Tickets for U2’s 2027 London residency at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium went on sale and sold out last week, with subsequent resales on StubHub drawing heavy markups and scrutiny over professional ticket trading, The Irish Times reported.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Residencies
Shortly after going on sale, the Irish group’s four London concert dates for The Greatest Show on Earth tour were completely booked up, forcing supporters to face massive price inflations on resale platforms. Listings on StubHub for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium shows revealed more than 2,000 tickets listed by a single individual, despite strict purchase limits enforced per buyer.
Vladyslav Skrypka, who claims to be based in Harlow, Essex, advertised more than 1,800 tickets for a single night of the run, with select passes priced at more than four times their face value. If every ticket listed under his account sells at the advertised rates, Skrypka stands to generate over £1 million.
StubHub Bot Controversy
The scale of the secondary market listings has intensified pressure on government officials to curb unauthorized ticket trading. Artists and music industry figures have urged British Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to advance plans outlined a year ago to outlaw resale for profit, with a ticket tout ban bill scheduled for publication during the current parliamentary session.
In an interview with the BBC, Bob Kupbens addressed the platform’s stance on automated software.
“We don’t support bots, and we’d love for both the government and primary to do a better job of policing that to make sure those kinds of things don’t happen,” Kupbens told the BBC.
Adam Webb of the FanFair Alliance, a music industry-backed campaign group, argued that the volume of inventory managed by a single seller points either to bot deployment or speculative selling—a practice where traders list tickets they do not yet possess. Both practices remain illegal under UK law, with bot use banned since 2018.
“StubHub claims all their orders come 100 per cent guaranteed, but have they seen evidence of Vladyslav’s receipts?” Webb asked. “Are they not concerned that these tickets may have been acquired by the kind of technology that Mr Kupbens so publicly deplores?”
StubHub Denies Bot Involvement in Resale Listings
StubHub International, owned by US investment firm Digital Fuel Capital, did not address specific questions from the Guardian regarding individual listings or potential bot involvement. A company spokesperson maintained that speculative selling is prohibited and that sellers must confirm ownership or rights to listed inventory.
“We are firmly against the use of bots,” a StubHub spokesperson said. “They are used at the point of primary sale, before tickets reach any resale marketplace, which is why we have called for stronger enforcement at source.”
Ticketmaster disputed claims that primary ticketing agents bear responsibility for automated purchasing software, stating that the company blocks 20 billion bots monthly and invests millions of pounds in countermeasures. The primary ticket agency asserted that secondary platforms like StubHub and Viagogo provide the financial incentive for touts to deploy bots.
An inventory snapshot taken of StubHub showed 7,819 U2 tickets listed for resale. Out of those passes, Skrypka controlled in excess of 2,000, and several thousand additional admissions were spread across other commercial ticket brokers—an alternative expression for scalpers, categorized by marketing over 100 entries annually. By contrast, private sellers—such as fans unable to attend—accounted for 562 listings.
“We are fully committed to stamping out ticket touting for good,” a spokesperson for the UK Department for Culture said. “For too long, fans have been ripped off, and we’re determined to right that wrong. We are bringing forward legislation in this parliament and will ensure our measures are truly effective, enforceable and future-proof.”
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