September 14th, 2009
San Francisco, CA -- September 14, 2009 -- SeatGeek, a new web application, launched publicly today as a finalist at the TechCrunch50 conference. SeatGeek forecasts the price of sports and concert sold on the secondary market (sites like StubHub, eBay, etc.). SeatGeek bills itself as "Farecast for event tickets", an illusion to the web startup that provided price forecasts for airline tickets before being acquired by Microsoft for $115M.
Ticket buyers can use SeatGeek to determine if ticket prices for an event are going up or down. This information allows buyers to save money by purchasing tickets when prices are at rock-bottom. SeatGeek represents a large savings opportunity for consumers, as the average transaction on the secondary ticket market is $500 and ticket prices often fluctuate dramatically prior to an event.
On the main stage at TechCrunch50 SeatGeek founders Russ D'Souza and Jack Groetzinger described SeatGeek's patent-pending technology, which uses external factors to determine price trajectories for sports games and concerts. For example, for baseball games SeatGeek considers the impact of variables like weather, pitcher's records, playoff races, ballpark promotions, and attendance. The founders also discussed SeatGeek's email notification system, which allows users to sign up for email alerts such that SeatGeek notifies the user at the optimal time to buy.
The SeatGeek team also announced the upcoming launch of SeatGeek Proâ„¢, a premium subscription service for brokers and other ticket sellers that will give sellers tools to profit-maximize. Prices for this service range from $2,000 to $10,000. Finally, the team announced its plans for SeatGeek Insurance. This insurance product will allow users to "lock in" a ticket price when they buy a ticket. If SeatGeek's forecast turns out to be wrong, SeatGeek then compensates the user accordingly. In addition to these premium features, SeatGeek generates revenue through its affiliate relationships with secondary ticket markets and the company reached profitability earlier this month.
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.
The SeatGeek analytics team can fulfill data requests for journalists and bloggers. Simply email if you are covering the NFL, MLB, or live music and want to include ticket trend information.
ABOUT TECHCRUNCH50
Founded in 2007 by leading technology blog TechCrunch and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, the TechCrunch50 conference provides a platform for early-stage, and frequently unfunded, companies to launch for the first time to the technology industry’s most influential venture capitalists, corporations, angel investors, fellow entrepreneurs and the international media. Companies are selected to participate exclusively on merit. TechCrunch50 is supported by corporate sponsors Google, Microsoft, Bing, MySpace and Facebook, as well as venture capital and legal-advisory firms including Sequoia Capital, Charles River Ventures, Founders Fund, Redpoint Ventures and Perkins Coie.