PRE-TAX PROFITS at the Irish arm of controversial secondary ticket-selling website, Viagogo last year increased by 101% to €262,796.

Sellers on the website are currently seeking to sell tickets for the upcoming Ireland All Black Autumn rugby international for €999 and a ticket for U2 at the 3Arena for Saturday November 10th has a price tag of €877 and new accounts show that revenues at the Irish unit increased by 50% to €5.4million.

Viagogo operates a customer call centre in Limerick for customers and the business last year ramped up further with numbers employed increasing from 88 to 125.

This resulted in staff costs at VGL Support Services Ireland Ltd increasing from €2.24m to €3.15m.

Earlier this year, Ticketmaster announced the closure of its own secondary ticket website, Seatwave, and this could result in an increase in business for Viagogo which operates worldwide.

The accounts show that shareholder funds at the Viagogo company last year totalled €1.56m. The company’s cash decreased from €612,250 to €572,599.

Last year, in a submission to the Dept of Transport, Tourism and Sport during the consultation on the resale of tickets for entertainment and sporting events, Viagogo stated that its latest figures show that 75% of tickets sell for a price above the face value of the ticket and 25% of tickets sell at or below the face value price.

The firm stated that 90% of sellers on its platform sell fewer than 10 tickets per year

The company stated: “The overwhelming majority of tickets listed do in fact sell. The tickets that don’t sell are typically those listed at high and unrealistic prices, which are those that are often reported in sensationalist media articles.”

Viagogo, said it helped to tackle ticket fraud by ensuring that only legitimate sellers were allowed on its platform.

It also argued that preventing the resale of tickets would be “unfair” and would “undermine a consumer’s right to sell on their property”.

“If a consumer has purchased a ticket, it should be theirs to sell if they cannot use it, as with any other goods. We understand that the overwhelming majority of consumers agree with this view and do not agree that an event organiser should have the right to dictate what they do with a ticket.”