Sports Illustrated launched Polygon-based NFT ticketing platform Box Office today. The move marks the legendary sports brand’s entry into primary ticket sales and SI Tickets’ secondary marketplace in 2021.
Box Office is now a part of SI Tickets, an online marketplace that resells tickets to famous athletic, musical, and theatrical events. Box Office accepts ticket listings for smaller community events like Eventbrite and DICE instead of the biggest sports and music events.
“We’re not here to compete against Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, or AXS. We’re going after the self-service event market,” says SI Tickets CEO David Lane.
“We’re trying to create the first mass-market adoption of NFT ticketing,” he continued, “so that everyone from a 15-year-old to a 90-year-old can buy their first NFT ticket without having to go through a crypto tutorial on blockchain, or have to get a wallet and understand any aspects of it.”
Ethereum software studio ConsenSys produced Box Office.
The SI Tickets mobile app lets event organizers add photo and video highlights, mementos, personalized messages, promotional offers, and loyalty rewards to Box Office’s NFT tickets to engage fans.
Box Office will list free and paid tickets from music venues, nightclubs, business conferences, private parties, fitness and yoga studios, comedy clubs, religious retreats, and charity organizers, as well as youth sports.
“As the global economy continues to recover from the pandemic, we expect that live events, concerts, and sporting events will regain their pre-pandemic popularity,” said Johnna Powell, global co-head of ConsenSys NFT. “The combination of these factors suggests that consumer demand for NFT event ticketing will increase in the coming years.”
SI’s Box Office has a 20% lower fee structure than Eventbrite, and fans can sell their NFT tickets on NFT marketplaces like Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, and Stubhub.
Sports Illustrated monitors Box Office transactions on-chain to provide event promoters and performers a 50-50 income share on resales.
“You always get paid when your ticket sells, but you don’t participate in the resale of that on the secondary market—but that’s what changes here,” Lane said.
“We’re splitting 50-50 with our partners. They’re gonna get 50% of the resale revenue,” he added. “For the events that have resale value, this is one of the great advantages of NFT ticketing. That’s why I really do believe that this will become the standard as we go forward.”
Box Office users who buy tickets to any of SI Tickets’ 250,000 major events, which will appear on the same app as Box Office events, will receive a $10 incentive.
“Your event is going to be listed on our site next to the biggest sports, concerts, and theater events in the area,” Lane said. “[Organizers] are no longer relegated to a hyperlocal Eventbrite-type of landing page. You’re literally alongside Taylor Swift, Billy Joel, and the Knicks. It gives great visibility to any event that wants to partner with us.”
Since 2021, the NFL has provided virtual commemorative NFT ticket receipts on Ticketmaster to fans who purchased traditional game tickets, and MLB’s partnership with Candy Digital includes commemorative NFT tickets. In March, Ticketmaster introduced an Ethereum NFT token-gating feature, allowing artists to give NFT-holding supporters early access to tickets.
“[Box Office] is really about mass adoption of NFT ticketing—not novelty, niche, limited quantity drops,” Lane said. “This is something that everybody can use. It’s applicable to every type of event. We expect this is going to be the entry point for millions to be able to enter blockchain and get their first NFT ticket.”
Content Source: decrypt.co
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