BALLOTS AND

Whiskyballots

How profiteers are using bots to corner the market on popular – and very profitable – limited releases

The world of single malt whisky continues to expand in a global market and distilleries are always looking for the best way to meet that demand in a fair and profitable way. Recently they adopted ballots as a way to address issues of getting limited releases to a global audience, but the rise of new technology is always eventually followed by ways to manipulate that new system, and ballots are no exception. Automated computer programs known as ‘bots’ have been used for years to automatically buy stock and hack ballot systems. From concert tickets to computer consoles and now whisky, bots give an advantage to those who use them. But what is a ballot, and should you be using a bot?

What is a ballot? You may have come across a ballot when purchasing tickets online and since 2018 you may have seen them when buying whisky. A ballot works like a raffle, but the ‘prize’ is the purchase of the item that is for sale. As a buyer, you put forward your details to the seller, and when the ballot is drawn the ‘winners’ of the items are randomly generated. Modern ballots are usually set up so that the seller can automatically collect payment, guaranteeing that purchase.

In whisky there are predominantly two types of ballot style. A simple version that only requires an email address to register. Or a more complex one requiring an account to be made by the buyer, with a registered email address, home address and bank details. Both types can be hacked.

Written by Mark Littler

Why are ballots useful? Ballots were adopted by the whisky industry as an attempt to combat two growing issues: the difference in demand versus supply, and how best to reach an international audience for limited releases.

Following the 2018 boom, the international market for Scotch single malt whisky has grown exponentially and often those willing to pay a premium for bottles are found outside the UK. To limit exclusive releases to those who can get to the distillery or a shop in London excludes a significant proportion of the market. Releases direct from the distillery also began to cause some knock-on logistical issues.

In 2018, the Macallan Genesis release was announced. There were 2,500 bottles available and, with the exception of a few bottles at travel retail, they were only available direct from the distillery. The release went on sale at 9.30am on a first-come, first-serve basis, prompting Macallan fans to camp overnight to be in with a chance of securing a bottle. The result was traffic gridlock, with major roads being closed for safety.

Whisky ballots had already been introduced, but the event at Macallan was one of the factors that instigated their widespread introduction.

The first official whisky ballot was introduced by the The Whisky Exchange in 2017 for their Karuizawa Geisha bottlings. There were only

limited numbers of each expression available and given the popularity of the previous Geishas, The Whisky Exchange believed that direct sales from their website would not cope with demand. The ballot helped to ease pressure on the website. It also helped generate marketing hype around the bottles and presented a fair way to distribute a highly limited release to an international audience.

Alongside the rise of ballots we have also seen a rise in the use of bots.

What is a bot? A bot is a software application that is programmed to do a task automatically. They are used for repetitive, predefined tasks and can be used perfectly legally to replace human users for mundane jobs.

Bots are not inherently bad pieces of software; search engine indexing and chatbots are all done by bots. There is a well known group called Malt Release Radar which uses a bot to search for new releases and alert subscribers ahead of the official shop email. Indeed, most online databases use some kind of bot to collect the data that they provide.

When are bots bad? Bots can also be used to bulk buy stock and to manipulate ballots by generating multiple entries. Bots have been known to automatically purchase an entire stock in seconds for everything from whisky to ticket sales.

In whisky it is becoming clear that bots are being used by professional ‘flippers’ to win multiple bottles in ballots. Surplus bottles are then listed on auction sites where people who missed out on the original sale often pay more to obtain the bottle.

While there is nothing illegal about buying bottles and selling the ones you do not want, industry contacts suggest that it is the same few people putting multiple ballot won bottles into auctions. This implies that people are disproportionately benefitting from ballots, which seems to negate one of the main benefits of using one in the first place.

Should you be using bots? In an ideal world where no one cheats, ballot systems can be a fair way to address supply-demand issues and reach a global audience. Unfortunately, we do not exist in such a world and people that are more IT aware, or have funds to source technology, are using bots to give themselves an advantage. This means that an individual using a ballot in its intended way is much less likely to win the bottle compared to someone who is willing to cheat the system.

This is unfair in multiple ways. Firstly, the ballot is no longer impartial. Secondly, the bottles bought by flippers are sold on the secondary market, which often forces fans and collectors to

Should you use bots to your advantage? We do not condone, or otherwise, the use of bots, but should you wish to even

the playing field while the distilleries improve their systems, there are ways.

Communities like Malt Release Radar can help with regular releases. For simple ballots, email generators such as Mailinator will generate hundreds of email addresses and link them to one inbox. Alternatively, any normal email address can be made into multiple email addresses by adding a plus or a full stop before the @. These variants will still be recognised as the source email and be sent to the same inbox.

For more complex ballots, YouTube has simple tutorials for creating a macro in Excel that will allow you to generate multiple entries in ballots that require accounts. Employing someone to make a macro for you will require you to hand over a lot of personal information and is not something we suggest.

Whatever you decide to do, we wish you luck in your whisky purchases!

‘An individual using a ballot in its intended way is less likely to win than someone who is willing to cheat the system’

overpay as they rush to buy the bottles at the first auction. In turn, this can create market bubbles that often crash.

Rarely do these bottles end up with those who really care about the whisky and are building a collection or with that elusive creature, the whisky drinker.

Whisky fans should not have to pay over the odds for bottles just because someone hacks a ballot system. Therefore, whilst not ideal, it may be useful for anyone looking to enter a ballot to use similar methods; if everybody has multiple entries then it reverts to being fair.

Is there an alternative to ballots? In practice there are changes that could be made to deal with loopholes in the ballot system. Bots are not just an issue for the whisky industry and many other markets are looking for solutions.

A good example of changes is from the Thompson Bros at Dornoch Distillery who have devised a system that is designed to be bot resistant, cut out flippers and get its whisky to drinkers. Their ballots require an account with a unique payment method and billing address and work with a tier system based on additional verification.

The other issue, of course, is that arguably for distilleries a sale is a sale. In addition, having releases sellout at ballot and then sell at auction for higher prices are both positive outcomes for their marketing. Both outcomes make the product look appealing and generate brand hype and awareness, which in turn justifies future price increases.