How GateCheck works

The seller says it's genuine. So does every scammer. GateCheck is the independent check that doesn't take their word for it — a free ticket validity checker for football and live-event tickets, serving fans in the UK, Europe and beyond. Drop a screenshot, photo or PDF of a ticket, or paste the delivery link you were sent, and get a score from 1 to 99 in under half a minute, no signup.

What a caught ticket looks like

A real example of the kind of thing GateCheck flags: the same seat for one match uploaded twice, with two different barcodes — a ticket sold to more than one buyer. At the gate, the first barcode to scan gets in; the second person is turned away, holding a ticket that looked perfect. Nothing on the ticket itself shows this; it only appears when the barcodes are compared. Other catches work the same way: a barcode whose format doesn't match what the club really issues, a static screenshot of a pass whose live barcode has since rotated and died, a PDF whose text layer still carries the original barcode under an edited one.

What the score is

The score sums named checks: the barcode's format against the issuer's real format; whether the same barcode has been submitted by anyone else; how the ticket was delivered (official transfer, live mobile pass, marketplace, PDF, screenshot); whether the match, date, section and seat are consistent; the club's known policy on resold tickets and ID checks; the seller's track record if given; and, as fans report back, how tickets like this one have done at the gate. 85 and above reads "likely to work"; 60–84 "not sure yet"; below 60 "high risk".

What GateCheck cannot know

Whether a ticket is live in the club's access-control database. A ticket can look perfect and still have been cancelled, re-issued, or scanned already by a copy. Only the club's gate system sees that. GateCheck checks everything outside the gate and says on every result what remains unknown.

Links and mobile passes

Many resold tickets arrive as links (for example mobile-pass.com or a club's mobile pass). GateCheck opens the pass page in its own browser exactly as a phone would, reads what it shows, and never decrypts or bypasses the issuer's systems. Screenshots taken this way are deleted the moment they are read.

What it catches

The failures that actually turn fans away at the turnstile: a copied barcode sold to more than one buyer (whoever scans first gets in), a ticket already re-sold or transferred again, a static screenshot of a pass whose barcode has since rotated and died, and PDFs edited after they were issued. Sellers and scammers both say a ticket is genuine; GateCheck is the independent check that does not take their word for it.

Who it is for

Two kinds of buyer. Buyers on a resale marketplace are usually covered by that marketplace after a failure — GateCheck's value to them is knowing before matchday, while there is still time to act. Buyers from a private or social-media seller have no safety net, which is exactly where copied or re-sold tickets slip through. It also serves ticket brokers checking inventory through an API before they buy, and the source scorecard that shows which of their suppliers' tickets actually scan.

For gate-system and pass issuers

Many tickets GateCheck reads arrive as links from access-control and pass systems — FortressGB club passes, Skidata, SecuTix, eticketing, and mobile-pass (SeatLabs). GateCheck classifies and reads these without decrypting or bypassing anything. The natural next step is a read-only "is this barcode live?" integration with those systems: the only signal GateCheck cannot see from outside is exactly the one those systems hold. For issuers this means fewer gate incidents, a shared verification revenue line, and a fan-facing trust layer they can offer without building it. Contact info@gatecheck.io.

Privacy

GateCheck does not keep ticket images or barcodes — only a one-way fingerprint that cannot be turned back into a ticket. It keeps the score, the match and the seat so the check improves for the next fan. Every result page has a delete button. Full privacy page.

Common questions

Is GateCheck free?

Yes for fans. Brokers pay per check through the API.

Does GateCheck sell tickets?

No. It is independent of every marketplace and scores every ticket by the same rules.

Can GateCheck guarantee a ticket will work?

No service outside the club can. GateCheck scores how likely it is and names what remains unknown.

Who runs GateCheck?

GateCheck is an independent product; contact info@gatecheck.io.

GateCheck reads a ticket the way a steward would and scores how likely it is to work at the gate. It cannot see inside a club's access-control system; it checks everything outside it. How it works · Privacy · info@gatecheck.io