Online ticketing platform Eventbrite is debuting a new vertical today, called Endurance, which focuses specifically on selling tickets for races and walks, including marathons, triathlons, races, fundraising walks, and more. As you may know, Eventbrite, which has sold 57 million tickets and hosted over 500,000 events in the past year, has been used as a registration and ticketing platform for a broad range of events, from large fundraisers, festivals, tech conferences, and concerts to cooking classes and HTML workshops. But this is the first time the company has launched a dedicated, industry-specific ticketing manager for a vertical.
The company says they realized there are a couple of key markets that have more advanced feature requirements, and in order to take advantage of more opportunities in these markets, the company is building an expertise in select verticals.
Endurance is similar in some ways to the standard ticketing platform but has been customized based on feedback from endurance organizers and participants. This includes the ability for race organizers to sell merchandise along with registration prior to the event, and allows for easier team registration sign up and management. Race organizers can also automatically assign bib numbers as participants register for their event.
Organizers can also create custom branded registration pages, access data and analytics on attendees and sales, and even accept payments at the event via Eventbrite’s new ‘At The Door,’ iPad app and credit card reader.
What verticals could be next for Eventbrite? Conferences, concerts and classes are obvious choices.
Expanding to vertical-specific ticketing solutions makes sense for the company to offer for compelling ticketing options, as it looks to increase sales and users. Eventbrite has making a big push towards reaching $1 billion in gross ticket sales in 2012; after doubling both the number of events on platform in 2011. We know the company is eyeing an IPO. Last year, Hartz said that Eventbrite could file to go public as early as late 2012. Eventbrite has also expanded internationally last year, opening an office in London.
