MORE THAN 40 LIVE ENTERTAINMENT MARKETS PROFILED - PLUS DERAILING RESALE PAPERLESS TICKETING - Moscow ...
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MORE THAN 40
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
MARKETS PROFILED
PLUS
DERAILING RESALE
PAPERLESS TICKETING
THE INNOVATORS
AN ILMC PUBLICATION
£130 | €149
CONTENTS
Welcome 05
FEATURES
Paperless Ticketing 06
Outing the Touting 12
The Innovators 16
COUNTRY PROFILES
Argentina 26
Australia 27
Austria 29
The Baltics 30
Belgium 31
Brazil 32
Bulgaria 33
Canada 34
Chile 35
China 36
Czech Republic 38
Denmark 39
06
Finland 40
France 41
Germany 43
Greece 45
Hong Kong 46
Hungary 47
India 48
Ireland 49 31
Israel 50
Italy 51
Japan 52
Luxembourg 53
Mexico 54
The Netherlands 55
New Zealand 56
Norway 57 12 58
Poland 58
Portugal 59
Romania 59
Russia 60
Singapore 61
Slovakia 62
South Africa 63
Spain 64
Sweden 65
Switzerland 66
Turkey 67
United Arab Emirates 68
United Kingdom 69
United States of America 76
ITY Partners 79 16
Company listings 80
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DEAR READER PWC’S TOP 20
Welcome to the International Ticketing Yearbook 2018 – MARKETS, 2018, BY
the fourth time we have put the global ticketing business LIVE MUSIC TICKET
under the microscope, with the following pages placing SALES (US$MILLIONS)
the details of no fewer than 44 countries at your fingertips.
This year’s edition also contains three specialist 1 USA 8,246
features: Outing the Touting (page 12) examines how 2 Germany 1,717
three specific acts have devised strategies to prevent
3 Japan 1,610
their tickets appearing on secondary ticketing markets; Paperless Ticketing
(page 6) speaks for itself; while The Innovators (page 16) identifies some of the 4 UK 1,465
companies that are developing new and interesting systems, products and 5 France 875
platforms to improve the existing ticketing business. 6= Canada 589
Reading through this year’s country profiles, there are two main trends
6= Italy 589
that seem to occur again and again – consolidation and fragmentation.
Consolidation: the big aggregators are getting bigger (Live Nation 8 Netherlands 523
Entertainment, CTS Eventim, TEG Live, BookMyShow), and new private equity 9 Australia 502
entrants are taking notice of the ticketing business like never before, perhaps
10 Russia 463
because continuing mergers and acquisitions offer them guaranteed returns.
Fragmentation: as always in ITY, there are numerous newbies aiming to 11 Sweden 394
disrupt the business with new technologies and services. In the USA, biometrics 12 Switzerland 366
and ID-ticketing are a major topic of debate, while direct-to-fan solutions;
13 Spain 336
dynamic pricing; mobile-only; ticket bundling and packaging; ticket exchange
and resale; and white-label B2B systems not only dominate ticketing 14 Norway 296
conferences, but increasingly make up the majority of the trade stands, too. 15 Belgium 254
As the reach of advance ticket retail spreads internationally and across genre 16 Austria 253
– cinema, music, performing arts, sports, theatre – the strategic importance of
17 Denmark 187
ticketing to live entertainment continues to be of primary importance and focus.
But, as our executive editor Tim Chambers warns, no organisation should 18 China 179
neglect the end-consumer – a lesson that many organisations in the ticketing 19 Mexico 174
industry appear to have missed.
20 Ireland 154
Talking of Mr Chambers, this publication would be nothing without him,
so thanks, as always, go to our ticketing guru for taking the time out from his
numerous consultancies to lend his brain to us over the past year. Thanks also
to all of the people named in the masthead below for their hard work in
tracking the various developments around the world. Last, but definitely not
least, humble thanks, of course, to all of the companies and organisations that
participated in this year’s ITY – we hope you find it helpful over the coming year.
Gordon Masson, Editor
INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHER MARKETING & ADVERTISING
TICKETING ILMC & Suspicious Marketing Terry McNally | terry@iq-mag.net
YEARBOOK 2018
Archie Carmichael | archie@iq-mag.net
IQ Magazine EDITOR
Unit 31 Tileyard Road Gordon Masson | gordon@iq-mag.net
CONTRIBUTORS
King’s Cross
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Chris Austin, Lars Brandle, Ben Cardew,
London
Tim Chambers | chambers.tj@gmail.com Caroline Chia, Eamonn Forde, Karl-Hermann
N7 9AH
DESIGN Lipp, Steve McLean, Christine Payne, Justin
Philip Millard | rathernicedesign.com Sweeting, Adam Woods
SUB EDITOR
Michael Muldoon | michael@ilmc.com
INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2018 • 5
6 • INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2018
Feature
PAPERLESS TICKETING
Eamonn Forde talks to some of the entrepreneurs
and developers who are creating a paper-free future
(and present) for the international ticketing industry.
E
ven as little as two decades ago, live industry to fully embrace it. “Your face is your
buying concert tickets may ID,” is how she puts it. “As long as you are you, then
have involved queuing up at the we can still let you into the event.”
venue box office. If it sold out, Fake tickets were also the trigger for the
a fan took their chances with establishment of Dublin-based Tixserve. But MD
the touts outside in the hours Patrick Kirby also wanted to push the ticketing
before the show. Things have, industry out of what he saw as a “dependence
for the most part, improved on paper.” Fraud and scams were part of this but
dramatically for the customer, where they can he also felt that paper tickets, ironically, did not
easily and quickly buy online or via mobile. Of leave a paper trail around the customer.
course, the touting market has given way to “We noticed that once a rights owner sells
the secondary market and that comes with its a ticket, they lose control,” he said. “There is no
own problems, but at least no one has to camp audit trail. One of the symptoms of that loss of
overnight outside a venue for tickets today. control is the secondary market. [What we have
In recent years, a new wave of start-ups and built] addresses the security and loss of control
entrants has raised the bar for digital innovation issues through track and trace technology. The
with regard to ticketing. Digital is no longer just a lack of data is addressed by the fact that every
payment and distribution system – it is pushing ticket has to have a name on it; every person on
the ticketing market into whole new areas, the system has to register their name and their
unlocking new opportunities, and trying to solve mobile number. You always will have visibility
some of the problems that were unfortunate by- on who is sitting in the stadium – be that a
products of the first big digital push at the turn sports event or a concert. And being digital, the
of the millennium. costs of distribution are extremely attractive.”
An increasingly common and enraging issue Using dynamic QR codes that are only
for the sector is fans being sold duds or duplicates activated at a certain time before the doors open
of tickets by unscrupulous online vendors. When or if the user gets within a certain distance of the
tickets are sent to the original purchaser as a PDF, venue, this can cut down on fraud dramatically.
they can be sold on to multiple unsuspecting Plus, as tickets are tied to mobile devices, the
individuals – but only the first one to get to the device itself can become a way to alert customers
venue will be successfully scanned in. to important information about the venue, but
Marie Goldman, a former management also sits as a sales driver for promotions around
consultant, saw this exact scenario play out refreshments or merchandise.
around six years ago when buying her parents Based in Edinburgh, Citizen Ticket is also
tickets to a show from a secondary site. It planted using technology to permit the exchange of
a seed in her mind that, if technology was the tickets among friends (rather than for a vastly
problem here, then technology could also be the inflated profit); but it is using identity profiles
solution. This resulted in her setting up Piktical a rather than facial recognition as a solution here.
few years later. “You can pass tickets on and that is fine with
“The idea we come up with was a centralised us – but in order to do so, you have to give us
database,” she says. “We don’t sell or resell more information on your identity,” explains
tickets – but we act as a delivery system and co-founder Harry Boisseau. “If you wanted to buy
a verification process for tickets. It’s like a one ticket, you could just give us an email address
clearinghouse for tickets. But you have to do it in and that is fine. But if you wanted to buy ten
a way that works for the industry as a whole, and tickets and transfer those to your friends, which
all the stakeholders – including the fans.” could be legitimate, you just have to build up
The system runs on facial recognition – so your identity profile with us to the point where
users need to register for an account and, as part we are happy you are not a bot or a ticket tout.”
of the registration process, upload a selfie. “Five Data, of course, is key to the modern music
years ago, this technology wasn’t quite there – industry – variously described as the new oil, the
but it is absolutely good enough to do this now,” new gold or the new soil – and for the
she argues. “It’s good enough now that we can do live industry it takes on a particular new
this from mobile phones.” resonance around audience safety in the
Under certain conditions, tickets bought wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, Manchester
this way can be passed onto family and friends, and Las Vegas.
and the company is also working with ethical “Data security is one of the big issues,” says
secondary sites to allow customers to sell on Maureen Andersen, president and CEO of North
tickets if they genuinely cannot attend the event. American trade body INTIX, about what issues are
With facial recognition technology commonplace foremost in her members’ minds. “The concept
at airports, Goldman feels the time is right for the of who owns the data has never gone away; if
INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2018 • 7
Feature
PAPERLESS TICKETING
“FIVE YEARS AGO, THIS
TECHNOLOGY WASN’T QUITE
THERE – BUT IT IS ABSOLUTELY
GOOD ENOUGH TO DO THIS
NOW. IT’S GOOD ENOUGH
NOW THAT WE CAN DO THIS
FROM MOBILE PHONES.”
MARIE GOLDMAN, PIKTICAL
anything it has become more potent. Venue
security and all the technology that goes with
that [is key]. Data security is something that is
incredibly important to everyone.”
Related to the growing importance of data is
the impact of social media and how this can be
harnessed to track the rise of acts, and also help
accelerate their market impact while also selling
Oxynade provides
tickets. Founded in Slovenia, Viberate began in ticketing services
the dance music sector as a way to measure the for Positivus
social media popularity of DJs, crowd sourcing Festival in Latvia
information around them, and getting to 30,000
tracked profiles within a year and a half. It has
expanded into other genres and its database now about, while others are keen to puncture the blockchain component of the way we work is just
has over 300,000 musician profiles. hype around it all. It is still a divisive topic a part of the infrastructure. It’s comparable to the
“We are doing for the music industry what across the industry, and seen as either a saviour Internet; most people don’t know how it works
IMDb is doing for the movie industry,” says Vasja or a damp squib depending on what side of the exactly – and don’t really care. They just want it to
Veber, the company’s co-founder and COO. “We debate you fall. work and make their lives better. Which it does.”
are a database of music stakeholders.” For them, “The beauty of the blockchain is that you Blockchain solutions are also seen as
social engagement is the most important metric. can control the entire lifecycle of the ticket – bringing a new type of transparency to the live
“From those measurements we could determine from the beginning right to the end,” proposes music industry in the way it is starting to do
who is popular and who is not,” he explains. “We Katerina Kirillova, co-founder of Tickets Cloud. for recorded and publishing rights. “You are
are measuring popularity on Facebook, Twitter, “As an event organiser or a distributor, you can able to trace on a transparent and public ledger
Instagram, YouTube and Spotify.” set the terms around how the tickets can be under whose account those tickets are held,”
It lists upcoming gigs for acts on its database resold or refunded. Our Smart Tickets [issued on suggests Cédric Cobban, president and founder
and links this to the 90,000 venues globally it has the blockchain] are guaranteed to be unique and of PeerTracks. “As far as the chain goes, you can
on its system, partnering with ticketing companies protected against fraud. The history of the ticket issue your ticket on the chain. That means you
such as Ticketmaster and Eventbrite to sell tickets. is going to be transparent.” could effectively tokenise all ticket purchases,
Veber argues that affiliate revenues from ticket While the notion of the blockchain might and once they are sold to an account name then
sales here is not where his business needs to be, be seen as (for now) confusing to a mainstream only that account name can use them.”
and the long game is to parlay into offering a audience who are not necessarily au fait with He is especially excited about the effect that
blockchain-based ticketing solution. “This is not cryptocurrencies, its supporters argue it can blockchain could have on the DIY and indie sectors,
intended to compete with the bigger ticketing still run under the bonnet and will eventually giving players here new powers. “I think blockchain
providers, as we know they have established become normalised. will definitely put it on steroids and speed things
businesses and huge venues that are always using “Even though there is a somewhat complex up,” he says of how he sees its long-term impact.
their services,” he says. “We are aimed at smaller technical aspect to the blockchain element of Against all this elation, however, there are
venues that don’t want to deal with ticket providers our system, the everyday user would never notice some who feel the hyperbole is writing cheques
but who want to have their own ticketing solution. this,” argues Olivier Biggs, community manager for the technology that it cannot (yet) cash. They
Blockchain is an ideal tool to do that.” at GUTS Tickets. “We realise most people just want feel a more circumspect approach is preferable.
The mere mention of blockchain is still to buy a ticket with the money in their wallet, Evopass was set-up in late 2016 in order to try
something its evangelists get hugely excited receive their ticket and enjoy the show. The and use the blockchain to eliminate fraud from
Talking Heads
Adam Levine Cédric Cobban Hans Nissens Harry Boisseau Jake MccGwire Katerina Kirillova
Tokenly PeerTracks Oxynade Citizen Ticket Evopass Tickets Cloud
8 • INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2018
Feature
PAPERLESS TICKETING
blockchain has the chance to come of age for the
ticketing sector in North America. “We will get
there but I don’t think it is going to be in 18 months.
I think it is going to be more in the three-year
range – because of the safety of it and the volatility
of it right now […] The US only adopted chip-and-
pin 18 months ago. So going into blockchain and
bitcoin is not going to be a fast process.”
Adam Levine, CEO of Tokenly, however, feels
that things are starting to align here and a
further technological push will help recalibrate
things in the technology’s favour. “There are so
many problems with the existing [blockchain]
system right now because it is created out of
a hodgepodge of technology and regulation
that was never really up to the task that it was
being asked to perform,” he argues. “That is
the opportunity that I see here. There is now
a protocol, and there are multiple ways to do
it using this sort of technology where you can
create a neutral playing field.”
Eventbrite has
As wave after wave of new ticket-selling
developed RFID
technology as part platforms race into this evolving market, there
of its paperless is also a concurrent rise in opportunities for
ticketing solution white-label services, something Oxynade spotted,
and that saw it move out of the primary market
in Belgium.
“WE ARE DOING FOR THE is not today. “The latency of blockchain is not “Two years ago we did a U-turn and took a
MUSIC INDUSTRY WHAT suitable for an online and real-time application new approach,” says Hans Nissens, the company’s
IMDB IS DOING FOR THE MOVIE such as live event ticketing,” he argues. “What we CEO. “We started focusing on ETaaS [e-Ticketing as
INDUSTRY. WE ARE A DATABASE have done is noted that blockchain may evolve a Service, similar to SaaS – Software as a Service].
OF MUSIC STAKEHOLDERS.” and we are not saying that it can’t be used in the This allows us to take an international approach.
VASJA VEBER, CO-FOUNDER future; but in its current application it is not the We are a software partner for ticketing agencies
& COO, VIBERATE right option for us.” and distributors who need a very solid and full-
Alan Gelfand, CEO and founder of Fair Ticket featured ticketing software […] As is typical with
a retail perspective – but moved away from that Solutions, also feels mobile is a solid solution for a SaaS solution, you don’t need any large upfront
as existing, and mainstream, technology was many of the issues but takes a much harder line investment. We have an onboarding road-map so
something they saw as capable of solving these here on blockchain’s viability. it can all be set-up pretty quickly. It is something
problems. “Everybody is talking about blockchain that we can offer not only to corporate ticketing
“We realised it wasn’t necessary for what we right now – but I am going to make a very strong agencies but we also support some start-ups.”
were trying to achieve,” says Jake MccGwire, the statement here,” he says. “There is no value to Partly out of necessity at the start of the
company’s CEO and co-founder. “We could quite blockchain if you can get everyone on mobile. 2000s, it was labels and retailers really driving
easily do it with mobile ticketing and some clever Once you have got everyone on mobile, what the digital changes in the music industry. But in
algorithms. What we developed was an algorithm do you need blockchain for? Blockchain tracks recent years, it is live, and especially ticketing,
that caused the QR code to constantly regenerate. every transaction; but so does mobile. One of the that is pushing digital innovation. The jury may
That means you cannot screenshot your ticket, advantages of blockchain is cryptocurrency and still be out – for now – on blockchain as the
and it enables us to have control over the ticket how that will tie in in the future; but that is five ultimate solution, but that does not mean the
at all times.” or ten years away at best.” ticketing business is easing into digital apathy.
Kirby also feels blockchain’s moment is Andersen feels that, while not ruling it out As the range of companies active here proves, the
possibly in the future but, from his perspective, completely, there will be a waiting game before exact opposite is the case.
Talking Heads
Marie Goldman Olivier Biggs Patrick Kirby Vasja Veber Maureen Andersen
Piktical GUTS Tickets Tixserve Viberate INTIX
10 • INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2018From secure mobile apps to unique ticket numbers, there are many ways to
fight industrial-scale online ticket touting. Chris Austin examines three
hugely successful approaches being employed by three different bands to
keep tickets in the hands of fans.
PIXIES
makes it clear in their T&Cs, then resellers now “We respond to messages very quickly and
have a duty to provide this information to a buyer. have made sure people at the venue, See Tickets,
“We were the first people to use it. We wanted and the promoter, are all well versed as to what
to show support for the fact the Government we are doing and why. There is a consistent
is trying to do something about the issue messaging across the board,” says Jones.
Richard Jones at Key Music Management has legislatively,” he says. Each night, a team of people will be present
overseen a strategy that made sure that tickets to Purchasers were limited to four tickets and at the Roundhouse door to handle any issues that
the Pixies 2018 London shows can only be resold were told they must arrive at the venue with come up at the last minute. “We will have to see
at face value on fan-to-fan service Twickets. their whole group and bring photo ID, such as a how it goes. There will be some problems I’m sure
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the passport or driving licence, to gain entry. but we have trained people well and there is a
band’s debut album Surfer Rosa, the Boston alt- In order to facilitate fans unable to attend system in place to deal with any issues that arise.
rockers will play five consecutive nights at the the concerts due to unforeseen circumstances, These are the hoops you have to jump through
Roundhouse in London, commencing 30 October. the terms and conditions state that tickets can be in order to protect fans from being ripped off,”
The shows will see the band perform both the resold but only via Twickets and at face value. he says.
1987 eight-track mini-LP Come On Pilgrim and Jones is far from a fan of pre-sale initiatives, All the shows have sold out and, despite a few
1988’s debut full-length album Surfer Rosa, from and another key step was not announcing the dubious listings on Viagogo, no tickets have been
start to finish. shows in advance of the on-sale. resold outside Twickets. “No one is sure whether
“Obviously, we knew it would be a ridiculously “We sent an email to everyone on the database Viagogo have the tickets or not. They had tickets
hot ticket, and they would be the kind of shows announcing that the tickets had gone on sale. on sale immediately after the on-sale, so there
that would usually provide a field day for ticket Nothing was spent on advertising. The reason is no way they are legitimate, but we will have to
touts and scalpers. We had to come up with we did that is because all pre-sales do is alert wait to see on the day,” says Jones.
something that would prevent that happening,” professional ticket buyers about what you are The Pixies’ manager is delighted that the
says Jones. doing. It simply enables the best people at buying initiative has not only successfully frustrated
The result was a multifaceted strategy that tickets to have the best chance to buy your best scalpers but also won strong support from fans.
saw the dates sell out swiftly without a single tickets. It is completely self-defeating,” he says. Says Jones, “It has been incredible. We have not had
penny being spent on marketing or advertising. The email included clear and concise a single negative comment from fans. Everyone
The first step was to minimise the number ticketing T&Cs, and an explanation that they were sees it as a really good thing to be doing. At the
of outlets able to sell the tickets. Jones decided being implemented to protect fans from being end of the day, it has meant a lot of extra work
to limit ticket availability to See Tickets and the exploited. Interaction with fans is ongoing. but it has been well worth it.”
Roundhouse box office. The aim was to create
clarity around pricing, so an all-in ticket price of
£50 (€56) was set with no additional charges.
“It meant everyone could understand easily
that they were buying an official ticket from an
official seller at the official price. We feel there
is a lot of confusion surrounding the purchase
of tickets. People don’t always understand when
they are buying a secondary ticket at an inflated
price – with all the additional fees that are
added, no one is clear exactly what the tickets are
supposed to cost,” he says.
To ensure that the ticket purchaser is the
one that actually attends the concert, Key Music
Management insisted that the tickets were
personalised with the name of the principle
purchaser.
Jones says he also wanted to create
another level of security, and to support the UK
Government’s decision to update the Consumer
Rights Act 2015 in April with its legislation relating
to unique ticket numbers (UTNs). If an event
organiser marks their tickets with a UTN and
12 • INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2018Feature
OUTING THE TOUTING
Iron Maiden
played Tallinn’s
Saku Suurhall in
May 2018
IRON
sold around 250,000 tickets for about 20 sold-out out and what it involved.
shows, all of which were at face value,” he says. The management team also partnered
Iron Maiden’s manager has railed against with Ticketmaster to produce a light-hearted video
MAIDEN
secondary ticket operators for the best part of entitled, How Paperless Works, to clearly explain
a decade, having been first approached by a the venue entry process. The animation has been
Viagogo representative back in 2009 and offered viewed nearly 50,000 times on YouTube.
a cut of profits. “We realised pretty quickly that Tickets were made available nine months
they were ripping off the fans,” he says. As a result, before the shows, and during the period between
Phantom Music Management CEO Rod Smallwood introduced paperless tickets for Iron on-sale to the night of the shows, Phantom and
Smallwood and his team virtually stamped out Maiden’s 2010 US tour. He tried the same move Ticketmaster continued to communicate with the
secondary ticket sales for Iron Maiden’s The Book of with the band’s UK dates the following year, but fan base. They not only answered queries about
Souls 12-date UK tour last year, and have maintained with venues asking for huge sums to cover costs, the availability of tickets and official purchasing
the same level of success for this year’s dates. it became unfeasible. “I was really annoyed, all channels but also handled T&C enquiries, and
Thanks to the management team’s impressive these fans were being ripped off by people who authorised ticket transfers and refunds when
antitout initiative, listings on secondary sites add nothing to the equation,” he says. necessary.
were down 97% on the previous Maiden UK tour in For the 2017 shows, GetMeIn!, Seatwave and As well as the band’s official website, social
2011 when 6,294 tickets were found to be available StubHub were informed about the paperless media channels played a major role in keeping
across multiple resale sites after the on-sale. initiative and agreed not to list the tickets. “We fans informed. Smallwood says that it didn’t take
For the run of dates in May 2017, Phantom were pretty hard line on that. I got together with long before the band’s fans began to offer each
adopted a paperless ticketing policy wherever Reg Walker at The Iridium Consultancy and we other advice about the new entry process and the
possible, and where physical tickets were planned out how to go about it. We were able to get reasoning behind it.
unavoidable they carried the name of the the message across to a lot of the power brokers To make sure any last-minute queries were
purchaser. In order to gain entry to the gigs, fans that if they resold tickets for Iron Maiden, their handled with a human touch, an Iron Maiden
had to present government-issued photo ID and management would go through hell and high representative was present at the venue box office
the relevant payment card. water to come after you,” says Smallwood. on the day of each show. “It was a final line of
For the May 2017 shows, more than 100,000 The veteran manager is quick to praise defence. If the box office is being awkward then
tickets were sold on the first day on sale, all at Ticketmaster, who he says played a huge role in he is there to state that Iron Maiden approve of
the intended price. On the Monday after, only the success of the paperless initiative. “As soon the person being let it. It is a useful safety net for
207 tickets could be found available for resale, all as we said we wanted to go paperless they were us,” says Phantom Music Management’s head of
on Viagogo. Smallwood says it is highly unlikely supportive,” says Smallwood. Phantom worked digital Sarah Philp.
those tickets were authentic. closely with the Live Nation-owned operation to Ticketmaster also had a team on hand at
“We don’t think they existed. The day before maximise the paperless inventory. Ticketmaster’s every show to handle issues, but overall less than
we went on sale they had tickets listed and said Captcha software was used to distinguish bots 2% of fans required any kind of customer service.
the tour had already sold out. Viagogo is a highly from humans, transactions were limited to four Says Smallwood, “We have sold 250,000
dubious operation. We had to write to their senior tickets, and IP addresses were monitored in order tickets at face value, over two years, without any
management asking them to please stop selling to prevent repeat purchasing. complaints or anyone being turned away. If more
tickets for an Iron Maiden show in Chile that didn’t A key aspect of the initiative’s success was the bands did it the public would be more educated
exist. Viagogo didn’t respond,” says Smallwood. way in which Smallwood’s team engaged with fans. about how paperless works.
The paperless approach was so successful Warnings were issued stating that tickets would “It takes a bit more effort to keep the tickets
that it was again adopted for Iron Maiden’s UK not be made available via GetMeIn!, Seatwave and off secondary platforms, but it does work and
summer tour this year. Smallwood is delighted StubHub, and at the point of purchase fans were the money saved by fans could well end up being
with the results. “Over the two tours, we have made aware of why the initiative was being carried spent on other shows.”
INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2018 • 13Feature
OUTING THE TOUTING
FANFAIR 4
enforcement of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, PROVIDE A RESALE SERVICE
which makes mandatory requirements on Sometimes, ticket buyers, for genuine
secondary sites and sellers to provide detailed reasons, will be unable to attend a
ALLIANCE: information to buyers – terms and conditions
can be genuinely disruptive to dedicated touts.
In effect, artists and event owners have been
show. If you do not provide them with a
resale or reallocation mechanism it will
likely have three consequences: (i) it will piss
FIVE TOP TIPS TO empowered.
Make it crystal clear in your primary T&Cs
off your customer; (ii) your T&Cs could be
considered “unfair” and incur the wrath of the
TOPPLE TOUTING that your tickets are not a “commodity” but a
personal revocable licence (or words to that
CMA; and (iii) it might unwittingly push fans
towards Viagogo, who can be relied upon to
effect) and are for consumer purchase only. list any ticket regardless of T&Cs.
In conjunction with the FanFair Alliance, a Tickets purchased by businesses or traders will None of these outcomes are desirable,
growing number of artists and their managers be cancelled, and they will be invalidated if so make resale easy, make it fair, and make it
are finding fresh and effective ways of ensuring they are offered for resale at a profit. transparent.
that fans are not ripped off by unscrupulous Consider printing the lead booker’s name
5
resale merchants. Here, FanFair Alliance on tickets, with ID required to gain entry. Or LINK TO FANFAIR
campaign manager Adam Webb offers a employ a digital ticketing solution. ALLIANCE GUIDANCE
five-point plan to limit the impact of scalpers. We have produced two practical
3
GET RID OF THE SMALL PRINT consumer guides that are available for
1
COMMUNICATE T&Cs are important. So turn your small free online at Fanfairalliance.org.
Tell customers in advance where and print into LARGE PRINT. Insist that the The first offers ten tips for ticket
when your tickets will be going on primary rules of sale and resale are prominently buyers, such as, do not trust search engines
sale: from which agents and at what time – displayed across all your ticketing partners. and check the artist website for reliable
including pre-sales. Tell them which sites not to Include them in all relevant artist ticketing information. The second is a
buy from. If the culture minister can warn communications, including social media. Ideally, Victim of Viagogo self-help PDF for
people against Viagogo, then so can you. consumers should understand the rules of chargebacks and refunds. By using this
engagement before they actually purchase a advice, hundreds of thousands of pounds
2
HARNESS THE POWER OF T&CS ticket. It won’t hurt to remind them afterwards have been refunded to fans that were
As a result of recent legislative and either. Or to email/text them another reminder ripped off when buying tickets on the
regulatory changes – and particularly the just before show time. secondary market.
THE CHARLATANS
Charlatans’ fans were left to attend the shows in the
normal way, all they needed to do was show their
phone at the venue door to gain entry.
“Because the tickets were locked into mobile
devices, we did not have to bombard fans with
When Tim Burgess of The Charlatans, and the complicated ticket terms and conditions. We were
band’s promoter approached him about working not asking them to do anything extra, or unusual.
with them to keep tickets for four homecoming We just make sure tickets are in the hands of fans
shows off the secondary market, Tannen knew it and stay there. It is not about making things
was a perfect fit. more complex by making restrictions around the
The string of shows in May saw the Northwich purchase,” says Tannen.
band play four nights at the Cheshire market town’s The Charlatans’ ticketing initiative was a
500-capacity Memorial Court. With the gigs being great success, and not one ticket for the Northwich
underplayed and featuring special guests and shows was listed for sale on any of the secondary
related events, demand for tickets was always going ticketing sites, including Viagogo. However, while
to outstrip supply. monitoring Twitter, the Dice team did come across
Says Tannen, “They were really keen to make some individuals bragging that they had tickets
sure the tickets went to fans, and were looking for they wanted to sell for the gigs.
a solution that was going to prevent the tickets “You never know to what lengths people will go
ending up on secondary sites. They didn’t know, to resell tickets. Perhaps they were offering to meet
going into it, how much of a foolproof solution we people and walk them in. We contacted the relevant
had already.” individuals via social media and if we felt there was
An iOS and Android compatible app, Dice any likelihood of suspicious activity we removed
enables tickets to be securely stored on a purchaser’s the tickets from their account and then reallocated
phone from which transfer can be prevented. them to people on a waiting list,” says Tannen.
Explains Tannen, “The aim from the outset The Dice MD believes that one of the key
Since it launched in 2014, mobile ticketing was that Dice would be completely mobile, and contributing factors to the initiative’s success was
app Dice has carved out a niche in the highly tickets would be locked into the app, so there is the hands-on approach of the band, with Burgess
competitive UK ticketing market by tying no paper involved or e-ticket emailed, and there responding online to messages from fans about the
tickets to the mobile devices from which they is nothing that can be moved to an Apple Wallet. app, tickets and the entry process.
were bought, making unauthorised resale We developed security features that mean a ticket “In Northwich, we did not have a huge user base
impossible. doesn’t become active until an hour before the prior to the shows, so lots of people were using it
“Our background was in artist management doors open, it is an animated ticket that moves for the first time and there were many questions
and one of the main things that we wanted to fix on screen, you cannot screen grab it, the ticket is about it, but when they understood what it was
with ticketing was the problem of the secondary completely locked to the device.” and why the band were using it, the fans were very
market,” says Dice managing director Russ Tannen. With the app doing all the hard work, The supportive,” says Tannen.
14 • INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2018One undeniable sign that the live music industry is in good health is the
growing number of technology specialists that are developing products
and solutions to improve event ticketing. Gordon Masson talks to a dozen
companies who are focussing on ways to simplify ticketing, while generating
additional revenues for professionals working in the live entertainment sector.
TICKETHING while festival partners include Sziget, Balaton KEYPZ
Tickething had two main goals when it Sound and Volt. Keypz is a UK-based start-up that is developing a
launched: to give fans a transparent and safe Among the safety features Tickething has platform to reinvent how ticket sellers manage
marketplace where they can securely buy and sell developed are 100% money back guarantees and fan verification with a data-driven platform-as-
tickets between each other; and to allow event showing fans as much information about the a-service designed around the consumer.
organisers and primary ticketing platforms to seller as possible, such as profile pictures, numbers “There has never been more pressure from
control the resale of their tickets. of successful previous transactions, face value the media, fans and artists to prevent tickets from
“We have developed a resale ecosystem that offers of the listed tickets, etc. The company verifies reaching the hands of touts,” says Steve Simpson, co-
everything that blockchain secondary ticketing sellers’ phone numbers, social media accounts and founder and commercial director of Keypz. “We are
solutions offer, but without having to switch email addresses, and ensures that businesses and building a simple but smart solution that’s fairer
from current ticketing technologies and industry professional touts are prevented from trading on for fans and dramatically reduces costs for ticket
standards,” explains Tickething CEO Bence Töreky. the Tickething platform. sellers. A win-win!”
Partners joining Tickething’s free API can set “We use AI technology to keep fraudsters Fans register once with Keypz to access tickets
their own resale rules – personalised tickets, price away from the platform,” states Töreky. “This allows from multiple partners and will already be verified
capping, quantity limitations or whatever they us to detect fraudulent transactions, whether it is a by the time they get to the seller’s website, meaning
believe to benefit their visitors and events. The ticket seller or a ticket buyer, before the transaction faster ticket sales. The service prevents duplicate
company’s first API partner was TIXA Hungary, goes through.” and false registrations, has a simple API to securely
16 • INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2018Feature
INNOVATORS
SeatGeek's ability
to allow fans to
upgrade their seats
when they are at an
event is generating
new revenue
streams
booking to aftersales, is automated, gives Stager
its competitive advantage – a plus-point that has
attracted venues, theatres, festivals and nightclubs
throughout the Netherlands. “They receive more
revenue and spend less time to get a show on the
road. This brings us to the ultimate goal we are
striving for with Stager: more entertainment on
this planet,” says Stager founding director, Mike
van Gaasbeek.
Stager’s event-production planning tools
include a fully customisable, mobile first ticketing
system that allows the organiser to set their own
kickback to cover Stager’s handling fee. However,
the system claims to replace personnel planning
systems, production planning systems, website
content management systems, customer relation
management tools and loyalty/membership/
guest list management systems by integrating
everything in one place.
“Bundling all this functionality into one
integrated system brings many added benefits. To
connect fans to sellers and uses proprietary technology and 100% of its resources are dedicated to paraphrase Aristotle: ‘The whole is greater than the
algorithms to prevent abuse by would-be touts, this purpose. The company’s growth shows a year-on- sum of its parts.’ Another positive side effect is a
making for programmes that are repeatable, faster year 20% increment and in 2017, the 55 employees of vendor lock-in. The only way to go after using Stager,
to set up and require less management, greatly Onebox were responsible for selling 7 million tickets, is back to the horror of having different systems
reducing per-event costs for presales. across more than 50 channels internationally, tied together,” adds Van Gaasbeek.
“We want our innovation to be widely useful thanks to its open API. Those channels included
today, so we have been working closely with a Atrapalo, Ticketmaster, Ticketea and Entradas.com. WEEZEVENT
handful of very experienced ticket industry Depending on the venue, Onebox offers a Weezevent helps more than 150,000 event
insiders and established ticket sellers to ensure our number of solutions for clients – a white-label sales organisers and venues with a full white-
service will work for the fans, the artists and the web channel, multichannel distribution based on label ticketing solution, access control with
industry itself,” adds Simpson. a centralised capacity system, physical box office, professional devices, and cashless technology.
Although the future of the technology has B2B sales channel for resellers, access control, and From 2008, Weezevent has sold more than 50
many more possible applications, the initial an open API that allows users to create their own million tickets for all kinds of events: festivals,
focus will be music and sport ticketing and, with online sales funnel. conferences, parties, concerts, fairs and huge
trials targeted for early 2019, fans and potential Among the company’s biggest clients are sports events like Formula 1.
partners are encouraged to register interest via the Athletico Madrid, FC Barcelona and the Spanish By equipping 200 festivals, including Hellfest,
company’s website (Keypz.com). National soccer team, while in the music realm Lollapalooza and Vieilles Charrues; professional
it services venues such as Palau Sant Jordi, Estadi football teams such as Paris Saint Germain and the
ONEBOX Olímpic Barcelona and Madrid’s Wizink Center. UEFA European Championship; and numerous Red
Founded in 2010, Onebox is a Spanish ticketing Bull events, Weezevent has proven how robust and
company based in Barcelona. The company STAGER high performing its cashless technology is.
claims to have developed the first global system Stager says it is on a mission to liberate “event Expanding in Europe, Weezevent is hungry and
of ticketing sales and distribution, connecting organisers all over the world from the daily ambitious, still with the same mind-set: we take care
event organisers and sales channels in a hassle that comes with staging events and of the tech, you take care of the planning. Organisers
centralised sales system. Onebox technology selling tickets.” It claims that money-hungry own their own data and have access to all the tools
allows event organisers to have complete control intermediaries and overheads evaporate when they need to manage ticketing, accreditation,
and autonomy of their events through powerful organisers use the Stager platform and therefore memberships, access control, payments, and soon
sales and analytics tools. take control of their events. their CRM strategy. This new solution will provide
The core business of Onebox is the ticketing The fact that complete event production, from live and complete access to customers’ data collected
INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2018 • 17Feature
INNOVATORS
over the years to organisers, providing them with
a solution to promote their ticketing and implement
a real marketing strategy throughout the year.
Weezevent co-founder and CEO, Pierre-Henri
Deballon, notes the evolving nature of live
entertainment and states that the company’s
future plan is to disrupt seated events with
an easy and powerful solution. “With this new
application, we’re catering to a need that is growing
and fundamental to organisers nowadays. It is
completely in our core strategy and philosophy to
provide to seated events the same ability to manage
and market their events,” he says.
TICKETLIGHT
Ticketlight is Ticketline’s self-service ticketing
system and allows complete end-to-end
management and control of events for
promoters, festivals, venues and more.
Built on the company’s 30 years of expertise
in ticketing and working in conjunction with its
clients, Ticketlight offers a full, real-time reporting
suite and provides clear and concise insight to help
manage, promote and deliver events all in one place.
“We have included many features to support ticketing
for all event types, with a three-step event creation
Weezevent’s RFID tool, an expansive, customised venue seat map tool,
passes can be easily comprehensive reporting, and real-time scanning,”
scanned and checked explains Ticketline head of marketing, James Lee.
“Our real-time scanning features detailed
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WWW.TIXSE www.stager.ticketsFeature
INNOVATORS
Talking Heads
Ben Bray David De Wever Katie McPhee Mike van Gaasbeek Patrick Kirby Pierre-Henri Deballon
TicketPlan PlayPass Eventbrite Stager Tixserve Weezevent
live reports and you can scan tickets using the Ticketlight allows the full end-to-end management The company announced in January 2018
Ticketlight Barcode Scanning app available on iOS of ticket sales 24/7, even on the move. that it had partnered with global insurance giant
platforms. You can additionally produce white- “Ticketlight is currently available in the UK, with APRIL in order to bring its market-leading ticket
label ticketing pages for an event’s website; branded opportunities being investigated for it to be deployed insurance solutions to North America.
e-tickets and confirmation emails; market your in other international territories,” adds Lee. “We carry out an enormous amount of work
events easily, with integration to Mailchimp; and when entering new markets to ensure that our
manage your event data to target your customers.” TICKETPLAN facilities meet all of the necessary local regulatory
Whilst the system enables clients to have their It’s been another busy year of growth and requirements,” explains group development
own integrated white-label solution, Ticketlight innovation for leading ticket insurance and manager, Ben Bray.
users are also able to extend their marketing and protection firm TicketPlan, who provide “We know from our experience of working
sales reach by placing their event on sale on the refunds to ticket buyers if they are unable to across numerous countries internationally
independent Ticketline.co.uk marketplace. Available attend events due to a variety of unforeseen that there is no one-size-fits-all solution within
on traditional desktop, mobile and tablet devices, circumstances. the ticket insurance and protection sector asFeature
INNOVATORS
each country has its own laws, regulations and
interpretations. In the US, it’s even more complex as
these regulatory requirements can vary from state
to state. In partnering with APRIL USA, we are able to
Talking Heads
offer our market-leading ticket insurance solutions
across all 50 states – within a regulatory model that
is robust and compliant.”
In yet another innovative development,
TicketPlan has also unveiled a new GDPR-friendly, API-
based integration solution. “We always try to make the
implementation of our facilities as simple as possible,”
says Bray. “We had carefully monitored the evolving
situation in relation to GDPR prior to finalising
our integrated solution, but having gained a better Russ D’Souza Steve Simpson James Lee
understanding of the impact of the new regulations SeatGeek Keypz Ticketline
we were able to finalise our proposition. We are
now delighted to be able to offer both integrated
and non-integrated implementation models to The industry really took notice of SeatGeek’s open approach, not just with our partner venues
our partner ticketing companies and prospective momentum in April, when the company and teams, but also in how much their fans have
clients – whichever best suits their needs.” announced it would take over as the ticketing enjoyed the increased access.”
provider for AT&T Stadium and the NFL’s Dallas Based in New York, SeatGeek now has offices
SEATGEEK Cowboys – the most valuable sports franchise across Europe, and recently hired an international
Originally founded as a secondary marketplace, in the world. The Cowboys joined the NFL’s New general manager as the company puts more
over the past two years SeatGeek has upended Orleans Saints, NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, and attention on growing globally. The company has an
the United States’ primary ticketing market with a handful of Major League Soccer clubs that had increasing number of clients in Europe, including a
SeatGeek Open. SeatGeek’s approach to primary already signed on with SeatGeek. number of Premier League football clubs in England.
ticketing focuses on the open distribution of “For too long, artists, venues and teams have “We are excited to see the industry moving
tickets through APIs, allowing artists, venues been very limited in how they can reach fans to in an open direction because it improves the fan
and sports teams to sell tickets directly to fans in sell them tickets,” said SeatGeek co-founder Russ experience while at the same time growing the
places like Facebook, Snapchat and Airbnb. D’Souza. “We’ve seen great momentum around our business for artists, venues and team,” says D’Souza.Feature
INNOVATORS
the ticketing sector to grow their business ticketing providers worldwide, is a global
and reach possibilities that were out of ticketing and event technology platform,
scope before. which powered millions of events in more
Having a white-label solution at its than 170 countries in 2017.
core, where the Oxynade solution can be Since inception, the company has processed
customised as part of the clients’ own brand, more than $10billion (€8.7bn) in gross ticket sales,
turned out to be a real hit with clients. With providing creators of all shapes and sizes with
new players like artists, promoters and even tour tools and resources to seamlessly plan, promote,
operators getting involved in ticketing, white- and produce live events around the world. Current
label solutions are becoming more and more customers include elrow, MJR, WOMAD, Tribeca
popular and Oxynade aims to exploit this demand. Film Festival, Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals, Latin
Since Oxynade’s eTicketing as a Service (eTaaS) Village, and Vrienden van Amstel Live!.
solution launched at the beginning of 2017, the Eventbrite has acquired nine companies,
company has expanded its portfolio with a slew including music ticketing powerhouses Ticketfly and
of new clients, while the Netherlands, Germany, Ticketscript, to further solidify its commitment to the
the Baltics, Hungary, Czech Republic and even independent live music scene, and in September 2018,
South Africa are just a few of the countries where it held an IPO, raising more than $200million (€175m)
the technology has been adopted. on the New York Stock Exchange.
Stager’s app is becoming In September 2018, Oxynade held its first Katie McPhee, head of marketing for Eventbrite
increasingly popular eTaaS Summit, hosting close to 50 delegates from in the UK and Ireland, comments, “We were among
14 different countries at its client Phantasialand’s the very first providers to introduce one-click event
amusement park near Cologne in Germany. The publishing to Facebook, mobile apps for keeping
OXYNADE company reports, “Our goal was to give our attendees and scanning digital tickets, and a browser-based,
Oxynade, a 100% white-label ticketing partner, an inspirational experience and let them meet self-service, drag-and-drop reserved seating system.
offers an all-round ticketing system that is international like-minded ticketing individuals. More recently we have built an advanced RFID access
based on current top-notch technologies such From our point of view, we believe it was a success.” solution with a cashless payments option, which is
as GraphQL, Node JS and React. Including a fully fully integrated with the Eventbrite platform.”
equipped back-office, box office and specialised EVENTBRITE The company’s partnership directory, Eventbrite
features, the platform can cover the needs of a Eventbrite, which launched operations in San Spectrum, now lists more than 100 useful API
broad range of verticals. This allows partners in Francisco in 2006 as one of the first online integrations, including with Salesforce, Mailchimp,Feature
INNOVATORS
and SurveyMonkey, and the company is continuously for fans. That allows us to Tixserve has worked in
adding partners to its distribution network, communicate directly with partnership with Tickets.ie
for Irish rugby matches
which already includes Facebook, Instagram, fans, as well as tap into a lot of
Bandsintown, Spotify, SeatGeek, and others. data to help optimise the fan
experience in the stadium.” operate large sporting venues. One of its
PLAYPASS With PlayPass implementations first ticket agent clients, Tickets.ie, found
Headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium, PlayPass now spread across 20 countries, De that some 50% of rugby fans opted to
has developed a suite of RFID solutions that can Wever is confident that the venue receive a Tixserve-powered digital
provide clients with invaluable insight into the and sports club sectors can help the ticket instead of a print-at-home
operational flow of their events. In addition company grow rapidly outside of the paper version. Fans now have the
to improving event access and facilitating music festival market. convenience of doing app-to-app
cashless transactions, PlayPass technology tracks “We’re going to concentrate on how ticket transfers within the secure
and displays the number of visitors onsite in we can help our partners increase revenues track-and-trace Tixserve ecosystem.
real time, and can identify which brands and and improve fan engagement before, during Tixserve has also developed a new
activations are of interest to each visitor, as well and after an event,” he says. “Our focus will be in solution for distributing ticket allocations for high-
as what they purchase and consume. markets that we think will become key for PlayPass, demand games to clubs and other stakeholders.
The RFID specialist lists Ticketmaster, Dice, Live like the UK, where we intend to enlarge our team Its newly developed ‘light touch’ batch delivery
Nation and AEG among its client list but a contract and find more partners in the festival, stadium and solution means that ticket sellers can now trial and
with Belgian football club R.S.C. Anderlecht is venue markets.” roll-out the Tixserve-powered digital ticket without
driving new expansion plans for the company, the need to do a technical API integration with the
which recently secured €1.9million in new funding TIXSERVE Tixserve platform.
from Amsterdam-based Newion Investments. Tixserve operates a white-label, self-service Tixserve co-founder and MD, Pat Kirby, says,
PlayPass co-founder and CEO David De Wever technology platform that enables existing “The inevitable switch from paper to digital
reveals that the company supplies Anderlecht fans ticket sellers for sport, music and other live ticketing is gathering momentum, and existing
with season tickets that also let them purchase events to replace paper tickets with secure and ticket sellers must decide whether to ‘build or buy’
merchandise, food and beverages utilising the interactive digital tickets delivered direct to the a digital ticket fulfilment capability.” Kirby invites
cashless technology. “Our goal now is to go after smartphones of fans and patrons. International Ticketing Yearbook readers to avail
other stadium clients,” De Wever tells ITY. “What’s Since its entry last year into the UK and Irish of a free, simple-to-do, trial of the Tixserve digital
nice about our Anderlecht contract is that we’re markets, Tixserve has focused on validating its ticketing solution. Contact info@tixserve.com for
part of a full platform with a dedicated app built-in solution with high-profile clients who own and more info.You can also read
