New York, NY

The NBA has teamed up with Ticketmaster to create and develop a comprehensive online ticketing destination for NBA fans.

As part of the agreement, Ticketmaster will present buyers all of the available ticket options for upcoming games, including available tickets from the primary market, as well as tickets being resold by other fans.

As result, NBA fans will be able to buy with confidence, as Ticketmaster will validate every ticket purchased on the league's site, guaranteeing that only authentic NBA tickets will be sold. The as-yet unnamed one-stop-shop ticketing site is scheduled to debut in October.

Before, fans and brokers have taken to the secondary market and secondary ticketing sites like StubHub to resell tickets. Usually, StubHub gets a percentage from the buyer and the seller.

The move stemmed from a survey conducted by the NBA where 70 percent of fans who had purchased tickets from a secondary site went to the team site first and didn't find what they were looking for.

Another survey reflected that two out of every three fans wanted to shop for their tickets in only one location.

"Together with the NBA, we're building the sports industry's first comprehensive ticket destination that provides fans all of their ticketing options -- from both primary and resale - in one place," said Nathan Hubbard, CEO of Ticketmaster. "The NBA is determined to provide their fans a safe, convenient place to buy and sell game tickets, and we are delighted to be delivering this revolutionary solution."

"We are committed to ensuring that our fans receive the best in service and selection when it comes to purchasing individual game tickets, and Ticketmaster's proven ticketing solutions for both the primary and resale markets were the right fit for us," said NBA Executive Vice President of Team Marketing & Business Operations Chris Granger. "On behalf of our teams, we also appreciate Ticketmaster's commitment to analytics, data sharing, and marketing support. This partnership will be a winner for all involved."

Ticketmaster was selected for the deal due to it its analytics platform that has helped teams better dynamically price tickets and because 24 teams are already clients of the company.

Also, the issue of purchasing a fake ticket will be a thing of the past with Ticketmaster as the transfer of bar codes from the primary and secondary market will be seamless.

The NBA also expects a much-lower charge from Ticketmaster compared to StubHub.

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