Twickets to launch in Spain with Doctor Music

UK-based face-value ticket exchange Twickets is to launch in Spain after securing financial backing from Marcus Russell and Alec McKinlay of Ignition Management (Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Catfish and the Bottlemen) and Neo Sala, the founder of Spain’s leading concert promoter, Doctor Music.

Russell, McKinlay and Sala have invested in the company as part of a funding round, opening today, on crowdfunding site Seedrs, which has so far raised more than £126,000, of a target of £700,003.  Also reinvesting is Twickets’ original founding board, which includes FanFair Alliance founders Ian McAndrew and Harry Magee, along with Richard Griffiths of Modest! Management (One Direction, Olly Murs), Chrysalis Records founder Chris Wright CBE, former EMI and BPI chairman Tony Wadsworth CBE and Crystal Palace FC’s owner and chairman, Steve Parish.

The new Spanish operation, due to launch before the end of 2016, will be a joint venture between Twickets and Doctor Music. Sala – who said at the Live & Ticketing Summit in September he “wish[ed] we had Twickets in Spain” – comments: “I have been looking forward to the day that a service like Twickets launches in Spain to put a stop to touts who profit from everyone else’s hard work and take fans’ hard-earned money…

“I am pleased to be partnering with Richard, and his team and look forward to Twickets Spain launching soon.”

Doctor Music is currently taking legal action against a number of secondary ticketing sites, including Seatwave, Viagogo and the newly StubHub-owned Ticketbis.

Twickets has also become the official ticket resale partner of south London-based Crystal Palace football club. Parish says: “I was really happy to invest in something that seemed an ethical way of solving the problem of secondary ticketing. It soon dawned on us that partnering with Twickets was a fantastic opportunity for the club – to make sure that when supporters couldn’t go to a match, they could get their tickets to other supporters.”

Twickets founder Richard Davies comments: “Our second round of investment is an exciting opportunity to further expand the business internationally, and welcoming top industry players like Neo Sala, Marcus Russell and Alec McKinley into the Twickets family is a great development. As well as this, investing through Seedrs is an opportunity for fans to be a part of our continued growth.

“We are also incredibly proud to become the first face value resale platform to represent a Premiership football club. Working with Steve Parish and the staff at Crystal Palace to facilitate fair resale of match tickets between club members is an exciting and important step for Twickets.

“We are looking forward to launching in Spain and working with our new partners at Doctor Music to offer Spanish music fans an alternative, ethical method of purchasing concert tickets.”

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