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SeatGeek

“Can SeatGeek displace Ticketmaster as the primary ticketing OS for sports and live entertainment by combining open technology, embedded finance at checkout, and deep team/venue partnerships?”

Founded2009
HQNew York, NY, USA
Total raised~$500M+
Latest roundSeries E, August 2022
Valuation$1B (2022)
IndustryMarketplace / Two-sided
The story

Founded in 2009 as a ticket-pricing forecaster and secondary market aggregator, SeatGeek expanded into operating its own fan-to-fan resale marketplace in 2015. It then moved aggressively into primary ticketing, winning box office contracts with major NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB teams as well as English Premier League clubs, directly competing with Ticketmaster. Financially, SeatGeek layered in embedded payments (Adyen for POS, Stripe Connect for marketplace payouts), BNPL (Affirm), and ticket refund insurance (Cover Genius), transforming checkout from a simple payment screen into a financial-services touchpoint.

Last 12 months
2025-10
2026-05
Product timeline
2009
SeatGeek launched as a secondary ticketing aggregator and ticket-pricing forecaster.· pivot
2012
Launched mobile app to bring ticket search to smartphones.· pivot
2015
Introduced its own fan-to-fan resale marketplace, moving beyond pure aggregation.· pivot
2019
Integrated Adyen for multichannel payments to support primary box office operations for NFL teams.· banking
2022
Partnered with Affirm to offer BNPL at checkout for live event tickets.· lending
2022
Terminated SPAC deal with RedBall Acquisition Corp; raised $238M Series E privately at $1B valuation.· ipo
The stack
3 layers disclosed in SeatGeek’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Stripe ConnectAdyen
Lending
in the full report
Insurance
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
3 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.