November 9th, 2009
New York, NY “ November 9, 2009“ SeatGeek, the leading provider of price forecasting software for sports and concert tickets, today announced the launch of NFL ticket price forecasts. Available for free to all sports and music fans, informs fans when tickets are selling at bargain prices and provides them instant access to the best deals from secondary markets like eBay, Razorgator, Stubhub, and TicketNetwork. With this latest addition, SeatGeek’s event coverage now includes NFL, MLB and concert tickets, and will be expanded to NBA and NHL games later this year.
SeatGeek earned industry accolades from publications such as Fast Company, the LA Times, and CNET when it debuted its consumer application in September at the 2009 TechCrunch50 Conference. VentureBeat and CNet identified SeatGeek as one of the top five startups to watch.
SeatGeek is the first company to employ complex statistical analysis to forecast NFL and other events ticket prices, with an accuracy rate exceeding 80%. Constantly integrating data on injuries, winning streaks, trades and other variables, SeatGeek updates its forecasts on a real-time basis. To ensure they buy tickets at the optimal time, fans can closely monitor these forecasts by signing up for SeatGeek™s free email alerts.
"Like most sports fans, we had a difficult time knowing whether we were paying too much or too little for sports tickets at any given point in time," explains Co-Founder Russell D’Souza, a New York Giants fan. "With SeatGeek, we’ve removed much of the guesswork. While we could have released NFL forecasts sooner, we held off to enhance the experience for football fans and ensure that the trends we identified for previous seasons held true this year as well. In the process, we have already noticed some interesting themes."
According to SeatGeek, this season, the Green Bay Packers have sold at the highest ticket premium, averaging 298% of face value on the secondary market. The New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears have placed second and third, as their tickets have sold at 243% and 242% of face value respectively. Remarkably, a few teams are so cold this year that their tickets are reselling below face value. Tickets for the struggling Oakland Raiders have sold at 82% of face value on the secondary market while fans of the Jacksonville Jaguars have scooped tickets for 83% of their original price.
However, the real winners are not necessarily the "hottest teams." SeatGeek calculates that tickets for the Dallas Cowboys sell at 96% of face value today, whereas six years ago tickets for the Cowboys sold on average at 186% of face value. What changed? In 2009, the Cowboys moved to a new stadium and nearly doubled most ticket prices. By raising ticket prices, the Cowboys captured revenue that once went to brokers and ticket resellers.
So, which NFL games are good buys now, and which ones are likely to be bargains later? It all depends on the game. Currently, SeatGeek forecasts ticket prices to jump when the hapless Detroit Lions face the red-hot Minnesota Vikings on November 15th, 2009. On the other hand, Chicago Bears fans should sit tight for now, and sign up for a pricing alert, if they want to catch the Philadelphia Eagles play at Soldier Field on November 22nd, 2009.
ABOUT SEATGEEK
With patent-pending technology , SeatGeek uniquely provides sports and entertainment fans with ticket pricing insight. The company helps fans identify the best deals and buy tickets for concerts and sports events on the secondary market, from sites like StubHub and eBay. Consumers rely on SeatGeek to determine whether ticket prices for an event will increase or decrease in the future. With this information they can determine the optimal time to buy tickets, thereby saving money.