CEO of Calgary\u2019s Showpass says monopoly ruling means new opportunities for competitors, venues, and fans.<\/p>\n
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Lucas McCarthy respects the hustle it took to turn Live Nation<\/a> and Ticketmaster<\/a> into globally dominant, household names. Still, the Showpass CEO can\u2019t help but crack a smile at the outcome of the live entertainment behemoth\u2019s antitrust suit earlier this month.<\/p>\n On April 15, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) delivered a landmark verdict in an antitrust case that was brought against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, after the company\u2019s 2010 merger with Live Nation. The courts found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which manage more than 400 musical artists, own more than 265 concert venues in North America, and control roughly 80 percent of major venue ticketing<\/a>, were operating as an illegal monopoly over large entertainment venues, stifling competition and overcharging fans.<\/p>\n \u201cDo I respect the hell out of what Live Nation and Ticketmaster have built? \u2026 You can\u2019t knock that kind of ambition and competitive prowess. But in the same breath, I\u2019m also the one who\u2019s had creative challenges as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n Lucas McCarthy, McCarthy founded Canada\u2019s largest competitor to Ticketmaster, the Calgary-based Showpass<\/a>, in 2014. Today, Showpass hovers at around 100 employees and has found success despite competing with its much larger, US-based rival. The company has made its bones on mid-sized events and volume sales, selling around 20 million tickets in Canada and processing \u201cseveral hundreds of millions\u201d in transactional volume each year, according to spokesperson Katelyn Marchyshyn. At that number, the company is profitable, having not raised equity since 2019, according to Marchyshyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite its financial and market success, McCarthy admits he would be lying if he said Live Nation Entertainment\u2019s dominance\u2014particularly around exclusivity agreements\u2014hasn\u2019t had an impact on his business and others like it.<\/p>\n \u201cDo I respect the hell out of what Live Nation and Ticketmaster have built? \u2026 You can\u2019t knock that kind of ambition and competitive prowess,\u201d McCarthy told BetaKit. \u201cBut in the same breath, I\u2019m also the one who\u2019s had creative challenges as a result. Do I reap the benefits of this and get a little excited about the opportunities that may exist for consumers and for us? Yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n The consequences for Live Nation Entertainment of the court decision could take months to play out, but potential outcomes include a slew of financial penalties, structural changes to how the company operates, and, of course, the nuclear option: divestiture of Ticketmaster from Live Nation.<\/p>\n Live Nation Entertainment has stated<\/a> it intends to appeal the decision.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For McCarthy and Showpass, the prospect of structural changes like the end of Live Nation\u2019s contentious exclusivity agreements\u2014contracts that required venues to sign long-term agreements with Live Nation on things like ticket sales, concert promotion, and venue selection\u2014is among the most exciting potential outcomes of the verdict.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t go into some arenas,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the bigger challenges for us, and that\u2019s made us who we are \u2026 But the ability to have the opportunity to extend our presence into the upper market? That gets me incredibly excited.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED: Event ticketing startup Showpass acquires Token Mobile Solutions<\/a><\/p>\n Beyond those ambitions, McCarthy sees some big potential upsides for live entertainment consumers, the first being the ramifications on the secondary ticketing market.<\/p>\n \u201cThe primary outcome that Canadians and Americans can jointly celebrate is some type of oversight and restriction in the secondary market,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cThat is probably the most unfair side of this industry \u2026 If that came out of this equation, I think everyone would benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n A separate lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently making its way through the US judicial system. That filing alleges<\/a> that under current operating tactics, Live Nation deceptively allows \u201cbrokers\u201d (sometimes called scalpers) to \u201charvest\u201d large amounts of tickets and resell them on Live Nation\u2019s resale markets, driving up ticket prices.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the other outcome McCarthy thinks could be seismic for the industry: divestiture. McCarthy believes the live entertainment space on both sides of the border has suffered from stagnant innovation in the face of Live Nation\u2019s market preeminence. If the company were to be broken up, he sees a future where increased competition could spur a swath of changes in the space.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat ends up happening is that capital becomes available because the ceiling is removed. The market becomes bigger, more attractive, and innovation starts to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the thing: when there are better, more innovative competitors, it keeps us sharp, and it keeps the industry moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n BetaKit\u2019s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF<\/a>, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.<\/p>\n Feature image courtesy Unsplash<\/a>. Photo by Yvett<\/a>e<\/a> de Wit<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CEO of Calgary\u2019s Showpass says monopoly ruling means new opportunities for competitors, venues, and fans.
Lucas McCarthy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[164,51,17,7071,7073,526,3783,7070,7072],"class_list":{"0":"post-12963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-live-nation-entertainment","12":"tag-lucas-mccarthy","13":"tag-prairies","14":"tag-retail","15":"tag-showpass","16":"tag-ticketmaster"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Showpass<\/p>\n