Click It For Ticket
The National Hockey League figured out how to combat some issues with ticket resellers over the past decade, but the NBA is MIA.
Things are not great for the NBA.
They’ll tell you otherwise, claiming they had the 2nd-highest attendance in league history, but: let’s break it down. Some time during the pandemic, ticket resellers hit their nexus at the same time legalized sports betting swept over pro sports like a storm cloud in the US.
Business was moving fast, and yet the league couldn’t have predicted how great it would be. No longer was it just for the select few wise guys living near casinos; now legalized gambling was available to everyone at the touch of their fingertips. People not only participated at record rates gambling on games—they were making small prop bets on action during the game itself.
On average, the American who participated in sports gambling in 2023 spent $1,100 betting a few times per week. In turn, ticket resellers saw a sucker being born every minute and pounced. It must have figured that since the sports gambling industry had been making so much off the general public in 40 US states that legalized it, why not give ticket prices to NBA games a shot in the arm?
Why not take advantage of these people, buy up loads of tickets and jack service fees up to the hilt while people are in the mood to buy?
Ever heard of a bear market? Good times don’t last forever. In 2023, it certainly felt like it. Gambling revenue in the US hit a record-breaking mark of $65 billion, but what does one do in a bear market economy that plunges to $59 million in 2024? Sell, sell, sell!
Major sports podcasts would have discussed this topic ad nauseam, but that’s hard to do when they’re already in bed with betting sites. One thing that ticket resellers are very adept at, however, is using data mining at that moment to identify trends and either drop or surge prices at sporting events.
Sensing a need to rid themselves of their massive inventory, resellers started dropping ticket prices. Barry’s Tickets, a reseller, reported that the average price of a ticket to a game in the NBA was $118 in 2023-24, while D’Marquage, a French magazine, conducted a study and found the price of a ticket to be $94 in 2024-25, a whopping 24 percent decrease year-on-year.
Despite selling tickets at lower prices on average, most resellers charge consumers hidden fees, service fees that can range anywhere from five percent to as much as 40.
Complaints are abundant on apps such as Reddit against resellers like StubHub that often go unanswered. Others, such as TickPick, have more of a tendency to provide consumers reasonable prices and service fees.
The invention of Brett Goldberg and Chris O’Brien of the Lehigh University Class of 2007, the duo that launched TickPick used an algorithm to determine ticket prices at rock concerts and sporting events that was slightly different from all the others.
The so-called algorithm they employed? Dedicated one-to-one customer service on all apps: Reddit, Google, Twitter and TikTok. While other sites used automated systems to respond to consumers, TickPick’s was literally in real-time … and it delivered.
To find this out for myself, I went on Google. Finding negative information on there about the company is truly a yeoman’s effort, and even when it was displayed on the off-chance, I noticed it had been quickly resolved within hours. What’s also ironic is that TickPick is a relatively small company with about 50 employees on staff. [It’s also been taken private since 2018, as it has joined forces with a private equity firm.]
The result of that is that TickPick is able to sell a “get-in” price of $9 for a Memphis Grizzlies home play-in game.
TickPick is now trying to go legit, as it recently purchased the ticket seller Fanimal. This gives the New York-based company the ability to sell tickets directly to consumers at the point of sale at LaLiga (Spanish soccer) North America watch parties, concerts and other related events.
“This move marks a watershed moment for TickPick as we expand our reach and continue to deliver all-in pricing to eventgoers in both the secondary and primary markets,” said TickPick Co-CEO and Co-Founder Brett Goldberg in a press release in March. “This is the first of many strategic acquisitions and partnerships we’re looking to make following our latest funding round.”
It was probably perfect timing for TickPick to tuck tail — no pun intended — and go legit.
Even the Masters golf tournament that has ignored all the scalpers doing their thing outside Augusta’s businesses all these years is beginning to crack down, going after ticket resellers this past April.
While crackdowns are not new to sports teams particularly in the National Hockey League, organizations such as the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL announced it was investigating ticket resellers back in 2018. “Generally speaking, continually posting tickets for sale on non-authorized sites — clearly for profit — is grounds for cancellation,” said the Knights front office through a spokesperson to the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Even the Buffalo Sabres have required their season-ticket holders to purchase a state resellers license in 2024 in attempt to dismantle illegal scalping activity.
NBA teams, however, have been slow to catch up to pro hockey in the US and Canada. That could be due to the league’s long standing relationship with Ticketmaster, a primary and secondary broker—one it has had since 2007.
When you’re in bed with someone for that long, I suppose it’s hard to break up. «
Overthink This Photo 📸
When the head coach, or Jerrod Calhoun, decides not to pull a Danny Sprinkle and leave after one year at Utah State, good players follow. Calhoun has managed to hang onto just about all of his guys from last season including Mason Falslev, setting the stage for a possibly epic 2025-26 season. That become even more of a possibility when the Aggies signed not only juniors Texas A&M-Corpus Christi transfer Garry Clark and Utah transfer Zach Keller but MJ Collins of Vanderbilt and Kolby King of Butler. Keller comes to Logan having averaged three ponts per game. King scored six points, had four rebounds and dished out three assists. Collins averaged seven points an outing for Vandy.
Clark, however, led the Islanders with 15 points and eight rebounds per game, shooting 33 percent from three. It is not an understatement that Calhoun is pumped to have Clark at USU. “We are excited to welcome Garry to the Aggie family,” Calhoun said. “Garry brings a winning pedigree to Utah State, something we greatly value in the recruiting process. His ability to play multiple positions from the forward spot will give our frontcourt a major boost. His physicality and his ability to score and rebound will help him make an immediate impact in the Mountain West.”
» BOOK ‘EM, BRIAN RETURNS!
Today’s book: KNUCKLER, by Tim Wakefield with Tony Massarotti
In baseball, the most known pitchers, at least in popular culture, throw “gas.” Fastballs. However you look at the position of pitcher, that statement may not necessarily be accurate. The art of the knuckleball pitch has long extended the careers of Major League Baseball players who may not have many throws left in their toolbag.
Either they’ve overextended the lives of their arms, requiring Tommy John surgery to repair torn or overstetched tendons on their moneymakers, or they’ve run out of ideas on how to get that next out and need a lifeline.
For Tim Wakefield, Boston Red Sox legend, as well as Cyprus High School’s own Scott Eyre, “the risks [of throwing a knuckler] are enormous, and the rewards potentially great.” For Eyre, a Utah All-State pitcher for the Pirates—and athletics class teammate wearing his trademark eyeglasses in soccer (my sport) and flag football (neither of ours but it was fun) in ‘89 when I was a sophomore, IYKYK—and then as Scotty moved on to the College of Southern Idaho, both Wakefield and he at different parts of the journey eventually started learning the art of the knuckler.
Wakefield’s knowledge and mastery of the pitch turned his Major League Baseball journey into a 16-year career, while Eyre enjoyed 13 years in the bigs before retiring. I highly recommend this book. It’s a fun glance into how the other and very unique half of MLB lives, and lives on. «
#WhatAreWeDOING?!?
» This one might be up for WAWD Of The Year. Some guy at DenverSports.com says that Shedeur Sanders is “the best quarterback in the history of the [Colorado football] program.”
This one is nuts. A female accuser contending Shannon Sharpe r*ped her has released audio of him allegedly threatening to “choke the s***” out of her.
Thanks for reading; be safe and be well. I’ll see ya next time. «