AXS has hired veteran sports ticketing executive Rob Sine as chief revenue officer, a newly created role signifying the company’s continued growth.
Sine, set to start on Tuesday, arrives to the Los Angeles-based AXS from IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions, where he was president and oversaw a steady expansion of that college sports-focused operation. Sine has also held ticketing leadership roles with the Pac-12 Conference and three NBA teams in a career spanning more than 20 years.
“It was really an organic evolution,” Sine said. “I wasn’t looking to leave [IMG Learfield], but as this opportunity emerged and I dug into it more, it became very clear this was a big chance to join a world-class organization and build upon what they’ve already done in the space.”
At AXS, Sine will focus on client acquisition and retention and new business development, reporting to AXS CEO Bryan Perez. Sine, like Perez and Brian Peunic, AXS senior vice president of sports, was honored as one of SportsBusiness Journal’s Power Players: Ticketing in the June 18-24 issue. He will operate parallel to COO Tom Andrus, who will lead product-based efforts.
In 2017, just its sixth full year of operation, AXS generated nearly $2.7 billion in ticket transaction volume.
“As we’ve grown, I’ve been looking to enhance our executive management team to match up to that, and Rob is a perfect addition,” Perez said. “He understands entirely who we are and where we’re going, has a wealth of experience and contacts throughout the industry, and it frees me up to focus more on broader strategy and big-picture projects. With what we’re assembling, we believe we have a big opportunity to be a real change agent in the industry.”
Over the past year, AXS has been actively merging primary and secondary tickets into a single platform for many of its team clients, becoming an official founding partner of T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and building up its AXS Anywhere ticket distribution program to sell inventory through a variety of third-party partners such as Facebook.
Sine will relocate from Plano, Texas, where he was situated for IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions, and be based out of Los Angeles. His activities will focus primarily on sports, but he will also work on some of AXS’s music and performing arts clients.
AXS worked with Turnkey Sports & Entertainment to fill the new CRO role. IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions said it “has confidence in [SVP] Brad Sexton and the entire team … to continue the tremendous progress we have made.”
