It's well known that these companies pad the ticket price and share it with the production team. It's how ticket prices can increase without customers feeling it is, and the ticket company gets to be the bad guy, not the musician.
I believe they also make exclusive deals with venues such that the venues get paid for signing. And after TicketMaster's merger with LiveNation, the same company owns both venues and ticketing, making it even harder for anybody to compete.
