Thursday, January 23, 2007

TICKETsage Introduces New Anti-Scalping Technology 

FAYETTEVILLE, AR –TICKETsage, Inc. today announced the release of TicketVERIFY™, a revolutionary anti-scalping product designed to improve venue security and put venue managers back in charge of their ticket inventory by detecting the unauthorized resale or transfer of live event tickets in as little as two seconds at the point of entry.

Five years in the making, TicketVERIFY works with all major ticketing systems to quickly detect if a ticket has been resold or transferred outside authorized channels. The venue can then choose to handle the ticket according to company policy. At their discretion, the venue can immediately revoke the ticket holder’s license, or charge a transfer fee to a credit card directly from the TicketVERIFY device.

Developed to tighten security loopholes in unauthorized resale channels, the TicketVERIFY product uses a combination of patent-pending software, processes, and hardware to detect all resold or transferred tickets without false positives.

“We saw a need back in 2002 and have been working to perfect (the technology) since,” said Stephen Cassar, President / CEO of the Fayetteville, Arkansas company. “It seemed to us that other steps taken to combat scalping were largely ineffective and focused more on control of the (uncontrollable) open market. This product verifies tickets where it matters… at the gate.” Cassar added.

Until now, venues and ticketing companies wishing to control the unauthorized resale of tickets were forced to cancel tickets en-masse, or, resort to legal action. TicketVERIFY solves that problem at the point of admission, shifting control of ticket inventory back to the venue, and effectively shutting down unauthorized secondary market resellers, scalpers and brokers.

Ticketing companies can use the technology to ensure that ticket transfers occur on a platform that is within their control. Concert promoters and teams can better regulate pricing and fan access to the best available seats. Legitimate ticket purchasers need not worry. TicketVERIFY is transparent to those purchasing tickets for themselves, family or friends. But speculators selling tickets through unauthorized channels would essentially be selling a worthless piece of paper if venues adopt TicketVERIFY.

TicketVERIFY is the perfect combination of innovative design, speed and ease of use. Flexible enough to handle complex group ticket sales and authorized mass transfers, yet fast enough to identify the unauthorized resale of tickets in a large event environment, TicketVERIFY can operate in three modes–bypass mode which allows the product to operate like a traditional access control product; observation mode which allows the product to simply collect data for later analysis (and determine if implementation of the product would be of benefit); and full scan mode whereby all tickets presented for admission are checked for duplicates, forgery, and unauthorized resale or transfer.

Pioneers of real-time choose-your-own-seat technology, and the first to market with a 64-bit ticketing architecture, TICKETsage is looking to license the anti-scalping product to ticketing companies, event producers and venues wishing to tighten security and eliminate scalping.

“We will license the technology to any company that can benefit from it and wishes to regain control of their inventory,” said Cassar. TicketVERIFY is available now through TICKETsage.

About TICKETsage
TICKETsage was founded in 1999 to address the limitations of legacy ticketing systems. With the introduction of a new class of Distributed Ticketing technology, the fledgling company raised the bar for next-generation system architecture. The company pioneered the process of real-time seat selection from full inventory on the Web. Other innovations have included real-time print-at-home technology for Web sales that never need to be turned off, and a true 64-bit Architecture. The TICKETsage CRM, marketing and ticketing product is in its sixth release and is the solution of choice for those looking for a fully customized application that will scale to meet the demands of large ticket onsales while offering patrons the ability to choose their own seats in real time.

NOTE TO EDITORS:
If you would like additional information on TICKETsage, Inc. and its services, please call and request the TICKETsage Press Primer at (479) 587-8336. TICKETsage, the TICKETsage logo, TicketVERIFY, UNITY, cinturin Analytics, the cinturin logo, PatronSCOPE, and Distributed Ticketing are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States and certain other countries, of TICKETsage, Inc. All other trademarks, product names and brand names are the property of their respective owners.