Jump to content

viagogo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MatthewViagogo (talk | contribs) at 17:05, 14 September 2011. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.


viagogo
Company typePrivate
Industrye-commerce
FoundedLondon, UK (2005)
HeadquartersLondon, UK
Key people
Eric Baker, Founder & CEO
Productsonline secondary ticketing, online ticket exchange
Website[1]


 viagogo is an online ticket exchange that allows people to buy and sell live event tickets in a safe, secure and transparent environment free from fraud and illegitimate street touts.

viagogo is bringing efficiency and transparency to what has traditionally been a murky marketplace. The viagogo Guarantee ensures that buyers receive their tickets in time for the event and the seller receives payment. In the case that the seller of a ticket has difficulty providing the ticket that they have sold, viagogo will find replacement tickets for the buyers or in the exceptional case that something goes wrong viagogo provides a full refund. Established in August 2006, viagogo is now Europe’s largest online ticket marketplace operating local language websites in 26 countries with headquarters in London.


Founded

The company was founded by Eric Baker, the co-founder of Stubhub in the United States.[1] Eric wrote the business model for StubHub while in business school at Stanford[citation needed], but left StubHub in 2004 due to a falling out with his co-founder.[2] Eric then decided to take the now-proven business model to Europe and founded viagogo to accomplish this.[1]

Launch

viagogo was launched in late summer 2006 with partnerships with Chelsea FC and Manchester United,[1][3][4][5][6] the first such deals of their kind in Europe.[citation needed] These deals let season ticket holders sell tickets to matches they cannot attend to other club members. In return, the clubs will receive yearly six-figure sums from viagogo.[7]

Restrictions

Under British law, unauthorized re-selling of Premier League and other football tickets is illegal, a restriction introduced by the Government to prevent hooliganism. By working with the clubs to obtain official authorization, viagogo is permitted to resell tickets to the clubs it works with, thus effectively giving viagogo a government-protected monopoly by being the only place where tickets to those clubs can be legally resold. Critics have suggested that this is legalised exploitation by the Football Clubs.

Sport Partnerships

viagogo continues to partner with world class sports properties across a wide variety of sports categories including football, rugby, tennis and wrestling.

In addition to Chelsea FC, viagogo holds partnerships with premiership club Aston Villa FC,[8] as well as Bundelisga clubs FC Bayern München,[9] and FC Kaiserslautern.[10]

In 2009, viagogo announced a partnership with the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals,[11] 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 Roland-Garros and the BNP Paribas Masters. [12] It is the first ever secondary ticketing deal to be initiated in France.

In 2010, viagogo expanded its sports portfolio to include wrestling by signing a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment® (WWE) to become the official secondary ticketing partner for the global entertainment organization’s European live event tour in Autumn 2010. The deal marked the first time the WWE has worked with a secondary ticketing partner on its major European tours. [13]


Music Partnerships

In addition to partnerships with world class sports brands, viagogo has unrivalled relationships with the music industry.

viagogo formed a ground breaking partnership with Madonna where viagogo was the official secondary ticketing partner and official premium ticketing partner for Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet European Tour, marking the first ever partnership of its kind with a major concert tour.[14]

viagogo continues to work closely with promoters on artist tours and concerts and in June 2009, viagogo was announced as the official premium ticketing partner of Live Nation for the Roger Waters UK tour. [15]

Since 2009, viagogo has been the official ticket exchange partner for Festival Republic, the organiser of the Reading, Leeds, Latitude and Big Chill Festivals. [16] In 2010, Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic commented on the partnership and the impact on fraudulent ticket issues [17]

“viagogo has helped us all but eliminate the issues that we have had in the past with fans taking their chances online and being disappointed after ‘buying’ non-existent resale tickets. We are working with viagogo again this year as the only recommended and official ticket exchange for the Reading, Leeds, and Latitude festivals. If fans use other ticket exchanges or buy from unauthorized agents they risk being defrauded and not getting their festival tickets.”

In August 2010, viagogo announced it was the exclusive ticket exchange partner for music media brand NME [18] and Aloud.com, Bauer Media’s ticketing partnership. viagogo is able to offer its partners users with access to the broadest range of sold-out gigs and festivals as well as providing a secure platform to sell their spare tickets to other fans.

Backers

viagogo is backed by Index Ventures.

References

  1. ^ a b c Auchard, Eric (17 August 2006). "European sports ticket reseller Web site unveiled". Reuters. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
  2. ^ Charny, Ben (17 August 2006). "Online ticket scalping comes to Europe". Marketwatch from Dow Jones. MarketWatch, Inc. Retrieved 20 August 2006.
  3. ^ The Times (18 August 2006). "Football ticket resales kick off". The Times. Times Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
  4. ^ Sweney, Mark (18 August 2006). "Clubs launch ticket resale site". The Guardian. Guardian Newspapers Limited. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
  5. ^ "Tackling the touts". bbc.co.uk. BBC Manchester. 18 August 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2006.
  6. ^ "Ticket exchange: clubs target touts". ITN News. 18 August 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2006.
  7. ^ Bowers, Simon (18 August 2006). "Fans condemn 'legalised touting' of season tickets". The Guardian. Guardian Newspapers Limited. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
  8. ^ "Aston Villa sign new ticketing agreement with viagogo". sportspromedia.com. 09 August 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "VIAGOGO SIGNS UP FC BAYERN MUNICH AND EVERTON FC". sportbusiness.com. 30 January 2007.
  10. ^ "viagogo & FCK starten Ticket-Zweitmarkt-Partnerschaft". fck.de.
  11. ^ "viagogo extends deal with Barclays ATP World Tour Finals". sportspromedia.com.
  12. ^ "French Tennis Federation Teams Up With viagogo". uk.prweb.com. April 2004.
  13. ^ "Viagogo Signs Deal with World Wrestling Entertainment". www.euticketnews.com.
  14. ^ "Madonna Sticky & Sweet with viagogo". www.ft.com.
  15. ^ "Viagogo secures rights for The Wall". uk.prweb.com. June 2009.
  16. ^ "Viagogo sign Festival Republic deal". music-news.com. June 2009.
  17. ^ "viagogo renews official ticket exchange partnership with Festival Republic". music-news.com. March 2010.
  18. ^ "NME to use Viagogo for ticketing". musicweek.com. August 2010.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Viagogo&oldid=450496333"