Sports and concert event ticket pricing and visualization system

• US 10,528,894 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2017
• Issued: 01/07/2020
• 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:
  US15/402,059
• Publication Number:
  US 20170116549A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,093 Days
• Field of Search: 705 145, 705 37, 705 11, 705400, 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 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• 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 selecting inventory pricing for an event at a venue is disclosed. The method comprising determining a rate at which a first inventory of seats have sold for an event at a venue. The method further comprising calculating a demand for a secondary inventory of seats as a function of the rate at which the first inventory of seats sold, the seats of the first and second inventories being comparable in quality, provides a user interface to one or more client devices that displays the data. The method further comprising calculating a demand for a second inventory of seats as a function of the rate at which the first inventory of seats sold, the seats of the first and second inventories being comparable in quality.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining one or more ticket prices for an unsold inventory of tickets to an event at a venue by a ticketing system programmed by a computer memory to perform the method, the method comprising:

aggregating, by a network coupled to the ticketing system, a first inventory ticket sales data for the event in a storage of the ticketing system, the first inventory ticket sales data being aggregated from one or more databases coupled to the network, the first inventory ticket sales data including ticket sales data for a first inventory of tickets to the event that are sold within an initial sale time interval starting from a ticket sales starting time for the event;

receiving, by the network, a first status of the first inventory of tickets at a first point in time;

displaying, by a display of the ticketing system, the first status of the first inventory on a venue map of the ticketing system;

receiving, by the network, a second status of the first inventory of tickets at a second point in time;

updating, by the processor, the venue map with the second status of the first inventory;

refreshing, by the processor, the venue map with additional statuses of the first inventory to create a movie of statuses on the venue map;

determining a geographical seating preference history from the movie of statuses on the venue map, wherein the movie is a time-lapse movie that provides a sequence of frames showing a progression of the statuses in a compressed time series;

determining, by a processor of the ticketing system, a first rate at which the first inventory of tickets have been sold for the event at the venue using the first inventory ticket sales data;

determining, by the processor, a calculated demand for a second inventory of tickets to the event, the second inventory of tickets including the unsold inventory of tickets to the event, the calculated demand for the second inventory being determined by a demand function using the first rate at which the first inventory of tickets have been sold;

determining, by the processor, the one or more ticket prices for the second inventory of tickets using the calculated demand for the second inventory and the geographical seating preference history;

outputting one of the tickets from the determined second inventory of tickets; and

using the ticket that has been outputted to unlock a gate structure associated with the venue for the event to allow a user to enter into the venue.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial sales time interval comprises a time interval of less than or equal to 10 minutes starting from the ticket sales starting time, a time interval of less than or equal to 5 minutes starting from the ticket sales starting time, or a time interval of less than or equal to 2 minutes starting from the ticket sales starting time.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the demand function comprises a hazard function or a Weibull function;

wherein the hazard function is used to determine a duration dependence of ticket sales, the duration dependence being a relationship between time passing and an increased or decreased likelihood of incremental purchases.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the demand function is a member selected from the group consisting of a monotonic algorithm, a non-monotonic algorithm, an exponential gamma model, a Weibull-gamma model, and a combination thereof along with an exponential model or a power model.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the calculated demand for the second inventory of tickets comprises determining a second inventory predicted sales data including a number of tickets from the second inventory that will have been sold after a future sales time interval from the end of the initial sales time interval, the second inventory predicted sales data including a plurality of adjusted price levels for the second inventory of tickets and an adjusted allocation of tickets in the second inventory according to the plurality of adjusted price levels.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the future sales time interval comprises a time interval of at least 2 hours from the end of the initial sales time interval.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the second inventory of tickets comprises a plurality of initial price levels and an initial allocation of tickets of the second inventory according the plurality of initial price levels;

and

further comprising determining, by the processor, an amount of the second inventory of tickets to be adjusted according to differences between the adjusted allocation of tickets and the initial allocation of tickets; and

wherein determining the one or more ticket prices for the second inventory of tickets comprises moving the amount of second inventory tickets from the plurality of initial price levels to the plurality of adjusted price levels.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining the calculated demand for the second inventory of tickets comprises determining a second inventory predicted sales data including a target number of tickets from the second inventory that will have been sold at a target price level after a future sales time interval from the end of the initial sales time interval.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the second inventory of tickets comprises an initial number of tickets of the second inventory allocated to the target price level, the initial number of tickets being associated with a target seating area;

and

wherein determining the one or more ticket prices for the second inventory of tickets comprises moving an amount of tickets in the second inventory associated with seats near the target seating area to the target price level such that the second inventory has the target number of tickets priced at the target price level.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first inventory of tickets and the second inventory of tickets are for seats in the same event that are of comparable quality, and wherein determining the calculated demand for the second inventory comprises determining a number of tickets that will have sold according a plurality of price levels based on the first rate at which the first inventory of tickets have been sold during the initial sales time interval.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein creating the movie of statuses comprises creating a time-lapse movie or high-speed movie.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the geographical seating preference history comprises determining seat fill patterns including front-to-back, back-to-front, and side-to-middle.

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 1 wherein unlocking the gate structure includes 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.