Wayne Kimmel Featured in the New York Times “DealBook”
Hot Take: Sports teams should sell tickets on the blockchain
Our weekly series “Hot Take” explores out-of-the-box ideas.
John Wu, the president of the Andreessen Horowitz-funded Ava Labs, thinks event ticketing is “filled with middlemen, hidden fees and fraud,” as well as “scalping, bots and resale pricing,” he said. Part of the problem is a lack of viable alternatives: Sports leagues and teams typically don’t have the infrastructure to securely sell tickets on their own, so they rely on intermediaries.
Wu’s solution? A blockchain platform that would allow leagues and entertainment companies to sell digital, verifiable tickets directly to fans. Ava Labs, in conjunction with the rewards platform Uptop, is already working with the Detroit Pistons and the Cleveland Cavaliers to put loyalty programs on the blockchain. But Wu’s ultimate vision is to also handle ticketing for teams. Start-ups like Chiliz are pitching similar ideas. “Blockchain brings transparency, control and accountability into the process,” Wu told Calum Marsh, a DealBook contributor.
How it would work: A digital ledger could prevent — or at least discourage — scalping, because it would trace the sale history and price of a ticket. Attributed as tokens, the tickets would be stored on the blockchain, providing an added layer of security.
Wu said his goal was to eventually make such blockchain ticketing tech more user-friendly. “People shouldn’t have to understand blockchain to benefit from it,” he said.
Is it feasible? DealBook asked Wayne Kimmel, a sports tech venture capitalist and a managing partner at SeventySix Capital. He liked the idea: “The pressure is growing from fans and creators alike to deliver better value, reduce fraud and build deeper connections,” he said. (SeventySix Capital is an investor in ZATAP, which embeds tickets through QR codes into merchandise like shirts and scarves.)
But Wu doesn’t think the road to blockchain ticketing will be easy, mostly because established ticket platforms are so prevalent. “Large incumbents like Ticketmaster still control massive distribution,” he said, “and that won’t go away overnight.”
Source: https://nyti.ms/459QxwI
