It’s gut check time for the ticket markets. The big players have begun moving the pieces around the board. DTI management, the hedge fund backed ticket consolidator has reported gone into contract for the acquisition of TEVO, Broker Genius and Seat Scouts. TEVO is the ticket broker backed secondary market exchange. Broker Genius provides tools for real time automated pricing adjustment. Seat Scouts was entering that same auto pricing space when litigation from Broker Genius resulted in an injunction preventing sales of their product.
The particular genius of Curtis Cheng, CEO of DTI was again revealed as he recognized acquiring both Seat Scouts and Broker Genius would resolve the litigation drain on both companies while effectively giving DTI a monopoly on automation of secondary market prices.
Reportedly all three of the acquired companies were suffering from cash flow issues related to the near collapse of ticket markets resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Absent any anti-trust objections from regulators, this move by DTI puts them into place to be an effective competitor to conventional secondary markets and to have significant control over the way ticket brokers price and distribute tickets.
DTI previously purchased 1Ticket which is one of the two primary companies handling transfer and delivery of tickets purchased through point of sales systems used by ticket sellers to simultaneously offer tickets for sale across multiple secondary markets.
It will be interesting to see how DTI operates once it has half of the ticket transfer market, all of the automated repricing market and a tested secondary market all under their control. Meanwhile, StubHub continues to flounder as it refuses refunds, closes offices and lays off staff.
More to follow as this story develops.
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