Overview
Rival set out to give sports teams and venues a new ticketing platform. Former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard and technology executive Ryan Lissack built a system intended to connect ticket sales, entry, and customer data. The Los Angeles startup attracted venture backing and signed a major sports customer, but its first transition ran into data migration problems.[1] [2]
Ticketmaster bought Rival in 2020. Sports Business Journal reported that the deal included Rival's technology, staff, and contract with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE). It also reported that Rival never sold a ticket. The deal price and the eventual use of Rival's technology are not established by the reviewed sources.[2] [3]
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Founding Story
Hubbard had led Ticketmaster before working at Twitter on commerce and media. Lissack had been chief technology officer at Maker Studios and worked at Salesforce. Their investors saw a chance to rebuild the tools behind live events using the founders' mix of ticketing and technology experience. #Angels, whose members had worked with Hubbard at Twitter, announced an investment in May 2018.[4] [5]
Rival's premise was that teams needed a better view of who actually occupied their seats. The platform would support ticket distribution and identity-based entry, then connect that information to commerce and venue operations. Hubbard told Sports Business Journal in 2018, “What we are attempting is a whole new platform for live events.”[1]
Timeline
- 2018: Rival emerged publicly with plans for a venue-facing ticketing system and more than $30 million in disclosed startup funding.[1]
- 2019: KSE's Altitude Tickets attempted a transition from AXS to Rival. Migration issues led KSE to bring in Ticketmaster for temporary support.[2]
- 2020: Ticketmaster acquired Rival. KSE later extended its Ticketmaster agreement to a multiyear deal.[2] [3]
What They Built
Rival was designed as software for teams and venues, not primarily as a consumer destination. An operator could sell ticket inventory on its own site and through selected partners. The system aimed to track ticket ownership across primary sales and resale, giving the venue clearer information about the people entering its building.[1]
The 2018 description also included plans for facial recognition at entry and seat views using drone footage. These were described as features of the proposed system; the sources do not establish how broadly they shipped or were used. Rival intended to make money through software licensing and a small share of transaction value.[1]
Market Position
Target Customers
The direct customers were teams and venue operators. Fans would encounter the service through a team's own sales channels or partners. This meant Rival needed to win organizations that controlled ticket inventory, then perform a transition without interrupting those organizations' sales and entry operations.[1]
Market Size
The sources reviewed do not provide a reliable market-size estimate for the specific venue software Rival proposed. The value of tickets sold is not the same as revenue available to a software provider.
Competition
Ticketmaster and AXS offered incumbent ticketing systems. Rival hoped teams could choose distribution outlets rather than use a single consumer destination. Its approach required more than a convincing sales pitch: venue data, customer accounts, and working ticket operations had to move from the incumbent system. KSE's reported migration problems show the practical difficulty of that change in Rival's first deployment.[1] [2]
Business Model
Rival planned to charge software licensing fees plus a small share of event transaction value. That model would align revenue with the volume flowing through customer venues, but the company had to complete a working migration before it could demonstrate the model at scale. No revenue, margin, or contract price was disclosed in the sources reviewed.[1]
Traction
In 2018 Hubbard said more than ten teams across U.S. professional leagues and the English Premier League had signed for a planned 2019 debut. Sports Business Journal later described KSE as Rival's first and only client and said the company never sold a ticket. The former statement was a launch-era claim; the latter describes the reported result after the attempted deployment.[1] [2]
Outcome and evolution
The first migration became the decisive test
KSE's Altitude Tickets planned to move from AXS to Rival in 2019. Sports Business Journal reported that the move encountered data migration issues and that Ticketmaster came in on a temporary basis. Rival had to demonstrate its new system during a live customer transition, when ticket records and the venue's operations still had to work. The published account identifies the migration problem but does not establish every technical cause or the team's attempted remedies.[2]
The incumbent took over the customer
In 2020 Ticketmaster purchased Rival, including its technology and staff, according to reporting summarized by Sports Business Journal. Hubbard did not join the buyer. Ticketmaster assumed the KSE contract and later agreed to supply its Presence platform and SafeTix security feature to KSE venues. This sequence supports a narrow conclusion: the customer relationship continued under Ticketmaster's platform. It does not show whether Rival's technology survived as a distinct product or what investors received.[3] [2]
Key Lessons
- A contract is not a completed transition. Rival had a high-profile customer, but its first migration ran into data problems before it sold a ticket.
- The incumbent can be a dependency. KSE brought Ticketmaster in to support a transition intended for Rival, and the incumbent ultimately took over the contract.
- Separate plans from evidence of use. Rival described identity, entry, and venue-commerce features. The record reviewed does not establish that all reached customers.
- An acquisition has limits as evidence. The sale transferred the company, but the price and fate of its technology are not public in these sources.