Ticket futures exchange yoonew.com has launched a new online market for baseball fans looking to score World Series tickets.
The new program allows fans to buy futures for the first four games of the World Series for any of the 30 Major League Baseball teams for virtually any seat at a fraction of what that ticket might cost at the time of the game. In addition, users can buy “fantasy match up” futures for specific teams to reach the World Series, for example the New York Mets vs. the New York Yankees. Under this scenario, both teams have to make the World Series, but currently, such a future is trading for about $120, which is considerably lower than what tickets for such an event would cost.
“This is our biggest undertaking yet, because of the number of tradable contracts,” yoonew co-founder Gerry Wilson told TicketNews of the new World Series market. “Now, users can buy futures tickets for the World Series regardless of the teams involved. No one has sold tickets to the World Series this way before Opening Day.”
Since its launch last year, yoonew has grown impressively, so much so that the site orchestrated about $2 million worth of trades, among thousands of users, for the most recent Super Bowl, according to Wilson. “Not only do we have traders and fans using our site, but also ticket brokers. It makes for a more dynamic site,” he said.
Taking a cue from Google, yoonew has also launched yoonew Labs, which is an incubator for new ideas and new features the company is developing, such as yoonew widgets and mobile phone alerts. In addition, the site is also planning to launch an affiliate program that users and web publishers can join.
Also, expect a flurry of activity on the site beginning next week for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Wilson will also be among the speakers at Ticket Summit 2008, the secondary ticket industry’s largest trade show and conference, scheduled for July 23-25 in Las Vegas.
“When people trade on the site, we find that they come back day after day to watch their portfolios grow,” Wilson said, adding that yoonew is currently being studied in Harvard University course on financial market design.
