Norway-based TicketCo, the first comprehensive, hybrid event ticketing, payment and live-streaming platform for venues, is officially launching in the United States. Bringing a comprehensive solution to venues that boosts access to audiences, greatly simplifies all sales tracking, and increases opportunities to generate more revenue, TicketCo expects to challenge many established competitors. It has experienced great success in Europe since its 2013 founding.
With the event industry all across the globe entering another devastating wave of the pandemic, TicketCo will focus its U.S. launch on TicketCo Media Services – the world’s only pay-per-view (PPV), live streaming and video-on-demand (VOD) solution tailor-made for and fully integrated with an omnichannel, event-payments platform.
"TicketCo Media Services enabled many leading UK organizers to bring in much-needed PPV and VOD revenue last winter and will be a huge asset to American organizers this winter,” explained TicketCo CEO and Co-founder Kaare Bottolfsen. “Every organizer is still threatened by the pandemic. We see a huge opportunity to help them build audiences and revenue with in-person, hybrid, and fully virtual events via TicketCo’s platform.”
EVENT VETERAN LEADING NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS
TicketCo North American operations will be led by Lauren Pye, a former VP of sales and marketing at Ticketmaster (a division of Live Nation). She will serve as TicketCo’s VP of sales in the company’s new U.S. headquarters in San Francisco. She has also successfully launched other ticketing and event-support start-ups.
"TicketCo is exactly what this industry needs and hasn't been offered yet. Not one company I've seen offers ticketing and live stream/VOD, seamlessly built into one platform," Pye shared. "I expect we'll repeat and build on the success the company has had in Europe as a disruptor."
“TicketCo's Media Services democratize organizers’ ability to monetize their content. Regardless of size, any organizer can easily and inexpensively set up and then offer their audiences professional, pay-per-view, live streaming within hours. This is especially valuable considering streaming can help to replace lost, in-person patrons during this unpredictable pandemic,” she added.
“Lauren's great track record growing companies in the ticketing and music industries, deep knowledge of this marketplace, and understanding of venues’ needs will surely accelerate adoption of our solutions in this crowded space,'' Bottolfsen commented. “Like TicketCo, Lauren's a strong champion for organizers and venues."
TicketCo's FIRST NORTH AMERICAN CLIENT
The newly created North American Rugby League, with teams from the U.S. and Canada, signed up as TicketCo’s first NA client. "TicketCo is exactly the organizer-focused, all-in-one solution NA Rugby and our teams need to easily sell and engage with our growing fan base," stated CEO Robert Curtis.
U.S. FOCUS & GROWTH
TicketCo's primary focus will be supporting organizers, artists, teams and venues in the arts & culture verticals, which include: theaters, clubs, concerts, festivals and sports. Its secondary focus will be identifying and building relevant partnerships with venue-support services to bring TicketCo to their customers or build integrations within each other's technology. TicketCo will be looking to grow its North American team quickly, with immediate plans to add business development and partnership professionals to the team, followed by filling additional operations and marketing positions.
