Ticket price predictor SeatGeek joins the growing list of exhibitors for the upcoming Ticket Summit to be held on January 13-15, 2010, at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City.
SeatGeek, a relative newcomer to the ticketing arena, offers consumers well-researched ticket price predictions in order to allow them to get the best price at the best time. The company aggregates data from major secondary sellers like StubHub and eBay and combines this information in an algorithm with other contingency data, resulting in a forecast of where prices might be heading for a particular event. When prices are moving down, fans can receive email alerts which will suggest the best time for them to buy. The company Web site claims about 83 percent accuracy on its pricing predictions.
“We’re doing something that we think is pretty unique in the ticketing space, collecting and analyzing data that no one has collected and analyzed before” co-founder Jack Groetzinger told TicketNews. “We think it makes sense, when you’re buying a ticket, not just to go to one place but to show all [the places available]. We gather a bunch of external data that drives ticket prices that we use in the algorithm, like weather, team match ups and venue info, …and we built a model to accurately predict ticket prices. Our goal is basically to provide analytics and price forecasts for everyone.”
Toward that goal, SeatGeek is in the process of building an additional site, called SeatGeek Pro, to serve the ticket broker community. The goal for this site is to provide even more sophisticated forecasting data to brokers to assist them in maximizing their profits.
This is SeatGeek’s first appearance at Ticket Summit, and Groetzinger is looking forward to the experience. “We are excited to check it out. My company was founded nine months ago, so we haven’t been around for [many other Ticket Summits].” With SeatGeek’s business squarely in the secondary market, Groetzinger states, “We are a natural fit to attend Ticket Summit. This is clearly the conference when it comes to ticketing.”
During the upcoming Ticket Summit, Groetzinger hopes to introduce the services of SeatGeek to a new audience, and, more specifically, he plans to bring the message to brokers who may not yet understand how this service can help them.
Despite the youth of this company, its goals for growth are ambitious. “On the consumer side, we’re trying to be the destination [for those seeking tickets], the place people start their ticket search. In terms of our broker goals, we want to be the go-to provider of metrics for the secondary market.”
As for current challenges, Groetzinger sees much work ahead to bring his business to the public. “Our biggest push now is getting exposure. We have a great product and we want people to know it exists. Ticket Summit is a great way, in a couple of days, to let a lot of people in the secondary ticket market know that we exist.”
