StubHub is an American ticket exchange and resale company. It provides services for buyers and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater, and other live entertainment events. By 2015, it was the world's largest ticket marketplace. While the company does not currently disclose its financials, in 2015 it had over 16 million unique visitors and nearly 10 million live events per month.
StubHub was founded in 2000 by Eric Baker and Jeff Fluhr. The company was acquired by eBay for $310 million in 2007, and again acquired in 2020 by Viagogo.
History
2000–2007
StubHub was founded in March 2000 as a class project by Eric Baker and Jeff Fluhr, both former Stanford Business School students and investment bankers. One of its first major sports deals was with the Seattle Mariners in 2001. In 2002, eBay was in talks to acquire StubHub for US$20 million, although the agreement had later "fallen apart over price." While StubHub initially intended to "build a ticket transaction system that [Fluhr] could sell to other online portals and providers", in 2003, the company began placing Google ads for the actual StubHub website instead, directly facilitating ticket sales from sellers to buyers. After having a falling out with Fluhr in 2005, Baker left the company, retaining 10% ownership.
In 2005, the company raised between $10 million and $25 million from Pequot Ventures (now FirstMark Capital). That year, the company generated $50 million in revenue, was cash flow positive. and generated over $200 million in sales.
In 2006, StubHub became involved in several disputes over the resale of season sports tickets in New England, involving the New England Patriots and New York Yankees. In the U.S., 38 states had laws allowing the reselling of event tickets as long as the sale did not take place at the event site. The other 12 states had varying degrees of regulation, including registration requirements and maximum markups. StubHub, Ticketmaster, TicketNetwork, and others began to lobby state legislatures to repeal or modify the stricter anti-scalping laws. In Florida, StubHub made over $6,500 in campaign donations to members of the state legislature in support of a 2006 bill to amend Florida's 61-year-old anti-scalping laws. Many consumers, as well as lobbyists for the leisure and entertainment industries were opposed to the bill, and claimed it would drive up prices for consumers while hurting their share of the ticket market. The bill's sponsor argued its passage would modernize the state's ticketing industry. The bill passed in June 2006, resulting in 35 states having no restrictions on ticket resale.
In 2006, Inc. ranked StubHub as the eighth fastest growing private company in America on its annual "Inc. 500" list.
StubHub's acquisition by eBay was announced in January 2007 for a reported $310 million; the company went public under eBay. According to CNN Money, 2007 was a very successful year for the company, handling five million individual transactions, more than in the previous six years combined of its history. Staffing at StubHub had increased to 350 workers by the time of the sale. Following the acquisition, Fluhr left the company, and Chris Tsakalakis became the CEO.
2008–2013
By 2008, StubHub had become a $5 billion-a-year business. That same year, the company announced that music-related sales had seen the biggest growth and that music had become a "priority". By 2008 it had become a $5 billion a year business. It had 2.1 million visitors per month, generating over $100 million in sales annually. In 2009, Tsakalakis announced that transactions on StubHub had climbed 65% from the previous year, and revenue had increased by 40%. By 2009, StubHub was the largest secondary-market ticket reseller in the United States. However, in April 2009, StubHub reported that the price of second round Masters badges had declined by 43% from $1,073 in 2008 to $612 in 2009.