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2mo ago

Ashes presale breaks ticket sales record as fans battle technical glitches

Demand for the five-Test series drove presale sales past 311,000 tickets in one day despite bot protection measures sending buyers back into long queues.

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Cricket - Ashes - Fifth Test - England v Australia - The Oval, London, Britain - July 31, 2023 Australia's Pat Cummins and teammates pose with the urn and trophies after drawing the series and retaining the Ashes Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs/File Photo
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The figure of 220,000 tickets sold to see Ben Stokes’s England face Australia was the highest down under since Swift’s tour last year

Overview

  • Cricket Australia recorded its highest-ever single-day presale haul with 311,066 tickets sold on June 3, surpassing the previous record of 111,741 from the 2017-18 series.
  • Thousands of buyers reported being booted to the back of virtual queues or unable to complete transactions due to site glitches during the presale.
  • Ticketek attributed the disruptions to its bot prevention service flagging users who accessed the site through multiple browser tabs, advising customers to use a single browser session.
  • The Ashes series opens in Perth on November 21 and continues with Tests in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, with general public tickets set to go on sale June 13.
  • Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg said the demand could rival Taylor Swift’s tour and warned fans to secure seats early as allocations are expected to sell out quickly.