DISRUPTOR AWARD

TheTicketingBusiness Disruptor of the Year award will go to the new business set to disrupt – or that has already destabilised – the established ticketing order.

Disruptors share a common purpose: create businesses, products and services that are better — less expensive and more creative, useful and impactful — and scalable.

TheTicketingBusiness Awards are delighted to introduce our 2018 Disruptor Award finalists.

Voting is now closed. Thank you to the thousands of people who voted. Winners will be announced during the Awards ceremony at Emirates Old Trafford, 17 April.

GUTS Tickets (The Netherlands)

The Guaranteed Entrance Token (GET) Protocol, initiated by GUTS Tickets, is a smart ticketing protocol that facilitates the sale of tickets by issuing smart tickets to wallet addresses on the blockchain.

Their vision is that end-users do not need any technical knowledge in order to use the platform. With this in mind, GUTS has facilitated many events with its application over the last year and has actually sold thousands of real-world tickets in The Netherlands.

Together with great industry advisers, GUTS is ready to take the next step towards an honest and transparent ticketing industry using blockchain technology.

After a successful trial of its services at this year’s Here Comes The Summer festival in the Netherlands, GUTS co-founder Tom Roetgering commented that “the blockchain service can simplify ticketing and payments at events. As well as playing a role in the fight against scalping and fraud, blockchain can also revolutionise customer data tools”.

The trial was also backed by Innofest, whose head of communication Henk Rigter commented: “Their blockchain solution for ticketing, has the potential to change the way tickets for events are being sold.”

Website here

TTB News report

Ticketrunner (Germany)

As former event organisers, Ticketrunner want to revolutionise event marketing by helping maximise the potential of each event while enabling fans to get even closer to their favourite events.

Ticketrunner takes the hassle out of setting up your own peer to peer marketing campaign. It’s easy and customers can enjoy all the advantages of a strong brand ambassador programme. Ticketrunner were able to add roughly 20% more sales to their events while drastically increasing their reach.

Increase reach and sales by turning your most loyal fans into your ticket vendors. Create cool reward structures and show your ticket runners how much each ticket sold by them means to you.

Ticketrunner works with your existing ticketing provider and keeps track of every sale for you.

Trade with your ticket runners and earn valuable event marketing insights and build relationships with your fans while maintaining full control over your brand ambassador programme.

Website here

TTB News report

Upgraded Inc. (USA)

Upgraded’s “smart ticket” technology transforms the traditional ticket into a secure digital asset in the blockchain that is an order of magnitude more capable, connected, transferrable and trustworthy.

By modelling tickets as smart contracts on a private Ethereum blockchain, Upgraded gives ticket originators unprecedented control over and insight into the full chain of custody for every ticket sold.

These tickets work with existing entry systems while delivering digital encryption, enforceable sales and transfer restrictions, payment plans, stored value, loyalty data, and other dynamic elements that turn a ticket into a smart ticket.

Smart tickets are digitally encrypted, work with existing access control systems, and can be loaded with stored value. Fans can take delivery of, manage, and use their tickets in Upgraded’s beautiful, lightweight mobile web site or using a client’s native app or web site that consumes the SDK or REST APIs.

Website here

TTB news report

Ticketfrog (Switzerland)

Ticketfrog is a free of charge self-ticketing platform that “has the potential to disrupt the ticketing industry”. Ticketfrog is financed exclusively by vouchers on tickets, and does not impose any fees, credit card charges or fixed costs on event organisers or ticket vendors.

Ticketfrog makes it affordable for any kind of event to use a professional online ticketing service, including payment, mobile scanner, hall plan creator, integrated marketing tools and sales statistics.

Ticketfrog enjoyed a very successful launch of the disruptive self-ticketing platform in Switzerland with growth from 0 to 500 events per month and a monthly volume of 100,000 tickets sold over the platform.

Ticketfrog went on to win a number of different innovation awards as well as the Master of Swiss Web (the highest ranking web award in Switzerland).

Ticketfrog is still fast growing, adding more values and services for event organisers. The startup successfully earned investor money in several rounds so far adding to a volume of several million Swiss Francs.

Website Here

TTB News reports

TickX (UK)

TickX is the brainchild of co-founders Steve Pearce and Sam Coley. They developed the initial partnerships and the beta TickX service in their spare time whilst students. TickX officially launched in September 2015 with a £175k funding round and the backing of Ministry of Sound who at the time were the world’s largest independent record label.

After growing rapidly in the first year TickX secured a £750k round in November 2016 to rapidly expand across the UK and grow the team to 14. On the 1st January 2017 Steve and Sam appeared on BBC’s ‘Dragons’ Den’ getting offers from three dragons (Nick Jenkins, Peter Jones & Touker Suleyman). They turned these down believing (rightly now) that they had undervalued the company.

Throughout 2017 TickX continued to expand, growing their monthly active users to over 200,000 as well as launching internationally into Ireland and Spain and most recently expanding into visitor attractions.

The TickX platform now uniquely aggregates the leading B2C ticket agencies and a growing number of B2B ticketing platforms to provide consumers with unparalleled event discovery and ticket price comparison. The TickX solution has also developed a content rich web and mobile experience with in-house seating plans and view-from-a-seat.

Website Here

TTB News reports

TheTicketingBusiness Awards 2018 winners will be announced on 17 April at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, and are set to be the highlight of TheTicketingBusiness Forum 2018 – Europe’s biggest B2B ticketing meeting.

Tickets for the Forum are still available. Take a look at who is attending here.

Any questions about the Awards, please email awards@theticketingbusiness.com