During the 2023 KBO Korean Series, numerous baseball fans demanded immediate action regarding the issues of ticket scalping.

The 2023 KBO season concluded with the LG Twins clinching the championship title in the Korean Series for the first time in 29 years, since 1994.

However, the reality was disheartening, as fans had to watch the championship game through a live stream at home while there were empty seats in the stadium.

The main problem was scalpers, who were selling tickets at exorbitant prices.

Ticket scalping has become a common occurrence in the KBO league, and the Korean Series was no exception.

The enthusiasm of fans who had eagerly waited for the moment was palpable; they were desperate to experience the celebration at the LG Twins’ home stadium.

As the LG Twins geared up for their first championship challenge in nearly three decades, fans felt a sense of urgency to secure tickets for the Korean Series.

Given that live game attendance was high in demand, scalpers took advantage of the situation, successfully executing their plan and leaving the fans having no choice but to buy tickets at excessive prices from resellers.

One issue was the technological disparity, with older generations struggling to purchase online tickets.

Despite the majority of LG Twin’s long-awaited fans falling in the 40-50s age group and even older, the ticketing process was an advantage to the younger generations.

This created a situation for scalpers to prosper by using macro programs to quickly purchase and resell tickets, further inflating prices.

Macros are programs that assist in performing repetitive tasks such as mouse clicks.

As soon as the online reservation for the 2023 KBO Korean Series began, the server was paralyzed, and most people were kicked out of the website.

Even if they successfully entered the ticketing page, all of the seats were already sold out.

With the rampant proliferation of macro programs, securing the desired seat using normal ticketing methods has become increasingly challenging.

Tickets were being sold on ticket trading platforms at prices that were 15 times higher than the original price.

The frustration and anger among KBO fans were evident, with countless online posts expressing dissatisfaction.

In Korea, the absence of punishment regulations for online ticket scalping is emphasized as the reason why scalpers are able to be so active and operate with impunity.

Although the Korean government has restricted the act of reselling tickets offline, the lack of a legal foundation for sanctioning online transactions has exacerbated the problem.

Therefore, people assert that the issue of ticket scalping is considered “unavoidable.”

One person expressed, “Seeing tickets being scalped through macros makes me think it’s foolish to make reservations through the normal method.”

Ahead of this postseason, the KBO operated the 'Pro Sports Online Ticket Scam Report Center' to report suspected cases of ticket scalping being traded online.

However, fans have reported little to no effect, emphasizing the urgent need for further investigation and measures to address the issue.

As the next KBO season approaches, baseball fans are highly requesting realistic measures to put an end to ticket scalping.

The Korean baseball organization needs to take on the responsibility of ensuring that the joy of the long-awaited championship victory is not overshadowed by the issues surrounding ticket scalping.

Kate Kim

Grade 10

Gyeonggi Suwon International School