ESPN chooses Vivid Seats as new official ticket provider
Sports powerhouse ESPN is partnering up with Vivid Seats, an online ticket marketplace. Through their relationship, Vivid Seats’ branding, links and promotions will be on ESPN’s platforms. This partnership breaks away from the relationship that ESPN and eBay’s StubHub had for all online ticket resales since 2007.
ESPN chooses Vivid Seats as new official ticket provider / Courtesy of Vivid Seats via Facebook
"Vivid Seats' dedication and prioritization to serve sports fans fits well with ESPN's long-standing mission," said Eric Johnson, executive vice president, global advertising revenue and sales operations, ESPN, in a statement. "This deal represents a true collaboration in which both sides have agreed to regularly share key metrics in an effort to collectively learn, make adjustments if necessary and ultimately maximize performance."
ESPN joins the Big Ten Conference, Notre Dame, the Pac-12 Conference, Fox Sports, CSN Chicago and more in Vivid Seat’s portfolio of partners. In 2016, Vivid Seats was rated as the No. 3 online secondary ticket market, behind StubHub and Ticketmaster, according to Moody's.
"At Vivid Seats, we are laser-focused on providing a best-in-class experience for our customers," said Eric Vassilatos, co-founder of Chicago-based Vivid Seats, in a statement. "We are excited to work with ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, to broaden our reach and directly offer their more than 110 million monthly visitors a safe and easy way to buy tickets to a wide range of sporting events."
ESPN’s digital platform bring 110 million unique users per month. According to comScore, ESPN accounts for 29 percent of all sports usage across digital platforms.