A-Rod’s Ticketing Startup Raises $20 Million to Take On Ticketmaster
The post A-Rod’s Ticketing Startup Raises $20 Million to Take On Ticketmaster appeared first on Consequence.
Apropos of nothing, baseball legend Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez and his business partner Marc Lore have started their own ticketing company called Jump. Fortune reports that the startup has recently raised $20 million, and we’re guessing that’s all coming from folks who hope to witness the takedown of Ticketmaster.
Rodriguez and Lore evidently got the idea to start Jump when they tried to buy the New York Mets in 2020. With a new perspective on the sports world’s business side, the pair decided they’d instead broaden their horizons with a ticketing platform that aims to “cater to fans in the weeks running up to a game, during a match, and in the weeks afterwards.”
But don’t get your hopes up for Taylor Swift tickets, because it looks like Rodriguez and Lore are marketing Jump as a sports-centered platform. It’ll include a feature Lore calls “dynamic ticketing,” which allows spectators to pay to move to a better seat during a game if one becomes available.
“As Alex and I began exploring ownership opportunities with sports teams, we spoke to industry execs and began seeing first-hand how many teams were missing the mark when it came to their fan experience,” Lore said in an email to Fortune. “We quickly realized that there were so many untapped opportunities to rethink the entire fan journey.”
We’re not sure yet how or if Jump will try to keep price gouging under control in the age of Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s near-monopoly. Criticisms of the companies, which merged in 2010, came to a head last January when the Senate held a hearing about Ticketmaster’s botched handling of Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour.”
The company was also the target of a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of “hundreds of thousands if not millions” of ticket buyers. However, it was thrown out in February after a federal appeals court ruled that the suit didn’t have legal standing because ticket buyers had waived their right to sue in the Terms of Use. Both the Justice Department and Tennessee’s Attorney General are still investigating the company for antitrust violations.
A-Rod’s Ticketing Startup Raises $20 Million to Take On Ticketmaster
Abby Jones
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