RazorGator Platform Targets Corporate Users

By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal
Posted date: 09/25/2006

Secondary ticketing company RazorGator this week plans to roll out a new online ticket management platform called TicketOS designed to deepen the operation's ties to corporate ticket purchasers.

RazorGator's TicketOS platform, which it plans to roll out this week, is designed to help companies track their use of tickets.

Several marketing firms have sought to develop systems in recent years that more efficiently track the use of corporate tickets as a means of measuring return on investment. RazorGator's system does that tracking and is built to link directly into its secondary ticketing operation, as well as its corporate travel business.

According to industry estimates, nearly 30 percent of all corporate-held tickets to sporting events go unused, with another 20 percent used nonstrategically, such as last-minute giveaways not tied to sales and marketing efforts.

"In the age of Sarbanes-Oxley [the federal rules aimed at improving corporate accounting], not having total tracking and measurement of ticket usage is simply not acceptable," said David Lord, chief executive of Los Angeles-based RazorGator.

Bank of America has signed as an initial client of the TicketOS system. Meanwhile, Sponsor Direct, a Tarrytown, N.Y. based firm that measures the effectiveness of sponsorship efforts, has signed a multiyear alliance with PrimeSport, RazorGator's corporate travel subsidiary, to offer TicketOS as a part of its existing SponsorPort software.

"We've been looking to add this ticket management element to our business," said Ken Brenner, Sponsor Direct president.