Sports magazine Sports Illustrated has announced the launch of Box Office, an NFT self-service event management and ticketing solution on the Polygon network. Launched in June 2021, SI Tickets is a fan-first ticketing site offering a secure ticketing marketplace.
Event owners, organizers and hosts can use this new platform to produce, oversee and advertise a live sports event, performance or function that can be paid or free.
NFT ticketing is tokenized tickets stored on a blockchain. They are digital assets that function as tickets issued by organizers to buyers. They serve as proof of ownership and verify the authenticity of a ticket.
By using NFT ticketing, event organizers can mint the number of tickets they need on their preferred blockchain. NFT ticketing also allows the organizers to input codes that can affect resales, secondary sales and use of the NFT.
The Box Office platform offers a comprehensive NFT ticketing solution for events of any scale and easy access to traditional non-NFT tickets. It also provides a convenient marketplace for purchasing tickets to major sports, music concerts and theatrical performances.
The service was developed in partnership with ConsenSys as their first product of the Box Office release. It provides users access to collectibles, exclusive offers, loyalty benefits and other features.
This revolutionary ticketing system allows hosts and attendees to engage with each other before, during and after events, creating new opportunities for interaction.
Introducing Box Office, the all-new event management platform from Sports Illustrated Tickets 🎟️
Create and sell tickets for your own free or paid event on our site. Partner with us for an easy event set-up and lower fees than our competitors. #sitickets #sportsillustrated pic.twitter.com/84ASQkZUYg
— SI Tickets (@si_tickets_) May 2, 2023
The role of blockchain technology in ticketing industry
The ticketing industry is poised for a technological revolution with the adoption of blockchain. This cutting-edge technology offers a unique, interactive ticketing experience that replaces traditional barcodes.
With blockchain, event organizers and attendees can enjoy a more advanced and personalized approach to ticketing, where the ticket itself becomes a captivating and collectible asset.
“From the moment we launched our global event marketplace, which now boasts 50 million tickets to over 250,000 sports, concerts, and shows, we have been preparing to enter and disrupt the primary ticket market,” SI Tickets CEO David Lane said.
Box Office provides a pricing scheme that can be as much as 50 percent cheaper than its competitors while allowing hosts and performers to receive a portion of the resale proceeds.
The platform also has more affordable fees than other event management platforms, such as TIXR, Eventbrite, TIXR and DICE. With zero hardware costs, organizers can get more revenue and pass the savings on to their attendees.
With every ticket that fans purchase, they can accumulate credits for any sports, concert or theater ticket offered on SITickets.com. But the current self-service event management platforms have not progressed quickly enough, as they only can display events and offer software to scan barcodes.
SI Tickets will offer access to various venues, including youth sports competitions such as football, basketball, hockey, cheerleading, dance, fashion shows and live music bars.
“It is thrilling to see disruptive web3 technology gaining traction through new use cases like NFT ticketing,” Johnna Powell, Global Co-head at ConsenSys NFT, said. “We believe the partnership with SI Tickets will make it easier for owners, promoters, and facilitators to create a fan experience that reaches previously unseen levels of engagement.”