Los Angeles, CA —Ticketmaster announced today that industry veterans Clay Luter and Kurt Schwartzkopf will run the global ticketing leader’s sports division in North America. In these newly expanded roles, Luter, who has been with Ticketmaster for more than 30 years, and Schwartzkopf, will both serve as Executive Vice Presidents and Co-Head of Sports for Ticketmaster North America. Together, Luter and Schwartzkopf will lead Ticketmaster’s efforts to drive new technology adoption and innovation for current and prospective clients across all sports teams, leagues, clubs and colleges in North America.

In addition to Luter and Schwartzkopf’s appointments, Ticketmaster has expanded its sports leadership team, providing clients with an even deeper roster of industry-leading executives. The leadership team includes David McElwee, Vice President and General Manager of MLB and MLS Events for Ticketmaster, North America; long-time Ticketmaster veteran, Gary Brosius, as Vice President and General Manager of the NFL; and Tim Martin, as the Senior Vice President and GM of College Sports. Martin was most recently named to Sport Business Journal’s Power Players List for College Athletics and will prioritize bringing digital ticketing technology to campuses.

Additionally, Brendan Lynch has been appointed as the SVP of Premium Services and Enterprise Commercial. Ticketmaster Premium Services brings unparalleled insights to the live events industry by pairing predictive intelligence and raw event data to connect teams, leagues, artists, venues and promoters to their fans in personalized and relevant ways before, during, and after an event. The suite of services includes; LiveAnalytics, which predicts fan interaction and interest with events; Pricemaster, which provides guidance on pricing strategies based on fans, inventory or trends; and Performance Media, serving customized messaging and creative to fans.

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“Our sports division has long been the market leader by bringing new technology and services that give clients the one-to-one relationship with their fans they have sought for so long,” said Amy Howe, President and Chief Operating Officer of Ticketmaster, North America. “With Clay and Kurt’s decades of combined experience and the rest of the team at Ticketmaster, teams, leagues, colleges and clubs will continue to provide their fans with the best, most innovative ticketing experience in the market.”

Ticketmaster is the official ticketing partner of the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, dozens of Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer teams and clubs, the US Open Tennis Championships, U.S. Soccer, the College Football Playoff National Championship, and more.

With its extensive list of partnerships, Ticketmaster is implementing digital ticketing technology across the sports industry leveraging its breakthrough and award-winning product, Ticketmaster Presence™, the state of the art venue access control and fan engagement platform. With Presence, sports teams and leagues now have full-chain of custody of a ticket, knowing not just who bought the ticket but who attends the games as well, allowing them to increase known fans and build one-to-one relationships with more fans than ever. Ticketmaster Presence is currently enabled at more than 400 venues in North America, including many sports stadiums and arenas, and will be installed in more than 600 venues by the end of 2019.

Earlier this year, Ticketmaster launched SafeTix, the latest enhancement to Presence that brings rotating barcodes and NFC tap and go technology to fans and clients. SafeTix ties unique, identifiable digital ticket to each fan’s mobile phone. SafeTix is already being utilized by the NFL and will be used by the NHL this upcoming season, as well as numerous NBA and MLS teams. Colleges like Penn State University have rolled out SafeTix technology for the new athletics season.

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