A view of the StubHub VR experience of buying Final Four tickets. (Image via The Drum)
Most ticketing sites for major sporting events provide some sort of image of the section or seat for all of their tickets sold. It is an incredibly helpful tool to see whether you like the view from the seat before you buy the tickets, or to make sure that you will not be seeing more of a cement post than the actual game.
But now StubHub is going far beyond the typical panoramic camera view, and they are bringing virtual reality into the mix.
For this past weekend’s Final Four matchups, ticket buyers were able to see a 360-degree, virtual reality view of their seats. They just needed to strap on a Samsung Gear VR or the much cheaper Google Cardboard to get the full experience.
The virtual reality aspect is only available through StubHub’s app, which is available in both the iOS and Android app stores. So far, StubHub has only used this technology with the Final Four games, and for all of the San Francisco Giants’ home games at AT&T Park.
While virtual reality is relatively new to the ticket selling industry, there are already some teams that have done the same. The LA Lakers are one of those teams, with their virtual venue powered by IOMEDIA. With this, IOMEDIA have created a digital recreation of the Staples Center, and you have an unrestricted, 360-degree view of any seat in the stadium.
The only difference between this virtual venue and the digital, virtual reality rendering that StubHub is using is that StubHub’s is geared towards an experience with a headset. You can get the full virtual reality view without a headset, but it is much better with something like Google Cardboard.
Both eBay’s CEO (eBay acquired StubHub back in 2007) and StubHub’s head of product for mobile apps stressed that this feature is not a gimmick, and will truly help ticket sales. Whether that is true, and a virtual reality experience is a lot more credible than a panoramic picture, is up for you to decide.
