LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) StubHub is out and AXS is in as the official ticket reseller for AEG venues.
The shift was officially announced in a Wall Street Journal article. The new arrangement will roll out AXS’s digital ticket technology to 30 of AEG’s venues and sports franchises stateside and is expected to give artists more control over how and how much tickets can be sold for, and resold for, providing them more control.
The shift continues a shift that blends the lines between primary and secondary ticket markets, the WSJ noted, with resale tickets a way for the industry to circumnavigate the unmarketable “sold out” moniker.
“You never want to be in a situation where you have to turn away a fan because you don’t have something to sell them,” AXS Chief Executive Bryan Perez told the paper.
AEG has yet to release a press release on the announcement, but its relationship with StubHub officially ended this summer and, as Live Nation is aggressively recapturing resale tickets under its own platforms, AEG will be taking a significant chunk of a $15 billion annual business. Plus, the company and artists will be able to know who is buying the tickets. As of now, approximately 3,000 to 4,000 tickets are resold through any given sporting game or concert without the information being shared with the primary market, according to the WSJ.
“This lets you go from knowing a third of the people in the building to potentially everybody in the building regardless of if they bought it on primary or on resale,” Perez said.
AEG CEO Dan Beckerman told the paper that the deal “not only gives fans the streamlined mobile experience they want, but also provides us with an important tool to tailor offers and personalize experiences while at our venues.”
“We will continue to list tickets for AEG events and venues globally,” said Perkins Miller, StubHub’s general manager for North America.
Some of the many AEG venues include Los Angeles’ Staples Center (home to its LA Kings), Minneapolis’ Target Center, New York’s PlayStation Theater and Kansas City’s Sprint Center.
