Secondary Market Gold Rush

StubHub has completely dominated the U.S. secondary ticketing market the way Paas has dominated colored Easter eggs – but a European company is planning to change that.

Eric Baker is a co-founder of StubHub and a former classmate of company CEO Jeff Fluhr at Stanford Business School. They founded StubHub in 1999 but, after a falling out, Baker made Europe his fiefdom. His company, Viagogo, became a hit with European football teams (if not the concert business) and Baker is ready to bring Viagogo to the States.

Viagogo announced August 6th it has raised $30 million in series C funding, according to Red Herring. That same day, the Cleveland Browns announced Viagogo as its secondary ticketing system and launched Browns.viagogo.com.

"Our goal is to make as many seats in Cleveland Browns Stadium available to Browns fans as possible, and this marketplace will give season ticket holders a safe and authorized method to sell their unused tickets," the Browns’ senior VP of business operations said in a statement.

Baker told Red Herring his company has sold tens of millions of dollars worth of tickets in the first year of business. Its platform should look familiar to StubHub clients – the ticket buyer and ticket seller use the Web site to negotiate a selling price, with each paying a commission.

"We feel we have done well in Europe," he said. "Everything happened a lot quicker than we had expected. We have sold more tickets in our ninth month alone than in the first 15 months at StubHub."

Clients include Manchester United, Chelsea FC and FC Bayern Munich, according to the Wall Street Journal. Warner Music Group and NBA Europe are also clients.

"The time is now right for us to go to the U.S.A.," Baker told Red Herring. He recently divested his 10 percent interest in StubHub, which should eliminate any conflict of interest. StubHub was recently sold to eBay for $310 million.

Meanwhile, a London-based competitor of Viagogo, Seatwave Ltd., says it has secured venture capital of its own and plans to expand in Europe, the WSJ reported.