Ticketmaster, one of the first companies to sell tickets online, wants to fight fraud and competition from ticket touts and startups using blockchain technology.
After purchasing a group specialized in the technology behind cryptocurrencies, the US company intends to develop its own technology in-house, in order to offer customers a plethora of benefits. Primarily, the certainty of the validity of the purchased ticket for events in the world of sport and entertainment.
In order to allow refusing fake tickets at the entry points to the events, Ticketmaster has been selling barcoded tickets for some time now. But this solution hasn’t been enough to prevent fraud and it seems that the group has finally decided to take advantage of the potential of blockchain technology.
Converting tickets into digital assets protected by the blockchain
For this reason, Ticketmaster bought UPGRADED, whose technology allows traditional tickets to be converted into digital assets protected by the blockchain.
In doing so, UPGRADED claims to be able to earn the trust of ticket holders while giving control and flexibility to content owners, companies, bands and sports clubs.
“We’re proud of what we’ve built and are looking forward to working with the incredible team at Ticketmaster to help us scale,” said UPGRADED’s CEO in a press release.
Ticketmaster, which manages the sales of about 50% of the events organized in the United States through online marketing, wants to outperform the increasingly fierce competition of small companies and start-ups that are emerging in the industry.
In the last two years, a series of ICOs of event ticket offices have been registered on the market, such as Aventus, Blockparty and Eventchain, whose stated aim is to break the oligopoly in the sector of historical players such as Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster wants to defend the monopoly from the emerging startups
Acting as a mediator between arenas, stadiums, theatres and customers, the company controlled by Live Nation Entertainment has built over the years a sort of empire and has no intention of being ousted from the throne.
Ticketmaster is constantly exploring emerging technologies, and there aren’t many that have the unique possibilities of blockchain,” said Justin Burleigh, chief product officer of Ticketmaster North America.
“The hope is that blockchain technology will provide event creators with more control and visibility over ticket distribution and protecting fans against fraudulent tickets.“
They have been the subject of fierce criticism over the past few years for their excessive costs and distribution policy. The media has given a lot of space to the legal battle undertaken by the Pearl Jam against the group, accused of not allowing the band of Seattle to lower the price of concert tickets.
