Premier League clubs, the sports minister and football fans have condemned StubHub, as data emerged that uncovers for the first time the scale of the website’s grip on thousands of tickets to football matches.

StubHub was accused of undermining efforts to keep fans safe and helping touts rip off people after a Guardian investigation revealed evidence suggesting the firm makes millions from football tickets, despite a law banning their resale in England and Wales.

For the Chelsea v Manchester United match on Monday, the website has sold at least 1,149 tickets for a combined €228,000 (£191,360) and is advertising 918 more for a further €263,000. It has sold or advertised more than 2,000 tickets for the game, equivalent to about 5% of Stamford Bridge’s capacity.

Touts using football resale sites rip off fans and put them at risk Read more

Liverpool’s home fixture against Crystal Palace on 21 March, at which Jürgen Klopp’s side could clinch the Premier League title, is potentially the most lucrative fixture analysed by the Guardian. According to data obtained by the Guardian, the value of tickets sold, combined with the list price of those advertised for sale, was approaching €1.5m as of this week.

The sports minister, Nigel Adams, said: “The unauthorised reselling of football tickets is a criminal offence and I would like to see any evidence referred to the police. Touting not only rips off fans but puts them in danger of buying fake tickets and in the worst cases can risk their safety.

“We have already banned the use of automated ticket bots and we are providing millions to enforcement agencies every year. I will be talking to colleagues across government to see how we can clamp down further on the scourge of ticket touting.”

All the clubs involved recommend fans use in-house ticket exchanges systems, which do not charge the same mark-ups as StubHub.

A spokesperson for Arsenal said the club had repeatedly written to StubHub demanding that it stop advertising tickets at the Emirates Stadium but to no avail.

Tickets for sale Figures as of Wednesday 12 February.

“It has to be remembered the ultimate losers are our fans who are forced to pay for overpriced tickets by using this platform,” the spokesperson said. “As a club we work continuously to prevent tickets being sold via this type of platform.” Arsenal have cancelled 6,500 memberships over two seasons where fans were found to be reselling.

Despite clubs’ efforts to stop industrial-scale touting, analysis of StubHub listings for Premier League and Champions League games and England matches indicate the firm could be earning tens of millions of pounds through the sale of hundreds of thousands of tickets.

It is also offering dozens of tickets for Euro 2020, including the final at Wembley, although sales data for the competition is harder to access.

The website even offers tips to people selling a ticket on how much to charge, based on demand, as well as advice for those looking to pass on their season ticket. “Your buyer will return your card to you after the event,” sellers are told.

Unauthorised resale of football tickets became illegal in England and Wales in 1994 after the Taylor report into the Hillsborough disaster included a ban among recommendations to improve fan safety. While small-time street touting has continued, the scale of the practice online has remained secret until now because resale sites and professional touts with access to genuine sales data have little incentive to highlight the problem.

When confronted by the Guardian, StubHub claimed most sales were by genuine fans. It said its UK website did not offer football tickets and that StubHub.com, its international website, was not subject to English and Welsh law. The international site’s servers are thought to be based overseas, meaning the sales technically do not take place in the UK, but in test purchases performed by the Guardian, every other aspect of a transaction does.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Arsenal said: ‘It has to be remembered that the ultimate losers are our fans who are forced to pay for overpriced tickets by using this platform.’ Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

Using UK credit cards and addresses, the Guardian was able to purchase a ticket for Tottenham’s FA Cup tie against Southampton on 5 February and then list it for sale moments later. The site also uses software that detects and displays the user’s location.

Malcolm Clarke, the chair of the Football Supporters’ Association, said: “These companies are simply online touts seeking to exploit the loyalty of fans for their own commercial profit.”

The ticket information supplied during the test purchase also featured incorrect information regarding the location of the seat. The Competition and Markets Authority has previously warned StubHub that supplying false ticket data is in breach of consumer law because it means customers may end up with different seats from those they were expecting.

StubHub said it asked sellers to update ticket information if it is informed it is wrong.

The Guardian was also able to advertise a ticket that indicated the buyer would be sitting with the away fans when the ticket was for the home end.

Liverpool, who work with Merseyside police to crack down on touting, warned that putting fans in the wrong end undermined efforts to keep them safe. A spokesperson said unauthorised resale “potentially compromises segregation arrangements as well as undermining our attempts to ensure tickets are distributed as fairly as possible via a loyalty system”.

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Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea, a club which has taken court action against 14 touts, one of whom was jailed, also condemned industrial-scale online resale. Manchester City declined to comment.

The Premier League said: “Individual clubs decide their own official secondary ticket arrangements and any sale of a ticket on unauthorised platforms is illegal.”

Separate evidence seen by the Guardian indicates that one person may be behind a large proportion of transactions in English football. Internal StubHub data includes multiple listings with the same “seller ID”. Only StubHub knows who they are but they are responsible for nearly £2m of tickets advertised on one day.

In a statement, StubHub said it “works diligently to comply with the law” in the countries where it operates and does not offer football tickets from its StubHub.co.uk website.

StubHub is in the midst of a £3.1bn takeover by its controversial rival Viagogo, which has been criticised by regulators, MPs and campaign groups, including for alleged breaches of consumer law.

Both sites were named in a 2018 Guardian investigation into football touting, amid concerns about security following a Europa League game at which thousands of FC Köln fans entered the home end at Arsenal.