SeatGeek is trying to change the way that you purchase sports and concert tickets on the secondary market akin to the way that Bing Travel does at the moment. If you know that the price is going to drop for Metallica tickets in a week (tip: Metallica tickets [editor's note: that's read "REM tickets"] are worth their weight in gold), you can check and see if you can save a few bucks.
It worked for Farecast, remember them? You probably know them as Bing Travel. Do we here a call for an exit?
The website works with websites such as StubHub, Craigslist, and the like to find you deals. Let’s say that you were trying to shop for tickets to the Red Sox-Yankees game, but are unsure about what the price is going to do. SeatGeek will chart you an expected future price for tickets, up until when the event happens.
SeatGeek pulls in ticket prices in real time, analyzes the information, and then provides you with relevant charts and pictures that explains what is going to happen. When you take into account buying a pack of six tickets for you and some friends, saving $100 per ticket is going to make change in your pocket book.
Can the service be trusted? That remains to be seen, but they do claim to have a group on “PhD’s” on staff that are constantly honing the system. They have 70+% accuracy at the moment, but are improving it to avoid false positives.
The average transaction runs around $500 for tickets, and the company takes around a 7% cut on the tickets. Even in just private alpha, the company is already profitable.
The service also will later be offering SeatGeek Pro to work with season ticket holders, and later SeatGeek insurance to hedge your bets just in case SeatGeek is wrong.
