Vivid Seats Inc. is an American

ticket exchange A ticket exchange, also known as a secondary ticket outlet, is a market where tickets are bought and sold. Ticket exchanges allow people to buy and sell tickets online. Typically, ticket exchanges are used by individuals wanting to buy or resell tic ...

and

resale A reseller is a company or individual (merchant) that purchases goods or services with the intention of selling them rather than consuming or using them. This is usually done for profit (but can be done at a loss). One example can be found in the ...

company. The company went public on October 19, 2021 after a merger earlier in that year with Horizon Acquisition Corporation, a SPAC. It trades on the

NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the List of stock exchanges, world's largest s ...

and

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

as SEAT. In 2017, it was reported to have a turnover of $1 billion and to be the third-largest online ticket reseller.

History

Vivid Seats was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 2001 by Jerry Bednyak and Eric Vassilatos. Vivid Seats has been invested in by two private equity companies,

Vista Equity Partners Vista Equity Partners is an American investment firm focused on financing and forwarding software, data, and technology-enabled startup businesses. Vista has invested in hundreds of companies, including Misys, Ping Identity, and Marketo. The ...

in 2016 and

GTCR GTCR LLC is a Chicago, Illinois-based private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout, leveraged recapitalization, growth capital and rollup transactions. The firm principally invests in high-growth industries, including financial services & tec ...

in 2017. GTCR bought a majority stake for $575 million. Vivid Seats is a member of the

Internet Association The Internet Association (IA) was an American lobbying group based in Washington, D.C., which represented companies involved in the Internet. It was founded in 2012 by Michael Beckerman and several companies, including Google, Amazon, eBay, and F ...

, which advocates for

net neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...

. The company went public on October 19, 2021 after a merger earlier in 2021 with Horizon Acquisition Corporation, a SPAC. It trades on the NYSE and Nasdaq as SEAT. Todd Boehly is chairman of Horizon Acquisitions Corporation, which announced that “Eldridge Industries, LLC (“Eldridge”), an affiliate of Horizon’s sponsor, Horizon Sponsor, LLC, has entered into an agreement with DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) to make a private placement PIPE investment in connection with the closing of the previously announced merger between Horizon and Vivid Seats.”

Operations

Vivid Seats is a middleman between ticket buyers and sellers, taking a 10% commission once tickets have soldFrequently Asked Questions Vivid Seats
Retrieved 16 May 2017. and additionally charging buyers service fees (circa 20 to 40%) and shipping charges.

Partnerships

In February 2017,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

made Vivid Seats its official ticket provider, replacing

StubHub 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. It is the world's largest ticket marketplace. While the compa ...

. In April 2017,

Time Inc. Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...

made Vivid Seats the official ticket provider for

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

. Also in 2017, Vivid Seats entered into partnerships with the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

, the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

, and the

Preakness Stakes The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () on ...

. It has existing partnerships with entities such as the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

and

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. In August 2018, Vivid Seats was named the official ticketing partner of the

Los Angeles Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...

of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

Expansion

In 2014, Vivid Seats moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago's West Loop while also retaining office space for its operations team nearby to accommodate new employees, 100 having been hired in the last year. In April 2019, Vivid Seats acquired Toronto-based software company Fanxchange.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.vividseats.com 2001 establishments in Illinois Companies based in Chicago Companies listed on the Nasdaq Ticket sales companies