The Los Angeles Kings have partnered with ticketing company AXS to launch a secondary marketplace that will leverage mobile ID-based technology for increased security.
The deal, which makes AXS the exclusive primary and secondary ticketing partner of the NHL franchise, is designed to provide fans a more secure and streamlined resale market. The platform will enable fans to manage all buying and reselling of tickets directly from the Kings’ website and AXS app.
Fans will still be able to use other secondary ticketing services to make purchases, but the franchise is offering incentives to season ticket holders to use the official market. The Kings plan to initiate price floors to protect ticket values, for example, and have agreed to waive fees for season ticket members on preseason and October games at the STAPLES Center.
The AXS Marketplace will use “flash seats,” an ID-based digital tracking system, to tie specific people to individual tickets to reduce fraud and help the Kings better keep tabs on the people attending live events.
Both primary and secondary tickets will be accessible from the same marketplace, and purchased tickets will be delivered in mobile form, as opposed to paper tickets sent via mail or PDFs attached to emails.
SportTechie Takeaway
Ever on the hunt to reduce fraud and gather data about fans, teams from the NFL, NBA, and NHL have been entering into partnerships with third-party ticketing marketplaces to launch secondary exchanges of their own. The NFL expanded its partnership with Ticketmaster in October, which has led to the launch of several team-owned secondary exchanges, including one operated by the New England Patriots. Earlier this month, the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers announced a partnership with Vivid Seats and an integration with AXS to similarly launch a secondary exchange and incentivize season ticket holders.