NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Rugby is one of the most popular sports in the world, making it no wonder its most demanded events are international contests. On the secondary ticket market, the rugby events that garner the most demand are the Autumn Internationals, the Six Nations Championship and the World Cup. While the scale of each event differs, there has been a consistently high demand on the secondary market through the tournaments. The biggest event of the three is the Rugby World Cup, which will be held from September to October of 2015. According to European ticket reseller Ticketbis, the average price for World Cup tickets is currently €465, or $577.67. The 2015 World Cup will be played in England across 13 different venues. Twenty countries will participate, with the host country leading the way for the most demanded secondary market tickets. In 2011, New Zealand won as the host team and so far in sales through Ticketbis, England and New Zealand are two of the countries with the highest secondary market demand. Must Read: 10 Stocks Carl Icahn Loves in 2014 The World Cup can draw such high prices on the secondary market due to being a quadrennial event. The biggest annual rugby tournament in Europe is the Six Nations Championship. Six Nations tickets have averaged €148, or $183.86, on the secondary market over the past two years. Though taking that annual average and stretching it out over four years, there is a similar amount of demand surrounding the event. Each year the participating countries -- England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales -- compete against each other for what is informally acknowledged as the European championship. The format is easy enough to follow as well, as each country plays each other once with two points awarded for a win, one point for a draw and none for a loss. For these events, a younger crowd has been the driver in ticket demand. Italy has been the worst team in recent years of Six Nations, but games featuring the Italian team have been the highest selling over the past two years, according to Ticketbis. The Italian fan base is generally the youngest of the tournament, leading to 26.6% of Six Nations sales involving the Italian team. Only France at 22.2% had a percentage above 20. The third major rugby event is the Autumn Internationals. These are matches usually pitting Southern Hemisphere countries, such as Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, against the European countries who compete in Six Nations. For these matches, France has been the biggest driver in demand. According to Ticketbis, 82% of last season's sales came from France and 47% of overall sales involved the French team. Each event has a different focus country for the highest ticket demand, which is a great sign for the overall state of rugby tickets. With so much interest in these annual tournaments, as well as the World Cup every fourth year, the sport has found itself a widespread market with continual repeat purchasers. Must Read: John Cena’s 10 Biggest World Wrestling Entertainment Rivalries Ever At the time of publication, the author held no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. This article is commentary by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.
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