Ticketmaster and NFL sign secondary ticket sales deal

Ticketmaster has signed a deal with NFL to resell tickets to American football games in a bid to cash in on secondary sales. According to reports by AP, the multi-year deal, for an undisclosed sum, includes branding and advertising for the site, which will be linked from both the main Ticketmaster and NFL websites. The deal builds on existing agreements between Tickmaster and the NFL, and is due to launch for the 2008 American Football season.

"Fans expect and deserve to be able to resell their tickets in a safe, convenient and legal way," says Ticketmaster VP, Eric Korman. Currently Ticketmaster's TicketExchange resale platform is used by 18 of the 32 professional NFL teams, with a further four set to use the service in 2008. Ticketmaster already provides primary sales and season ticket sales for 31 NFL teams. The new platform will resell tickets for all NFL teams.

The move is an attempt for Ticketmaster to make a cut on second-hand ticket sales. In Oct, French online ticket company, Digitick, raised USD11.23m in funding, whilst UK-based event ticket marketplace, Viagogo raised USD30m in Series C funding in Aug. Meanwhile, in Jan Ebay bought online ticket exchange, Stubhub, for USD310m cash. Stubhub provides a forum for users to buy and sell tickets for sports and entertainment events, collecting 25% of the value of any ticket sold over its service. Ticketmaster claims to be one of the largest e-commerce sites on the internet, claiming to serve more than 9,000 clients worldwide. In 2006 the company claims to have sold more than 128m tickets valued at over USD7bn for its clients.