickets being registered as available for exchange in the first 3 weeks. At the time of writing 62 of the 64 games at the World Cup are represented by tickets available for swapping.

Most people just want to swap their tickets so that they can get to watch their team of choice; however some people with surplus tickets are using the service to offload those extra tickets in order to get to see an additional game whilst in Germany. Even Final tickets are available for swapping, with one member being lucky enough to receive an allocation, only to be reminded by his partner that the final on July 9th is the day after their wedding!

Exchanges are taking place on a like-for-like basis between fans whose tickets do not match their team of choice, their schedules or the locations at which they are staying.

By putting the people with the tickets together, the problem caused by the lack of flexibility in the official reallocation process has now been successfully addressed.

The service is free to join, free to search for the right tickets, and free to receive alerts when the ideal tickets appear on the site.

For more information go to TicketSwapShop.