Entertainment sector rushes for .tickets web domain names

With the explosion of online ticket sales for entertainment and sporting events and in the travel world, it’s not surprising that some of the major brands in the world have snapped up .tickets (dot tickets) web domain names.

Among these have been U2, Apple, Ticketmaster, Google, eBay, Sky, Emirates airlines, and sports teams as Manchester United, Real Madrid Football Club, Paris St Germain, Major League Baseball and Formula One Group.

Grabbing names as concert.tickets, train.tickets and theatre.tickets allows these brands to “own” an entire global ticketing network.

Last year, London-based web domain start-up Accent Media won the right to operate the new Internet domain dedicated to the sale of tickets following an extensive three-year bidding process and a private auction involving five bidders.

These rights officially go on sale on September 14. But some brands already scooped them up in a ‘sunrise’ pre-marketing period. This was introduced to major brands so that opportunistic domain buyers would not get there first and then sell it them for inflated prices, Accent explained.

Steve Machin, former VP of Ticketmaster and Live Nation and now Accent’s co-CEO, said: “The substantial demand for .tickets domains is an early indication that leading brands are ready to capitalise upon this vision for the future of ticketing.”

It said that the domain names enable brands and rights-holders to easily protect and develop their assets, while helping customers feel safer when buying tickets.

In Australia, revenue from online event ticketing sales was set at $163.2 million last year, according to IbisWorld. In the previous five years it grew at an estimated 7.8% rate a year.

Competition in the online event ticket sales industry has been increasing over the past five years. Lower technology costs enabled several venues to vertically integrate their operations with online ticket sales platforms.