Sports and concert event ticket pricing and visualization system

• US 10,423,895 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2016
• Issued: 09/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TixTrack, Inc.
• Original Assignee: TixTrack, Inc.
• Inventors: Sunshine, Steven A., Goodman, Rod, Arya, Michael, Chu, Larry, Ripberger, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Borissov, Igor N
• Application Number:
  US15/371,129
• Publication Number:
  US 20170083836A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,022 Days
• Field of Search: 705 5, 705 6
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/00 Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism healthcare informatics G16H

Abstract

A system and method for displaying seat inventory at a venue and facilitating planning of ticket prices for events at the venue is presented. Methods to predict total revenue for an event are described. Also presented are systems and methods for determining at what price and when to release so-called ‘flex’ price tickets during an on-sale using the sales velocity and sales/inquiry ratios. Determining demand of seats from secondary markets is also described with methods to use the demand for either repricing the seats in the primary market or presenting ‘best value’ seats to a prospective purchaser.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing access to a venue using a ticketing system programmed by a non-transitory computer readable memory to perform the method, the method comprising:

providing, by a processor of the ticketing system, a ticketing web interface to a computing device via the Internet using a communications module of the ticketing system;

placing, by the processor, an initial set of a plurality of open seats for sale at a first price via the ticketing web interface using the communications module, the initial set of the plurality of open seats having an initial number of open seats;

storing, by the processor, information associated with the initial set of the plurality of open seats in a first portion of the computer readable memory;

reserving, by the processor, at least one seat within a vicinity to each open seat from the initial set of the plurality of open seats such that each seat within the vicinity to each open seat from the initial set of the plurality of open seats is placed in a hold status, the hold status being not available for sale via the ticketing web interface;

identifying, by the processor, a first number of open seats from the initial set of the plurality of open seats that have been sold or are being considered for purchase via the ticketing web interface using the information associated with the initial set of the plurality of open seats in the first portion of the computer readable memory;

calculating, by the processor, a second number of the plurality of open seats to sell at a determined point in time based on a time dependence of the first number of open seats sold or being considered for purchase by predicting a number of seats sold (P) at time tp, wherein the determining comprises determining if P will be greater than the number of available OPEN seats (O), and when it is determined that the number of predicted seats (P) that will sell is greater than the number of open seats (O), releasing, by the processor, additional seats that were placed in the hold status, where the number of additional seats is equal to P−

O;

determining, by the processor, if the initial number of open seats placed for sale at the first price is smaller than the second number of open seats that is calculated to sell, and

when it is determined that the second number of open seats projected to sell is greater than the initial number of open seats placed for sale, releasing, by the processor, a first released set of the seats placed in the holding status within the vicinity of each open seat of the initial set of the plurality of open seats for sale at the first price; and

outputting, by the processor, the number of seats that have been released to the ticketing web interface using the communications module,

wherein the outputting of the number of seats that have been released causes the ticketing system to update the ticketing web interface using the communications module to display on the computing device with the released seats for sale and to enable a user of the computing device to purchase seats for the event from an updated set of seats, including the initial set of the plurality of open sets and the first released set of seats, at the first price following the initial sales period;

outputting to a user a ticket associated with one of the number of seats that have been released; and

using the ticket to open a gate structure associated with a venue for the event to allow the user to enter into the venue.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the second number of open seats calculated to sell is based on sales between 1 and 3 hours after the start of sale;

and wherein the number of released seats is equal to the second number of seats calculated to sell minus the initial number of seats allocated for sale.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the using the ticket initiates an entry process to the gate structure at the venue associated with the ticket deny access beyond the gate structure.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial set of the plurality of open seats comprises prime seats;

wherein the initial set of the plurality of open seats is on a first portion of a venue map for the event provided by the ticketing web interface, the venue map being capable of display via the ticketing web interface on a display device coupled to the computing device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein predicting comprises fitting the number of tickets that will sell to an adaptive exponential functional model.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first number of open seats considered for purchase is under an inquiry.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined point in time ranges from 2 hours to 4 hours.

8. The method of claim 1 when it is determined that the second number of seats projected to sell is less than the initial number placed for sale, releasing, by the processor, a number of the seats within the vicinity of each open seat for sale at the second price, the second price is less than the first price.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the seats within the vicinity of the open seats in the initial set of the plurality of open seats is a seat adjacent to the open seats.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

placing, by the processor, a second set of the plurality of open seats for sale at a second price via the ticketing web interface;

storing, by the processor, information associated with the second set of the plurality of open seats in a second portion of the computer readable memory;

reserving, by the processor, at least one seat within a vicinity to each open seat from the second set of the plurality of open seats such that each seat within the vicinity to each open seat from the second set of the plurality of open seats is placed in the hold status, the hold status being not available for sale via the ticketing web interface;

identifying, by the processor, a third number of open seats from the second set of the plurality of open seats that have been sold or are being considered for purchase via the ticketing web interface;

calculating, by the processor, a fourth number of the plurality of open seats to sell at a determined point in time based on a time dependence of the third number of open seats sold or being considered for purchase;

determining, by the processor, if the number of open seats in the second set of open seats placed for sale at the second price is smaller than the fourth number of open seats that is calculated to sell;

when it is determined that fourth number of seats projected to sell is greater than the number of open seats in the second set of open seats placed for sale, releasing, by the processor, a second released set of the seats placed in the holding status within the vicinity of each open seat of the second set of the plurality of open seats for sale at the second price; and

performing the placing, storing, reserving, identifying, calculating, and determining for an Nth set of a plurality of open seats for sale, where N is greater than 2

wherein the outputting of the number of seats that have been released causes the ticketing system to update the ticketing web interface displayed on the computing device with the released seats for sale and to enable a user of the computing device to purchase seats for the event from an updated set of seats, including the initial set of the plurality of open sets and the second released set of seats, at the second price during the initial sales period.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the second set of the plurality of open seats being on a second portion of a venue map for the event provided by the ticketing web interface, the second portion of the venue map being capable of display via the ticketing web interface on the display device coupled to the computing device.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing device is selected from a computer, a mobile device, or a phone device.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the gate structure comprises an access control gate, a turnstile, a vending machine interface, a gaming machine interface, a room door, a merchandise distribution interface, a parking gate, a locker, or a personal storage unit.

14. The method of claim 3 wherein the entry process uses the ticket to unlock or lock the gate structure, whereupon the unlocking occurs by actuating a sensor to initiate release of a device, comprising a mechanical latch, a movable gate arm, a magnetic lock, or electrical lock, to unlock the gate structure;

whereupon the lock occurs by maintaining the device in a locked state to prevent entry through the gate.