Eventim Gets 2016 Olympics

The move to get 50 percent of Joop van den Ende’s Stage Entertainment Group’s ever-touring ice show looks to be more of a longer-term financial investment for Eventim’s Medusa Group subsidiary. But, if the German firm’s previous sporting tie-ups are anything to go by, the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro could be a real cash cow.

In 2006, when it won the contract for the World Cup soccer finals, which were staged in Germany, Eventim’s ticketing revenues rose 71 percent year-on-year to euro 56.8 million.

Subsequently it’s hauled in a few more international sports finals, while the Bremen-based stock-listed company also does the tickets for a few Bundesliga soccer clubs.

Apart from running the ticketing for the finals of various international sporting events including hockey, ice hockey, handball, basketball and volleyball, it also handled the ticketing for this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and is already booked for the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Germany and France in 2017.

To get the Brazilian Olympic gig, Eventim will have to come out top of a tendering process that would presumably have included Ticketmaster, which was the official ticket provider for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Within a few hours of the news of the Olympic contract being announced, Eventim’s share price had risen 3.69 percent to euro 21.93 ($28.8). The Holiday On Ice deal, which is still subject to approval by the Bundeskartellamt, Germany’s antitrust authority, will see the two companies work together to tour its other ice shows such as “Platinum” and “Passion” around the world.