Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports Tech & Live Events 7.28.23
What we learned at the World Ticketing Conference 2023
Three Things I Learned This Week In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events
World Ticket Conference Edition
The Empire Strikes Back
Just a few years ago, the Viagogo purchase of StubHub was publicly flogged as "The Worst Deal Ever." Covid caused cost cuts, and the orgs weren't allowed to operate together as they worked their way through government approval.
At WTC, word was StubHub has reclaimed its market share, is reportedly doing big CAGR numbers, and the investors are "very happy with Eric."
Ya'll know how much I love the Charlie Wilson's War "We'll See" scene. Applicable, again, here.
Boom times in the secondary market
The public may hate brokers, but they're cleaning up right now. The feel of the conference was of fat and happy players doing significant margins. Many expected these kinds of numbers were going to hit as we came out of Covid. It took longer than many thought, but it looks like they're here now. Taylor Swift, F1, and other 'new' popular events are driving the big dollars.
Is the MLB Deal Working?
So far, market share numbers haven't changed much post SeatGeek's MLB deal (rumored at ~$75m). We'll be curious to see how the market share wars play out through the year, as there may be some noise in the signal. SeatGeek's integration wasn't ready for Opening Day and rolled out mid-Q2, so that may be a reason there wasn't a big shift in the attached numbers.
Bots, Pricing, Distribution, and Money
There was much more private money interest at the show than in years past. Ticketing has long been something to be "disrupted," and there are generally a few investors who trickle in and out. That noise has gotten louder as private equity and VC dollars circle the live events and ticketing markets yet again. This year’s hot topics for investors are distribution tools, pricing tools, and "browser tools" (read: bots. Nobody knows what a bot is. There are several 'automation tools' which are really just bots but being packaged as something else). In fairness, it isn't really clear in the law what a bot is and does, so the opportunists will push that envelope as far as they can.