Interview: BroadwayWorld Partners with SeatGeek; Find Out How to Get Best Deals on Theatre Tickets!

BroadwayWorld is excited to announce our new ticketing partner, SeatGeek- the leading ticket search engine that enables fans to quickly and easily discover the best deals for sports, concerts, and most importantly for BroadwayWorld readers, theatre events. The company's interactive venue maps, Deal Score and recommendation algorithms provide fans with the buying intelligence needed to find the best prices from both box offices and trusted secondary ticket markets.

SeatGeek not only offers theatre-goers direct access to Telecharge, but rounds up hundreds of other sellers to present you with every ticketing option.

With the help of SeatGeek, you'll always get the best ticket at the best price. Below, SeatGeek's Adriel Saporta gives us the scoop on how the operation works and how it came to be, as well as the company's big plans for the future!

Let's start at the beginning... Tell me a little bit about the history of SeatGeek.

Sure! We were founded in 2009, and in 2012 launched our first mobile app, which is when we saw our company grow 10x. Obviously mobile is the future, especially in ticketing, and we put a strong emphasis on our mobile app.

How much of your traffic is from the mobile space?

Over 60% of our traffic comes from mobile. The average order value on SeatGeek is the same on mobile as it is on the desktop, and our conversion rates on mobile are higher than on desktop. We're a technology company at our core, and we're very proud of the strong user experience we offer ticket buyers on mobile.

And how did you first approach the theater world? Concerts and sports came first, correct?

That's right. Concerts and sports came first, but we really want to be the go-to platform for all live event entertainment. Obviously the performing arts are a huge part of that. I really believe that audiences today are culturally promiscuous. People who go to sports events are also going to concerts or seeing theater. In the arts, we began with Broadway, but we're really looking to expand to other genres as well, including ballet, opera, you name it!

And there is no difference in the experience or fees if someone purchases Telecharge through you guys?

SeatGeek never charges users any fees at all! The price you pay on SeatGeek will be the exact same price you would pay on the Telecharge site. The experience on SeatGeek will of course be different because we have a different mobile app and a different interface, but you are still purchasing directly from the box office. Telecharge still processes the transaction and fulfills the order. We just make it very easy to purchase that ticket on the go and I think that's a luxury that Broadway users haven't had up until this point. Buying a ticket on SeatGeek is truly as easy as ordering an Uber or liking an Instagram post.

So if somebody finds tickets through you and sees the logo as to where the source is... is the pricing always the same as if they click to buy it, versus trying to hunt down whatever the other website is?

Always! We never, ever tack on any fees for the user. We'll also never surprise you with fees at checkout: the price per ticket you see when selecting your ticket on SeatGeek is the all-in price, including fees, so you know the value you're getting.

And you deal with e-tickets as well? So if someone is standing outside the theater and buys a last minute ticket they can walk right in with their phones?

Yeah exactly! Some venues allow for mobile scanning and others don't, but for the venues that do allow mobile scanning, we absolutely offer e-tickets. You can pull up the ticket directly on the SeatGeek app and scan right into the venue. No more printing at home!

Excellent. And what if you want to buy tickets for somebody else? Like if I want to get my parents tickets to see a show. Is there a way to gift tickets or forward what comes in?

Yes, we're really excited about this! Users can use SeatGeek to transfer tickets to one another. If I buy four tickets for my friends so we can sit together, I can send each one of them their ticket. No more trying to find them in a crowd of people outside the theater! They can each scan right into the venue on their own, and we'll meet at our seats. What's also great about this is that now venues will know not only who is purchasing tickets, but also the non-ticket buyers who are attending the event - that data is very powerful. Going to live events is an inherently social experience, so mirroring that on the ticketing end felt very natural.

So are there social media hookups as well?

Yes, in several ways. Of course, you can sign into SeatGeek through Facebook, but also because of the ticket transfer functionality, users are able to see what events their friends are going to. Maybe you have a friend with really good taste - you'll want to see what show he or she is going to, so you can go, too! Again, live events are inherently social, so leveraging social media is very important to us and to venues and producers.

With hit shows like HAMILTON and others, it's great that users are able to see both what's available through Telecharge and if it's sold out - the secondary markets. How many sellers do you show tickets from?

We pull inventory from hundreds of different ticketing companies. So if a show is sold out, and there isn't primary inventory available, there will almost certainly be something there for you to purchase.

How does the protection work? How are people assured that their tickets are going to work when they get to the theater?

We take customer protection very, very seriously. We never deal with scalpers and only work with very trusted secondary marketplaces. We also have an incredibly robust and impressive customer service team, and in the very rare scenario something goes wrong at the venue, you will never hear from SeatGeek, "That's not our problem." We'll make it our problem, and we'll make sure buyers are more than compensated. And of course, if you purchase a box office ticket on SeatGeek, that will never be a problem anyway.

And we assume those are extremely rare when something like that happens?

Right. We also have a strong fraud-prevention system on top of everything.

So if you need to reach a human being you can do that day or night easily?

Definitely - you can send us an email or give us a call.

So it's a safer experience than going through a random StubHub or Craigslist or something like that...

Yes. Somebody at SeatGeek will always be held accountable, and if for whatever reason there's a problem, we'll make it our responsibility to fix it.

What has the reaction been like from the theater industry? From producers and owners?

Very positive! When people hear "mobile marketing channel," they expect "discount tickets" to come soon after that, and I think rights holders are incredibly happy to hear that SeatGeek is helping them sell primary inventory - we're just an extension of the box office. We have a massive user base of 8 million users, many of whom are sports and music fans that may not be the traditional theatergoer: we're bringing new and incremental audience members to the theater.

Most people in the industry are excited at the opportunity to leverage our technology to their advantage. There will always be demand for live entertainment, no matter how many digital on demand options there are. Live experience is irreplaceable. But that doesn't mean we in the performing arts can ignore technology: we have to use it to our advantage. And I think industry leaders see SeatGeek as one way to do that.

And if I'm producing a Broadway show, lets say I want to know how I can work directly with SeatGeek or how can SeatGeek help me with promotions or stuff on my website? What sort of offerings are there?

Sure! We really want to be seen as a platform that any ticketing company, venue or producer can plug right into. We have an open source API and welcome anyone who wants to integrate with us. Once the integration is done, SeatGeek is no added work for the venue. They'll never have to manage a second set of inventory or put side tickets for us or anything like that.

Right now in the theater world I guess the main official partnership is with Telecharge, but the hope is to eventually add those shows that are through Ticketmaster or other sellers?

Yes, that's right. We have a lot of very exciting integrations in the pipeline right now that will be announced soon. But this is certainly the beginning of an exciting journey in the performing arts for SeatGeek. We have a lot of room to grow and I'm looking forward to making that happen!

Since we are BroadwayWorld... what about tickets regionally or in London?

As you can imagine, New York is our biggest market, but we're spread out all across the States! Our focus is still in North America, but we're planning to expand to London in 2016. BroadwayWorld readers will be the first to know!

For more information on SeatGeek and their Broadway tickets, click here.