It’s that time of year; Championship Week and then March Madness, when college basketball craziness embraces the nation. With that craziness comes the usual grab for high priced tickets, as fans look to follow their teams and grab last-second deals. Unfortunately for those schools, especially those who play the Cinderella role, the ability for fans to access affordable tickets is a bit of a crap shoot on the secondary marketplace.
Enter into that mix TickAssure!, a new platform developed by executives in the tech and insurance industry who also happen to be die-hard college sports fans. The platform is not a ticket reseller, it is more of a futures market for fans to pay a weighted one time price for any school or group of schools who may be headed to The Final Four. If your team or teams make it, TickAssure! Will pay you cash, up to $1,500 for you to go into the secondary marketplace and but tickets for the Final Four in Houston. If you hit your four choices, it only costs an amazing $13 or so, and there is no limit on the amount of entries a fan can make. The idea came from longtime Dallas businessman Todd Armstrong, who tried to see his beloved Auburn play in the BCS Championship game, and saw the price gauging that was going on. He understood the futures market, and saw an opportunity and that’s what TickAssure! Will offer full blown for this year’s NCAA Tournament.
We caught up with Todd to find out more about how it works, what it does, and who he has going to Reliant Stadium in April.
Something like this has been in the marketplace before, how has technology changed to make this different?
There are two primary differences in our model and those before us. One being that we are not the ticket source and allow our customers to use many of the top ticket sellers such as Stubhub, Vivid Seats etc and send us their receipt as proof of purchase for reimbursement. The other is that we do not underwrite the plans ourselves but rather divert that risk to our insurance underwriters. There are some technology differences as well that we developed to rank the teams, price the plans and more that are specific to our business model and the different approach that we are taking.
Other than being a fan and a businessman, what is your background in the space and where does the technology come from?
Although my background has been in technology it was in the business development and sports side of things and not directly in the ticketing or insurance space. I surrounded myself with founders and advisors who have helped me learn what I needed and have helped me leverage their experience, knowledge and networks in the areas I was lacking.
Do you have an estimate as to the number of users you will engage in the next year?
Our 12 month plan projects 5400 plans being sold. Since we are seeing most buy multiple plans we aim to have 2500 or so users in order to reach that goal.
Where is the revenue stream for TickAssure. is it just on the entries, is there advertising and promotion? How will this make money?
Our underwriters price each and every team for us regularly based upon our TickAssure Championship Index. This is a proprietary rating system that simulates every game remaining on a teams schedule 50,000 times. We take the team price from our underwriters and apply our gross profit %’s that are based on various pricing tiers. Our profit lies within that markup.
Is this a standalone service or could it connect to one of the major ticket companies as a value add?
Absolutely. We see us integrating with some of the major ticket companies as a value add and a way to remove the price sensitivity that exists with elite championship games with our core product lines.We also have a season ticket protection plan that we will white label with professional and college ticket offices that works like our championship game product but is designed to help teams both retain season ticket buyers, as well as, attract new ones.
How much of your business will be mobile and is the business structured for a mobile environment?
We see mobile being a major environment for us. We are currently working on our site being optimized for mobile devices but not sure yet if we will go down the app path.
On selection Sunday how will the platform work? Does the price go up and down?
Prices will move immediately upon the brackets being announced and will continue to fluctuate after each round. We will most likely stop selling plans after the Sweet 16 but before the Elite 8 as the prices for the remaining teams will get too high at that point.
How were you able to get backing from major insurance providers for this. How great is the rick in a year when you could have four top seeds advance to the Final Four?
Our underwriters have been amazing to work with. They believe heavily in what we are doing and have gone so far as to grant us exclusivity do give us ample time to build the company. They see a new revenue stream that didn’t exist before us that allows them to zero in on the sports ticketing space.
I am sure our actuaries are racking their brains this year with so many teams who have legit chances of advancing to the Final Four, especially since they are still learning to assess the risk and price the teams as we refine this model together.
Going into Selection Sunday, who are the schools you think will get the most interest?
The schools with a real chance who are in close proximity to Houston are getting a lot of interest. Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas etc. Also the schools who are traditionally not ranked this high but have a better than average chance such as Oregon, Iowa etc.
Do you have a Final Four prediction you can share?
Iowa, Villanova, North Carolina, Virginia