In this guide
A London start-up that packed its bags for DubaiWhat the Premier League and the law sayTwo very different scoreboardsThe guarantee versus the small printWhere the honest verdict landsFAQsFanpass launched in London in 2015 and now runs its fan-to-fan football marketplace from Dubai
Fanpass holds a Trustpilot score of around 4.2 from almost 9,000 reviews as of July 2026, yet fanpass.co.uk sits on the Premier League's list of unauthorised ticket websites, named alongside it on Arsenal's and Tottenham's own warning pages. So, is Fanpass legit? It is a real marketplace that delivers working tickets to most buyers, not a fake storefront, but it operates without club authorisation, its terms answer to UAE law and its failures land hardest on the biggest matches.
Fanpass is a pure resale platform, so it competes on availability for sold-out fixtures rather than face-value allocation. That is the territory 1BoxOffice has covered since 2006, from Premier League tickets to continental finals, so the small print behind each guarantee is the real comparison.
A London start-up that packed its bags for Dubai
The original company, Fanpass Ltd, was incorporated in September 2015 at a mass-registration address on Wenlock Road in London and dissolved on 7 February 2017, barely 18 months later. The brand survived the company. Today the site's own terms name its operator as Mozaic DMCC, registered at the DMCC Business Centre in Dubai, with the contract between buyer and seller governed by UAE law.
That structure matters. A UK buyer with a dispute is not dealing with a UK company under UK consumer law but with an offshore agent that says the sales contract sits between you and an anonymous seller, leaving a card chargeback as the only lever with real teeth.
What the Premier League and the law say
Under Section 166 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, selling a ticket for a designated football match in England and Wales without the club's authorisation is a criminal offence, punishable by an unlimited fine and a possible banning order. A 2007 designation order extends that to effectively every professional English and Welsh fixture. This is general guidance, not legal advice, but the principle is simple: football resale is criminalised in a way concert resale is not, and no club has authorised Fanpass.
Clubs act on it too. Season tickets and memberships identified on resale sites are routinely cancelled, which is exactly how a barcode that looked fine on Tuesday fails to scan on Saturday. Buyers describe that scenario with painful regularity, including one whose QR code for Chelsea against Manchester City was declined at the turnstile on a son's birthday trip.
Two very different scoreboards
Reputation depends entirely on where you look. Trustpilot shows the platform in the low fours with a big five-star majority, active complaint replies and detailed accounts of derby days that passed without a hitch. Sitejabber and SmartCustomer tell another story, both scoring the site around 2.1 out of 5, with recurring reports of duplicate barcodes, seat downgrades days before kick-off, concession tickets supplied to adults and refunds refused on technicalities.
The security file adds a genuine black mark. On 30 April 2022 Fanpass suffered a data breach that exposed around 112,000 customer records spanning names, addresses, phone numbers and purchase histories, per Have I Been Pwned. None of this reaches the industrial-scale controversy we covered in our viagogo review, but anyone who reused a Fanpass password before 2022 should change it now.
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The guarantee versus the small print
Fanpass markets a guarantee of authentic tickets delivered on time. The terms are far narrower. All sales are final, problems must be reported within 48 to 72 hours and a buyer refused entry must produce written evidence from the ticket office before any refund is considered. Even then, the service fee, which reviewers place at roughly 15 to 25% of the order and only revealed at checkout, stays with Fanpass.
There is one genuinely buyer-friendly mechanism: sellers are paid seven to ten working days after the event and only once delivery is confirmed, a real escrow-style hold. Set against a cash refund that arrives after your trip is already ruined, though, it compares poorly with the 150% money-back terms we examined in our Live Football Tickets review and the guarantee 1BoxOffice has run since 2006.
Where the honest verdict lands
Fanpass is a functioning business rather than a scam, and most orders complete. It is also an unauthorised, offshore operation whose worst failure mode, a cancelled season ticket at the turnstile, falls on the buyer with minimal recourse. Treat it as a calculated risk at best.
- Strengths: deep inventory for sold-out fixtures, escrow-style seller payouts and a solid Trustpilot record with active complaint responses
- Weaknesses: Premier League unauthorised listing, Dubai registration under UAE law, a 2022 data breach and refunds hedged with evidence demands and non-refundable fees
- Best for: buyers who accept grey-market risk on lower-profile games; least suited to high-demand fixtures where cancelled tickets cluster
Whichever platform you weigh up, pay by credit card, screenshot every listing and read our guide to spotting ticket scams before money leaves your account.
FAQs
1. How do Fanpass tickets arrive?
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Depending on the seller, tickets arrive as e-tickets, mobile transfers via club apps, paper post or an in-person handover near the stadium, sometimes only hours before kick-off.
2. Can the ticket show someone else's name?
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Yes, most Fanpass tickets carry the original holder's name, and the site's terms state a different name is not grounds for a refund.
3. Does Fanpass accept PayPal?
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No, payment is by Visa, Mastercard or American Express only, processed through Stripe.
4. Is reselling concert tickets illegal in the UK too?
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No, the criminal offence applies only to designated football matches, so concert and theatre resale remains legal in the UK.
5. Does Fanpass offer phone support?
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No, there is no customer phone line, so all support runs through email and online messaging.
Fanpass is a genuine marketplace with an offshore address and a guarantee that thins out exactly when you need it. 1BoxOffice has covered sold-out football since 2006 with a 150% money-back guarantee paid in cash.
Sources: Companies House; legislation.gov.uk (Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Ticket Touting Designation Order 2007).
