What happened to Tickets.ie?
Tickets.ie, founded in 2004 and the largest independent ticketing company in Ireland, ceased trading in early June. Its website was replaced with a closure statement. Since the COVID period it had been majority-owned by DEAG, the German live-entertainment group, through its UK subsidiary Myticket. The timing is the part that stings: the company went dark just after a bank-holiday weekend on which several festivals had already run, and just before the box-office money from those events was due to land in promoters' accounts.
Who is out of pocket?
Three festivals say they are owed about 600,000 euros between them: the Rory Gallagher Festival is down 283,000 euros, Rockathon 180,000 euros and Cowboys And Heroes 135,000 euros. They went to the Irish High Court to have their own liquidator, Azets, appointed, telling the court they were 'deeply suspicious' about how the collapse was timed.
Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty called the 283,000 euro loss 'wipe out territory,' adding 'that cannot happen.'
The political response was immediate. Independent Ireland's Ken O'Flynn noted that ticketing agencies operate with 'no ring fencing, no bond and no money supplied,' unlike licensed travel agents, who must protect customer deposits by law. Enterprise Minister Peter Burke admitted there may be a 'gap in the regulatory environment' while cautioning against 'false promises.'
Why should a house promoter in Berlin or Lagos care?
Because this is counterparty risk, and it does not respect genre or border. When you sell through a third-party ticketer, your audience's money sits in that company's account until it is remitted to you. If the ticketer fails before settlement, the punters paid, the show happened, and you never see the cash. DEAG is not a fly-by-night operator: it is a listed European live group with interests across pop and dance. The regulatory hole the Irish festivals fell through, no client-money rules for ticket sales, exists in almost every market. The lesson is to know exactly where your box office sits between the sale and the payout, and to read the remittance terms like your rent depends on it.
