August 11th, 2016
SeatGeek’s primary ticketing platform will increase live event accessibility and reduce fraud with its focus on open distribution
New York, NY - August 11, 2016: Ticket industry leader SeatGeek announced today its launch of SeatGeek Open, marking the company’s first foray into primary ticketing. SeatGeek’s biggest announcement to date, the new product features a radically different approach from that of industry incumbents. By creating an open platform with best-in-class software, SeatGeek will power a modern box office that is mobile, flexible, and widely accessible.
SeatGeek Open enables artists and teams to sell tickets directly within other apps and websites, in places where fans are spending time and consuming content. Tickets, for example, could be made available through popular ecommerce websites, travel tools, and messaging sites. Artists and teams, through this massively increased distribution, will be able to reach more fans and sell more tickets. SeatGeek is bringing primary ticketing into a product built for a mobile-first world where consumers are spending more time and money than ever.
SeatGeek Open will eliminate fraud by allowing for verification of ticket barcodes across a variety of ticket sellers. Historically, the resale verification solutions offered by teams and ticketing companies have been restricted to only a single officially-sanctioned resale marketplace. Through SeatGeek Open, ticket resale verification technology will be made widely available to third-party sellers such as StubHub or Gametime to verify that a ticket is valid before posting, allowing fans to buy and sell from any site they choose without fear that their ticket may not work at the gate.
The key features of SeatGeek Open include:
- Open distribution of tickets -- SeatGeek’s primary ticketing platform provides best-in-class software that unlocks value for rightsholders by enabling tickets to be sold directly within other apps and websites. That means tickets will be available in more places than ever before, allowing more fans to find and attend more events.
- Worry-free resale without fraud -- Open verification enables users to verify that a ticket is valid before posting, permitting fans to buy and sell tickets from any site they choose without fear that their ticket may not work at the gate.
- Mobile-first experience -- SeatGeek Open, unlike many legacy industry platforms, is built and designed for a mobile world where consumers are increasingly spending more time and more money.
- Developer-friendly flexibility -- A powerful set of software development kits (SDKs) will provide best-in-class software that unlocks value for rightsholders by enabling tickets to be sold directly within other apps and websites, and facilitates true dynamic pricing.
“Ticketing has long been a closed industry, one that hasn’t been positively impacted by the power of technology in the same way many other industries have,” said SeatGeek co-founder Jack Groetzinger. “We believe the open ecosystem we’ve built will transform the way people access tickets, allowing fans to go to more live events and teams and artists to reach more fans.”
SeatGeek is working with technology partner TopTix on the SeatGeek Open platform. The TopTix SRO4 software is already used used across 16 countries to process in excess of 80 million tickets a year. TopTix’s powerful software will help SeatGeek deliver a solution to teams, artists, and venues that allows them to better optimize their businesses.
This product announcement comes on the heels of SeatGeek’s two recent announcements that the company is now the Official Ticketing Partner of Major League Soccer, as well as the official ticketing partner of Sporting Kansas City, the first team for which it will serve as a primary ticketer.
About SeatGeek
SeatGeek (http://www.seatgeek.com) is the leading mobile-focused ticket platform that enables fans to buy and sell tickets for sports, concert, and theater events. With industry-leading mobile ticketing apps, a fan-friendly user experience and its proprietary Deal Score™ technology that helps fans identify the best ticket values on offer for a given event, SeatGeek is transforming the way that fans buy and sell tickets to their favorite events. SeatGeek is also the Official Ticketing Partner of Major League Soccer, working closely with the league to develop and introduce a new integrated ticketing platform for member clubs.