SeatGeek Allowing People To Sell Tickets On Its Site, Marking Shift In Business Model

Ticket aggregator SeatGeek is creating a new marketplace platform in which individuals can sell on the site, marking a significant shift for the N.Y.-based outfit. The company has previously been focused on showcasing listings from large ticket resellers and earning commissions from that. But the SeatGeek Marketplace, nearly a year in development, will allow fans to post seats for sale directly through SeatGeek. SeatGeek will charge sellers a 15% commission, similar to other ticket marketplaces such as StubHub, but will not impose fees on buyers. SeatGeek’s base in data and analytics from its other aggregated listings will also be used to offer price recommendations to sellers based on market trends and SeatGeek’s own deal-scoring algorithm. But rather than a direct play to steal market share from other ticket resale operations, SeatGeek execs said they are trying to enlarge the overall secondary ticket industry. "This is a big evolution for our business," SeatGeek co-Founder Russ D’Souza said. "This is going to be heavily focused on mobile. So many of the other marketplaces are still geared to desktop. And so many tickets are still going to waste. There is a meaningful opportunity in making it easier for fans to upload and sell their unwanted tickets." SeatGeek also is offering a free peer-to-peer transfer option in which users who already have a buyer for their tickets can send them those seats through SeatGeek’s mobile application, with neither party assessed a service fee. The creation of the SeatGeek Marketplace is one of the major initiatives for the company following its closing this past spring of a $62M Series C round of venture capital financing.