viagogo
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | e-commerce |
| Founded | London, UK (2005) |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
| Key people | Eric Baker, Founder & CEO |
| Products | online secondary ticketing, online ticket exchange |
| Website | [1] |
viagogo is an online ticket exchange for buying and selling live event tickets. Established in August 2006, the company is now Europe’s largest online ticket marketplace[citation needed] operating local language websites in 26 countries with headquarters in London. viagogo is backed by the venture capital investment firm Index Ventures.[1]
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[edit] History
The company was founded by Eric Baker, the co-founder of Stubhub in the United States.[2] Baker left StubHub in 2004 due to a falling out with his co-founder.[3] He then decided to take the business model to Europe, and founded viagogo.[2]
viagogo was launched in late summer 2006 with partnerships with Chelsea F.C. and Manchester United F.C.[2][4][5][6][7]. These deals were intended to allow season ticket holders to sell tickets to matches they could not attend to other club members. In return, the clubs would receive yearly six-figure sums from viagogo.[8]
Manchester United ended their commercial agreement with viagogo in 2011[9].
[edit] Sport partnerships
The company has partnerships with sports properties in football rugby, tennis and wrestling.
Under British law, unauthorized re-selling of Premier League and other football tickets is illegal, a restriction introduced by the Government to prevent hooliganism[citation needed]. By working with the Premier League clubs to obtain official authorization, viagogo is permitted to resell tickets to the clubs it works with.
In addition to Chelsea FC, viagogo holds a partnership with Premiership club Aston Villa FC,[10] and Fußball-Bundesliga clubs FC Bayern Munich[11] and FC Kaiserslautern.[12]
In 2009, viagogo announced a partnership with the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals,[13] as its official premium and secondary ticket exchange partner. The partnership was renewed in 2011 which will run up to and include the 2013 edition. The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals partnership follows viagogo’s partnership with the French Tennis Federation (FFT). In 2009, viagogo partnered with the FFT to become the official secondary ticket exchange of the French Open and the Paris Masters. [14] It is the first secondary ticketing deal to be initiated in France[citation needed].
In 2010, the company became the official secondary ticketing partner for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s European live event tour in the Autumn of 2010. This was the first time the WWE had worked with a secondary ticketing partner on its major European tours. [15]
[edit] Music partnerships
viagogo was the official secondary ticketing partner and official premium ticketing partner for Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet European Tour, the first partnership of its kind with a major concert tour.[16]
In June 2009, viagogo was announced as the official premium ticketing partner of Live Nation for the Roger Waters UK tour. [17]
Since 2009, viagogo has been the official ticket exchange partner for Festival Republic, the organiser of the Reading and Leeds Festivals, Latitude Festival and The Big Chill festival. [18][19]
In August 2010, viagogo announced it was the sole ticket exchange partner for music media brand NME [20] and Aloud.com, Bauer Media Group's ticketing partnership.
[edit] Criticism
In early 2011, Viagogo sold personalized tickets for the band Take That's 2011 tour to German customers. Several people were not able to enter the concerts in Hamburg and Munich, and a German court banned Viagogo from selling further tickets for Take That Tour 2011 in Germany. [21]
In 2011, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was granted a court order by the High Court, forcing Viagogo to reveal the names and addresses of people who sold on tickets to England Rugby matches via its website, after the RFU argued that the conditions printed on the tickets explicitly forbade resale of the tickets for profit[22][23]. Viagogo appealed the ruling, but the appeal ruling was won by the RFU in Dec. 2011, and the company is now required to reveal the names and addresses of those who placed tickets for sale on its website for the 2010 Investec Internationals and the 2011 Six Nations Championship.[24].
[edit] References
- ^ "viagogo Raises Over $20MM From Investors Led by Index Ventures". Index Ventures. http://www.indexventures.com/news/index/news_id/46. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ a b c Auchard, Eric (17 August 2006). "European sports ticket reseller Web site unveiled". Reuters. http://today.reuters.com/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=companyNews&storyID=42893+18-Aug-2006+RTRS. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
- ^ Charny, Ben (17 August 2006). "Online ticket scalping comes to Europe". Marketwatch from Dow Jones. MarketWatch, Inc. http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B9A04047A%2D4A61%2D4450%2D9710%2D55AAA8AE3B8A%7D&dist=rss&siteid=mktwdist%3Drss&siteid=mktw. Retrieved 20 August 2006.
- ^ The Times (18 August 2006). "Football ticket resales kick off". The Times (Times Newspapers Ltd). http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article612489.ece. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
- ^ Sweney, Mark (18 August 2006). "Clubs launch ticket resale site". The Guardian (Guardian Newspapers Limited). http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1852563,00.html. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
- ^ "Tackling the touts". bbc.co.uk. BBC Manchester. 18 August 2006. http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2006/08/18/180806_football_touts_feature.shtml. Retrieved 20 August 2006.
- ^ "Ticket exchange: clubs target touts". ITN News. 18 August 2006. http://www.itn.co.uk/news/sport_cf8459c0884a1ebbdb92621d98f9e1ae.html. Retrieved 20 August 2006.
- ^ Bowers, Simon (18 August 2006). "Fans condemn 'legalised touting' of season tickets". The Guardian (Guardian Newspapers Limited). http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1852657,00.html. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
- ^ "Why can't we sell unused Manchester United season tickets any more?". The Guardian . 9 Sep. 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/sep/09/cant-sell-unused-manchester-united-season-tickets.
- ^ "Aston Villa sign new ticketing agreement with viagogo". sportspromedia.com. 09 August 2010. http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/aston_villa_sign_new_ticketing_agreement_with_viagogo.
- ^ "VIAGOGO SIGNS UP FC BAYERN MUNICH AND EVERTON FC". sportbusiness.com. 30 January 2007. http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/161190/viagogo-signs-up-fc-bayern-munich-and-everton-fc.
- ^ "viagogo & FCK starten Ticket-Zweitmarkt-Partnerschaft". fck.de. http://www.fck.de/de/aktuell/news/details/article/2356-viagogo-fck-starten-ticket-zweitmarkt-partnerschaft.html.
- ^ "viagogo extends deal with Barclays ATP World Tour Finals". sportspromedia.com. http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/viagogo_extends_deal_with_barclays_atp_world_tour_finals.
- ^ "French Tennis Federation Teams Up With viagogo". PRWeb. April 2004. http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2009/04/prweb2361844.htm.
- ^ "Viagogo Signs Deal with World Wrestling Entertainment". www.euticketnews.com. http://www.euticketnews.com/20100720850/viagogo-signs-deal-with-world-wrestling-entertainment.html.
- ^ "Madonna Sticky & Sweet with viagogo". www.ft.com. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/78835754-1d61-11dd-82ae-000077b07658.html.
- ^ "Viagogo secures rights for The Wall". PRWeb. June 2009. http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1041389.
- ^ "Viagogo sign Festival Republic deal". music-news.com. June 2009. http://www.music-news.com/shownews.asp?H=Viagogo-sign-Festival-Republic-deal&nItemID=25571.
- ^ "viagogo renews official ticket exchange partnership with Festival Republic". music-news.com. March 2010. http://www.viagogo.co.uk/About.aspx?HelpID=1009245.
- ^ "NME to use Viagogo for ticketing". musicweek.com. August 2010. http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1042309.
- ^ "Viagogo: Hintergründe zu fehlerhaften Take That-Tickets" (in German). Netzwelt. 5 Aug. 2011. http://www.netzwelt.de/news/87830-viagogo-hintergruende-fehlerhaften-take-that-tickets.html.
- ^ "RFU wins court order to help identify Twickenham ticket touts". The Guardian. 31 March 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/mar/31/rugby-football-union-twickenham-tickets-viagogo.
- ^ "High court ruling could kick ticket touts into touch". The Guardian. 7 May 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/may/07/high-court-ruling-ticket-touts.
- ^ "Viagogo loses appeal in RFU ticketing secondary-sale case". The Guardian. 20 Dec. 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/dec/20/viagogo-appeal-rfu-ticketing-secondary.
