Sports teams and live event venues will soon be able to sell their tickets directly through SeatGeek.
The company has focused on resale tickets until now — first by aggregating resale options from other sites, then by launching a marketplace where ticketbuyers can sell or transfer their tickets directly. But SeatGeek also showed its interest in “primary” ticket sales with a recently announced partnership with Major League Soccer.
Co-founder Jack Groetzinger argued that the new SeatGeek Open platform will take a different approach than “legacy ticketing companies.”
“The whole thing is centered around radical openness,” he said.
For one thing, he said SeatGeek will support distribution beyond SeatGeek itself, allowing venues to sell tickets directly from their own websites, apps and social media accounts, and wherever else they might want to sell online.
This will be supported through a number of SDKs (software development kits), which Groetzinger said will “make it pretty darn easy for any website or mobile app to integrate ticketing.” He said the SDKs will also include support for more advanced features like dynamic pricing.
As for how this will affect your options on SeatGeek itself, Groetzinger said these new tickets should show up as just another option in your search.
Over time, he suggested that the distinction between primary and secondary ticket sales will begin to blur — particularly since ticket resales will still “flow through SeatGeek” with approval from (and a small financial cut for) the teams and venues. In addition, he said SeatGeek Open will include anti-fraud measures to ensure that someone isn’t reselling their ticket multiple times.
Groetzinger said primary ticket sales should begin early next year, with Sporting Kansas City as the first team to officially partner with SeatGeek on primary sales.