Raye, Sam Fender and Garth Brooks hit by ticket bot attacks

Raye, Sam Fender and Garth Brooks all had presales swamped by bots this month. Raye said 1.8 million people registered for 5,000 Royal Albert Hall seats, many of them fake sign-ups; Fender pushed back his Newcastle stadium presale after an attack on the Gigantic ticket site; and Brooks scrapped a Kansas City matinee after a queue of more than 90,000 filled with bots. The takeaway for independent acts: verified fan lists, presale codes and direct-to-fan sales matter more than ever.