A futures market on sporting event tickets

[woodguy]

I used the search function to no avail to find a thread about this site.

I thought I'd post it here, because most people here are smart and understand something like a futures market.

www.ticketreserve.com has created a futures market on sporting event tickets.

Roughly, here is how it works:

You are a Patriots fan and you think they will be in the AFC final and you want to see them play in the final.

You go to the site and you can purchase the right to purchase AFC final tickets at face value, if, and only if, the Patriots make it to the final.

Once you own this right to purchase tickets at face value, you can trade this right on the site. Should Brady blow his knee out, the price will go down, should Moss start getting 2 TDs and 150yrds/game, the price of the option will probably go up.

Patriots futures trade at a premium compared to Browns futures, etc.

A friend of mine told me about the site and I haven't explore this fully, but it looks interesting, and I think its one hell of a business idea, that could probably be knocked off fairly easily.

They seem to have all the major sporting events. I noticed that they use the NHL logo, but they also have a disclaimer that the NFL does not endorse the site.......

Regards,
Woodguy

[ne14dirt]

This is a very innovative project but with a limited market. I’m also not a fan of this sites layout. Here are some thoughts and questions that I had.

a.) You have to have some concept of what futures are to be a customer. I know that’s a blatantly obvious statement but I think even with a better set of step by step instructions it will be tough to build a solid customer base.
b.) It takes a fair amount of research to figure out how to navigate the site successfully. Again I think it should be more user friendly, if that’s even possible.
c.) The fee’s seem exorbitant to me. “For every trade of FanFORWARDs there is a 5 - 7% fee to the buyer and a 5 - 10% fee to the seller. There is a minimum $5 transaction fee. Transaction fees vary by event.”
d.) Due to a lack of understanding of futures it becomes very difficult to understand how the process works
e.) Does your option lose 100% of its value when your team fails to qualify for the event of your choice? I may be a little slow here but I guess if I understood futures better I would know that.
f.) Where are the tickets coming from? I understand that the customer has the option of buying the ticket at face value but from whom?


I want to say again that this is a very creative idea and that I do believe this model could be duplicated with success if the process was simplified to the point were a nit like myself could have a good feel for how the process works. I would also be interested if this model could be used for something other than tickets to sporting events. I can’t think of anything of the top of my head but I’m sure there are other applications outside of tradition futures and what these folks do.

[woodguy]

ne,

I agree with your assessment.

The site could be done much, much better than what they have.

I believe the owners of the site have guaranteed the tickets with the teams in question, and are sharing revenues, but not 100% on that.

My friend who heard about this site on the radio mentioned that the site owner, who was being interviewed, stated that they had the co-operation of the leagues and teams, but the odd disclaimer on the site has me thinking its more murky than that.

I think this is a good idea, that can be improved upon.

Regards,
Woodguy

[IggyWH]

This sounds like something that would be great to get into now when it's first starting. Then, as football season takes off and it grows in popularity... profit.