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See Tickets | |
Formerly | Way Ahead Records Way Ahead Group |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Live Entertainment Ticketing systems Ticket retail and distribution |
Founded | Way Ahead Records, Nottingham |
Headquarters | Nottingham, England, UK |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Rob Wilmshurst (CEO) |
Products | Live event tickets, ticket technology |
Parent | CTS Eventim (CTS Eventim) |
Subsidiaries | See Tickets USA Digitick Paylogic Starticket |
Website | www |
See Tickets is the international ticketing services company based in Nottingham, England. It operates throughout Europe and North America under the See Tickets brand, with over 15 offices in cities including; London, Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Paris, Marseille, Madrid, Berlin, Amsterdam, Groningen, Antwerp, Lisbon and Zurich. See Tickets was acquired by CTS Eventim in June, 2024.
The business started as Way Ahead Records in the 1980s, a Nottingham-based record shop which began selling concert tickets in the 1990s. It began trading as See Tickets in 2004 following an acquisition by The Really Useful Group and Bridgepoint Capital.
Since 2011, See has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Vivendi SA, a Paris-based international integrated media and content group, employing more than 50,000 staff globally with revenues in excess of €29 billion in 2010. (2)
In December 2014, See opened its first US office in Los Angeles, California. See expanded its US presence in June 2016, after its parent company Vivendi acquired ticket agency Flavorus from SFX Entertainment for $4 million, now rebranded as See Tickets.(3) In November 2019 a second office opened in the US in Nashville, Tennessee. [1]
In April 2018, See again expanded by acquiring LiveStyle's Netherlands-based online ticketing service, Paylogic. As part of the deal, See Tickets US tickets LiveStyle's US-based events such as; Electric Zoo, Life in Color, Sunset Music Festival, and Spring Awakening. [2] Later in 2019, Paylogic also rebranded as See Tickets. [1]
In January 2020, See Tickets further expanded their European presence by acquiring Swiss-based Starticket from the TX Group, which sells over 5 million tickets annually. [3]
In June 2024, See Tickets was wholy acquired by CTS Eventim
Today, See Tickets retails and distributes tickets for music, festival, theatre, sport, comedy, exhibition and lifestyle events working with more than 5,000 clients globally. Notably, the business sold all 150,000 tickets for the 2015 Glastonbury Festival in 29 minutes.[1]
See Tickets is a full service ticket agency and services to clients include custom UX and UI development, marketing, customer care, access control and all aspects of ticketing and account management.
See Tickets' global client list includes well known event promoters, festivals and venues such as: Universal Music Group, Glastonbury Festival, S.J.M. Concerts, Houses of Parliament, Kew Gardens, Rock in Rio Lisboa, Professional Darts Corporation, The Queen Mary, English Heritage, Society of London Theatre, Louis Vuitton, Tomorrowland, Electric Zoo, and Boardmasters Festival.
In 2017, See Tickets launched "Fan to Fan", an ethical secondary ticket re-sale platform that allowed customers to only sell their tickets online via See at face value or less. [4] See Tickets was the first ticket agency to launch its own ethical ticketing platform. In 2019, See Tickets reported that ethical ticket sales through Fan to Fan were up 50% vs the same time in 2018. [5]
Again in 2017, See also launched "Fan Share" a peer to peer marketing system to allow customers to earn rewards from event organisers for assisting with the sale of tickets on-line. [6]
2019 saw See Tickets launch their new digital ticket service to combat the resale of tickets at an inflated price on the secondary market, which was used for new tours from Declan McKenna and Bombay Bicycle Club. The digital ticket features a dynamically refreshing barcode which is uniquely tied to a customer's user account, mobile device and See Tickets app. [7]
In 2020, See Tickets launched a contactless access control system as a way to provide clients with a safe way to manage event entry using a standalone scanning point. [8]
MP3.com was a website operated by Paramount Global publishing tabloid-style news items about digital music and artists, songs, services, and technologies. It is better known for its original incarnation as a legal, free music-sharing service, named after the popular music file format MP3, popular with independent musicians for promoting their work. That service was shut down on December 2, 2003, by CNET, which, after purchasing the domain name, established the current MP3.com site.
Ticketmaster Entertainment, LLC is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Entertainment.
Vivendi SE is a French mass-media holding company headquartered in Paris. It owns Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village, and Dailymotion, and is a majority owner of the Lagardère Group. The company has activities in television, film, video games, book publishing, print press, communication, tickets, and video hosting services.
Ticket resale is the act of reselling tickets for admission to events. Tickets are bought from licensed sellers and then sold for a price determined by the individual or company in possession of the tickets. Tickets sold through secondary sources may be sold for less or more than their face value depending on demand, which tends to vary as the event date approaches. When the supply of tickets for a given event available through authorized ticket sellers is depleted, the event is considered "sold out," generally increasing the market value for any tickets on offer through secondary sellers. Ticket resale is common in both sporting and musical events.
Stage Entertainment is an international operating live entertainment company, a subsidiary of Advance Publications. The company was founded in 1998 by Joop van den Ende in Amsterdam.
StubHub is an American ticket exchange and resale company. It provides services for buyers and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater, and other live entertainment events. By 2015, it was the world's largest ticket marketplace. While the company does not currently disclose its financials, in 2015 it had over 16 million unique visitors and nearly 10 million live events per month.
Viagogo, stylized by the company as viagogo, is a multinational ticket exchange and ticket resale brand. It is recorded in the United States (Delaware) and has been owned by StubHub since 2021. It was founded in London in 2006 by Eric Baker as an online marketplace for consumers to buy and sell tickets to sports, music, theatre and comedy events.
Mobile ticketing is the process whereby customers order, pay for, obtain, and validate tickets using mobile phones. A mobile ticket contains a verification unique to the holder's phone. Mobile tickets reduce the production and distribution costs associated with paper-based ticketing for operators by transferring the burden to the customer, who is required to contribute the cost of the physical device (smartphone) and internet access to the process. As a result of these prerequisites, and in contrast to paper-based systems, mobile ticketing does not follow the principles of universal design.
SeatGeek is a mobile-focused ticket platform that enables users to buy and sell tickets for live sports, concerts, and theater events. SeatGeek allows both mobile app and desktop users to browse events, view interactive color-coded seatmaps, complete purchases, and receive electronic or print tickets. Originally launched as an aggregator of listings on the secondary ticketing market, the company now operates as both a secondary marketplace and primary ticket outlet for sports teams and live event venues.
Cubic Corporation is an American multinational defense and public transportation equipment manufacturer. It operates two business segments: Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) and Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions (CMPS).
LiveStyle, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based live events conglomerate founded by media entrepreneur Robert F. X. Sillerman. The company was formed in June 2012 as SFX Entertainment—the new incarnation of Sillerman's previous company of the same name, which was sold to Clear Channel Communications in 2000 and later spun-off as Live Nation in 2005.
Microsoft Pay was a mobile payment and digital wallet service by Microsoft that allowed users to make payments and store loyalty cards on certain mobile devices, as well on PCs using the Microsoft Edge browser. Microsoft Pay does not require Microsoft Pay-specific contactless payment terminals, and supported existing contactless terminals if used on mobile devices. Similar to Android Pay, Microsoft Pay utilized host card emulation (HCE) for making in-store payments.
AXS is an American ticket outlet for sports and entertainment events, founded in 2011 and owned by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), the world's second largest entertainment promoter behind Live Nation Entertainment. AEG operate venues globally, as well as promote events under their AEG Presents banner, meaning these venues and promoted events typically use AXS as their primary ticket outlet.
Eventim UK is an events and ticket agent, based in London, England. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Europe's largest ticket retailer, CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA.
Music Glue is a specialist e-commerce platform for the music business which allows artists to sell physical and digital music, merchandise, and event tickets in multiple currencies and languages direct-to-fan. The company is headquartered in London, with offices in New York and Sydney.
Vendini, was established in 2001, as a ticket software for live events. The company was headquartered in San Francisco, United States and serves clients across North America.
Paytm is an Indian multinational financial technology company, that specializes in digital payments and financial services, based in Noida, India. Paytm was founded in 2010 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma under One97 Communications. The company offers mobile payment services to consumers and enables merchants to receive payments through QR code payment, Soundbox, Android-based-payment terminal, and online payment gateway. In partnership with financial institutions, Paytm also offers financial services such as microcredit and buy now, pay later to its consumers and merchants.
CTS Eventim is a German company in the leisure-events market, with ticketing and live entertainment, headquartered in Bremen. It is one of the 50 companies comprising the MDAX index.
Wealthsimple Inc. is a Canadian online investment management service. The firm was founded in September 2014 by Michael Katchen, Brett Huneycutt, Som Seif, and Rudy Adler and is based in Toronto. As of March 31, 2024, the firm holds over C$38.7 billion in assets under management. It is primarily owned by Power Corporation indirectly at 56.6% through investments made through their holdings in Power Financial, IGM Financial and Portag3.
Gametime is a mobile ticket marketplace app developed by San Francisco-based Gametime United Inc., which was founded by Brad Griffith in late 2012. The app was released for iOS in May 2013, with an Android version released in March 2014. In multiple funding rounds following the app's initial release, Gametime has raised a total of US$71.5 million from various investors. The app received an award from each SportsBusiness Daily and the Appy Awards in 2017, and Gametime United was named among the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. in various categories by Deloitte, Inc. and Accel Partners.