APACTix wants a slice of tickets market

SINGAPORE — More than a year after launching an in-house ticketing system for the Sports Hub, service provider APACTix is now going head to head with SISTIC for a slice of the sports and entertainment market in Singapore and Asia.

The company, like SportsHub consortium partner Global Spectrum, is part of United States mass media giant Comcast Corporation.

Formerly known as New Era Tickets Asia, the rebranded company’s general manager Chad Phillips said it intends to offer an alternative retail ticketing option for patrons and organisers of live events from next month. But this will exclude those staged at the hub, which sells tickets under its house brand Sports Hub Tix that uses software provided by APACTix.

Instead, APACTix is targeting the ticketing market outside the Kallang mega sports complex, currently dominated by homegrown giant SISTIC. This would include sports and entertainment events held at other venues such as the Esplanade, Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore Expo.

Statistics released last week by the National Arts Council revealed that, in 2012, more than 1.95 million tickets were sold for 4,461 shows at these venues and elsewhere. The figures do not include sports events held outside the hub such as the Singapore Grand Prix, boxing and mixed martial arts, which APACTix is also targeting.

SISTIC’s near-complete dominance in Singapore has previously caused some tension among promoters, who had no choice but to accept its terms.

“There is space in Singapore for two large players,” Mr Phillips told a media gathering last week. “Singapore is a growing market for live entertainment and we are seeing more and more coming here. It will provide healthy competition, not only for consumers, but event promoters.”

Apart from a main box office at the Singapore Indoor Stadium where they will be based, APACTix will also use SingPost outlets to sell tickets and intends to have box offices on site at events.

Mr Phillips said it is also offering concert promoters and venue owners an exclusive in-house ticketing system powered by its Paciolan technology as it has done for the Sports Hub.

The technology, the Canadian added, has sold more than 3,500 tickets in 30 minutes at recent events here. In bigger markets such as North America, it has sold more than 15,000 tickets in 10 minutes.

SISTIC chief executive officer Kenneth Tan said it is also able to provide white label options — where clients brand a proprietary system as their own — but big promoters prefer and want SISTIC to handle their logistical needs. But he agrees competition can only be good for Singapore.

“Competition is good because it will offer choices for the market but it is nothing new to us,” he said. “We have a track record of more than 20 years providing ticketing services here and the region, and our system has a proven itself. “Our biggest event here, the Singapore Grand Prix, has been sold successfully for the past seven years and I like to think Singapore GP is happy with our service and what we are doing for them.”

Organisers of the night race were beset with ticketing problems when using US-based OmniTicket Network in the inaugural year in 2008 before switching to SISTIC.

Mr Phillips admits APACTix will initially “struggle a bit” to compete against SISTIC, but hopes that within three years, it will gain enough ground to earn the confidence of ticket buyers and concert promoters in Singapore.

“It is going to be work for us. I am not naive to think we can just come in and tell people ‘We are here now, why aren’t you putting your tickets up with us’,” he said. “We are going to have our challenges … we are brand new and the incumbent always has the advantage.”