True Tickets, the blockchain-based digital ticketing platform, made its Broadway debut last fall in collaboration with the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City. After a “successful” run thus far delivering digital tickets to the Trouble in Mind play and Caroline, or Change musical, Matthew Zarracina, co-founder and CEO of True Tickets, talks blockchain and ticketing with Cryptox.
When a prospective theatre-goer completes a ticket purchase on the Roundabout website and chooses a digital delivery, as opposed to picking up a ticket at will call or printing it at home, that’s True Tickets cue to come in. Built on the Hyperledger Fabric platform that runs on the IBM Blockchain and deploys to Google Cloud, True Tickets provides the infrastructure that generates dynamic QR codes integrated with distributed ledger technology.
Broadway is back! And we had a great first fall season delivering more than 22,000 blockchain enabled, secure, contactless digital tickets for @RoundAboutNYC.
We love seeing the real-world success of digital ticketing for both the venue and patrons: https://t.co/4GlieWEsUV pic.twitter.com/0jSi26yDeU
— True Tickets (@true_tkts) March 1, 2022
Zarracina explained how a ticket is like a license, and not an asset, with terms and conditions that can “finally” be enforced in an automated and efficient way thanks to blockchain. He said that there has been “significant operational improvement” especially when it came to ticket distribution and resales in secondary marketplaces, claiming a 90% to 99% reduction in authorized listings or fraudulent issues. Venues are also able to track ownership and contact a ticket holder in case of a change or cancellation.
“Now theaters have this chain of custody every time the ticket changes hands. They know where the money is going. And we want to be that infrastructure layer that connects all the ticketing systems to all of our venues.”
Related: Ticketing platforms use blockchain to engage with customers post-pandemic
Zarracina also attributed the acceleration of the digital transformation of ticket sales to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to working with the Roundabout Theatre Company, True Tickets also partners with the The Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami and the Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando, among others.
Recently, True Tickets raised a $5 million seed round led by Logitix, a ticketing platform that offers pricing optimization for venues, teams and promoters.
