SeatGeek is coming on board as the Official Ticket Marketplace of Major League Baseball, announcing a deal with the league as the 2023 season’s spring training is underway in Florida and Arizona. The move makes the ticketing platform an official integrated ticketing partner of all 30 clubs in the league, replacing StubHub in that role.
“Baseball is the largest spectator sport in the world in terms of total attendance, and the nature of the league’s 162-game season makes it ripe for innovation on the ticket resale side of the business,” said Russ D’Souza at SeatGeek. “With MLB, we get a chance to re-imagine what the ticketing experience is like while bringing new fans to the ballpark.”
With the deal, SeatGeek now has partners across all major sports in North America, with clients in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLS, as well as the English Premier League and theatrical organizations. It also recently announced a deal that made it the official resale partner of Paciolan, extending it into a huge percentage of the intercollegiate athletics market in the United States. That deal also saw it replace StubHub in a long-held partnership.
As with all such deals, Major League Baseball will receive access to massive amounts of customer data through the integration with the ticketing marketplace, allowing it to know who is attending each game when the ticket is sold through the partnership and accessed through the SeatGeek mobile-only ticketing system. Barcodes will be integrated directly through the marketplace, and the league and its teams will have access to the database to understand who is in attendance and identify new customers for marketing purposes.
“SeatGeek is a data driven company that is relentlessly focused on improving the fan experience from purchase to post-game,” said MLB Chief Revenue Officer Noah Garden. “We’re eager to tap into SeatGeek’s extensive user base across numerous categories to reach an even wider audience of potential attendees.”
The MLB contract is the latest in a strong run for SeatGeek in client acquisition, having inked new partnerships with the Baltimore Ravens, Utah Jazz, Real Salt Lake, United Soccer League, and Paciolan. It also recently renewed its partnership with the New Orleans Pelicans, which had been its first NBA client.
