Greg Bettinelli, an integral part of eBay’s and StubHub’s growth in the secondary ticket market as Director of Business Development, is leaving the company to join Live Nation in a similar role.
According to an email TicketNews obtained that Bettinelli sent to colleagues, he will become the Executive Vice President of Business Development for Live Nation and “will focus on building out distribution, partnerships and business strategies around key ticketing initiatives.” The email spoke of how his decision to leave eBay/StubHub after five years was a difficult decision for him, but that it was in the best long-term interest for his career and he is “extremely excited about the positioning of Live Nation in the rapidly changing music space.”
Reached today at his new job, Bettinelli declined to elaborate further, but the move comes as Live Nation continues its preparations to launch its own primary ticket operation, and Bettinelli’s hiring would appear to be a clear signal that Live Nation plans to aggressively move into the secondary market, too. Live Nation rival Ticketmaster has gone on a spending spree in recent weeks to beef up its secondary ticket initiatives in the U.S. and overseas, and Live Nation clearly believes it needs to try to keep pace.
“This is a big win for Live Nation,” said Steve Kobelski, former Executive Director of secondary ticketing trade conference Ticket Summit, who invited Bettinelli to speak at the event in 2007. “Greg is extremely knowledgeable about the secondary market and will have a lot of insight to share. Live Nation must be getting very serious about the space if they’re bringing him on board.”
