Ticket resale marketplace StubHub is slated to roll out the beta version of its UK site later today, December 5. The company announced the news in an e-mail to large-volume sellers over the weekend.
As of this morning, a default splash page still greeted visitors at StubHub.co.uk. The company said that if the beta site did not launch by tonight, it would wait until the new NBA schedule is released Tuesday night, December 6.
In the meantime, people who visit the UK site can click to be redirected to StubHub’s U.S. site.
The weekend e-mail warned sellers that when the UK site debuts, the U.S. site will go down for several hours due to the size of the launch. During the beta phase, StubHub will ask resellers for their feedback about the new site.
“This will be our first marketplace outside the U.S. and Canada,” the company wrote. “The site will feature events primarily in the London area at first and will quickly extend to the rest of the UK. The full launch of the site will be in the first half of 2012, backed by a heavy marketing campaign to drive buyers to the site.”
A StubHub spokesperson did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment.
The company said it intends to keep U.S. and UK listings separate, with events in the two regions only appearing on their respective sites. But U.S. and UK sellers can use their existing accounts to list events on the two sites, and the UK site will display monetary amounts in British pounds.
Listing tickets on the UK site will be free — as in the United States — and sales from the site will carry a similar 25 percent fee. However, the UK fee will come from the sellers’ side, rather than being a combination of seller (15 percent) and buyer (10 percent) fees.
Additionally, according to UK laws, resellers on that site must provide the ticket’s face value as part of the listing information.
Brokers will be paid through PayPal for UK sales, the company said, and incentive metrics will not be combined at first. StubHub may combine U.S. and UK incentive metrics in the future, but for now, U.S. sales will benefit a seller’s U.S. account, and UK sales will benefit the UK account.
At launch, StubHub recommends sellers use electronic delivery for tickets purchased from the UK site. But sellers can also use the company’s Last Minute Service (LMS) to send tickets to the UK office. The lead time for using LMS delivery for UK tickets will be longer than in the United States, but the company did not disclose how long that lead time will be.
Earlier this fall, StubHub hired Brigitte Ricou-Bellan to oversee the company’s UK launch and future international expansion.