Hubbard (r) said Rival can price tickets fairly by identifying and knowing fans betterNATHAN HUBBARD
Ticketing outfit Rival CEO Nathan Hubbard said his new company is "building the operating system for live events," meaning ticketing as well as "building the underlying platform that takes a ticket from being a piece of paper and digitizes that access credential." Speaking Wednesday on "Lefsetz Live" on SiriusXM's Volume channel, Hubbard said by identifying and knowing who is attending an event, Rival can "price the tickets right" and "make it more fair and equitable in the way that we distribute those tickets so it's more likely that you're going to get access to that ticket." He added that knowledge can also allow his company to "make an experience that's about more than sitting in a plastic seat for two hours." Rival is "giving teams and artists the ability to present the right opportunity, the right package, the right experience in the right moment to the right person." Meanwhile, Hubbard noted what is "interesting" about where sports thinking is going in regard to ticketing is that sports teams are "starting to look at the broker as a way to offload risk." Part of the reason why teams are selling to these "superbrokers" is because they can "dictate the terms of how those tickets get sold." Hubbard: "When a thousand different brokers have tickets, they'll (slash) them at the last-second and that can really hurt the brand of the team." In terms of actual tickets, there is "absolutely no reason ever why a fan should walk up with a piece of paper" ("Lefsetz Live," SiriusXM, 10/24).
