Twickets talks Oasis, Eras and future of resale

Twickets founder Richard Davies has spoken to IQ after the firm was named as the official ticket resale platform for Oasis’ 2025 UK & Ireland reunion tour.

The fan-to-fan resale site has previously partnered with both Liam and Noel Gallagher on their respective solo shows, as well as acts including Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, Adele, Queen, Take That and Stormzy.

Strict anti-touting measures being put in place for the Oasis shows, with tickets permitted to be resold for no more than face value and booking fees. Davies says he is thrilled the band’s representatives Ignition Management opted to partner with Twickets on one of the most anticipated tours in British history.

“It will be the biggest tour we’ve ever worked on,” says Davies. “There’s no two ways about it; it’s fantastic, so I’m delighted and very thankful. It’s great they’ve taken the bull by the horns and made a statement about resale this early – before tickets have even gone on sale.”

On top of the initial 14 dates, Oasis have already announced an extra three shows for Manchester’s Heaton Park (16 July), London’s Wembley Stadium (30 July) and Edinburgh’s Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium (12 August), amid “phenomenal” interest in the Gallagher brothers’ first gigs together since 2009.

Ticket prices for the concerts, which go on general sale this Saturday and are being promoted by SJM Concerts, Live Nation, DF Concerts and MCD Productions, were released today. Tickets for most shows are priced £65-185 (€77-220), excluding fees, with premium options also available, while tickets for the Dublin dates start at €73.

“Generally speaking, most of our transactions and trading are done within the last week before a show”

Given the predicted demand for tickets, Davies expects to see a shift from Twickets’ usual sales pattern.

“Generally speaking, most of our transactions and trading are done within the last week before a show,” he explains. “It has always been that way really, because people’s plans change last minute and they just need to get some money back, but I think Oasis will break that rule a little bit.

“What I think will happen this weekend is that people will rush to buy tickets and then find their mates have also bought them for the same night, so they won’t need as many as they first thought. So we’ll perhaps see a bit of activity immediately and in the next week or so.”

Davies also comments on the unusual activity seen on the site relating to the recently concluded European leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

“Twickets averages about 3-4% of the total primary tickets sold being listed for resale,” he says. “For some tours – for example Arctic Monkeys or Foo Fighters – we’ll get up to 5% as those artists are very conscious of ensuring fans don’t get ripped off. As a result, they make it clear to their audiences to trade at face value only.

“For Taylor Swift, well under 1% of primary tickets found their way [to Twickets], which is pretty unique. An important point here is we’ve encountered more attempted listings above face value than for any other tour since we started. In fact, they represented the majority of listings we’ve received. But obviously those were turned away, which goes a long way to explaining the low volume of trading.”

“We’ve been profitable every year since the pandemic and have grown in terms of revenue”

Founded in 2014, Twickets has received funding from management companies of artists such as One Direction, Arctic Monkeys, 5 Seconds of Summer and Royal Blood. The revenue model sees buyers pay a standard booking fee of 10-15% of the ticket price, and Davies says the firm is now firmly back on track following a sticky spell during Covid.

“The last two or three years have been fantastic,” he reports. “The pandemic came on and we thought, ‘We could be in trouble.’ Luckily, we relied on the furlough scheme but sadly had to let some people go and we got 2% of our usual revenue through the door for the year. I still don’t know to this day who the 2% were, trading tickets in a pandemic, but we got a few, so we had a tiny amount of revenue, but we survived.

“Having come through the other side, we’ve been profitable every year since and have grown in terms of revenue. Last year, we grew 60% and this year, it’s going to be more like about 40% year-on-year. We’ve benefited from the backlog of shows that have taken place since the pandemic, so that had a big impact. But generally speaking, there’s been an acceleration in terms of word of mouth.”

He continues: “We may well invest further into mainland Europe and try and increase our presence there. But for now, the international side of our business is more about supporting our UK and US partners that are on tour.”

Twickets has recently expanded into theatre, working with LW Theatres and Ambassador Theatre Group, and also launched a partnership with personal safeguarding app Help Me Angela.

“We’re looking at partnerships to spread the word about us, but also about others that we feel are doing an interesting job and a complementary job as well – one that helps our audience,” says Davies. “It was an important campaign to support and make people aware of.”

“We were very much part of that initial campaign to bring about change”

Meanwhile, Davies says he is “very confident” that the UK’s new Labour government’s pledge to introduce new consumer protections on ticket resale will be followed through.

“I’m hoping it will be in time for the Oasis tour,” he adds. “[MP] Sharon Hodgson has done an incredible job over the years in driving this campaign, as have FanFair Alliance, and they’ve really made incredible progress to ensure that Labour included a cap on resale as part of their manifesto. So I fully believe that will be actioned now. I don’t know any timings, but I’m hopeful it will be sooner rather than later.”

In conclusion, Davies is happy that Twickets has played its part in helping to effect change in the resale market.

“With FanFair Alliance, we were very much part of that initial campaign to bring about change,” he says. “I think there’s a different mindset now. Up until we came along, Viagogo, StubHub and others were saying, ‘Resale can’t work unless we allow an uplift in the ticket price. It’s just not financially viable.’ Hopefully we’ve shown that isn’t the case, and that it can be a viable proposition to cap at face value.

“We’ve had others come to the market since that are following that model as well, so hopefully we’ve had a positive impact.”

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