Sports Illustrated Launches NFT Ticketing Platform

Ticketing has been top-of-mind for NFT advocates since the earliest stages of NFT evolution. The fit is natural: ticketing has long been dominated by a high-fee, rigid industry that has lacked innovation for a long time. Furthermore, regardless of the lack of innovation throughout the industry, ticketing often just feels like a hand-in-glove fit for NFT solutions; at it’s core, ticketing is generally seen as a straightforward peer-to-peer transaction between typically two trustless parties – right in the wheelhouse of what NFTs can potentially optimise. While Binance and Socios focus on tokenising sports, Sports Illustrated has shifted towards ticketing.

According to the announcement posted on May 2, Sports Illustrated's ticketing subsidiary SI Tickets together with ConsenSys launched the "Box Office" platform, a self-service event management and primary ticketing solution powered by the Polygon blockchain. David Lane, SI Tickets' CEO, said in a press release that the goal of the marketplace from the outset was to "disrupt the primary ticket market.”

The platform allows event managers, promoters and other entities to create and sell tickets for their own free or paid live sporting events on the SI Tickets website. It also offers a unique feature called Super Ticket, a collectible ticket that gives holders access to exclusive benefits and content before, during and after the events. For example, Super Ticket holders can enter the venue early, get discounts on drinks, and watch video highlights after the event.

SI Tickets was launched in the summer 2021 and has grown to over $2.5 billion in marketplace inventory. The platform claims to charge zero transaction fees on any purchase and guarantees a 100% refund if an event is canceled for any reason. Box Office said it would charge $1.40 and 3% commission per ticket plus 3% merchant pass-through fees for event organisers.

In addition to SI and Polygon, Algorand also offers ticketing technology we wrote about recently. An Argentine low-cost airline Flybondi integrated Web3 into its electronic ticketing process as an NFT. This integration is called Ticket 3.0 and is an extension of the existing relationship with NFT ticketing company TravelX. This technology, developed on Algorand‘s blockchain, allows passengers to change their name, transfer or sell their “NFTickets” independently. We continue to observe!