Sports Illustrated Tickets (SI Tickets) has announced the launch of its NFT ticketing platform, Box Office, built on Polygon, an Ethereum scaling network. The move expands the SI Tickets’ offering beyond its secondary ticket marketplace launched in 2021, to primary ticket sales.
Box Office is designed to serve small and community events, which typically would not appear on the big ticketing platforms. The platform aims to make NFT ticketing more accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds without requiring them to undergo a tutorial on blockchain or understand the technology behind it.
The NFT tickets on Box Office will be available on the SI Tickets mobile app and will provide additional content, including photos and videos, personalized messages, loyalty rewards, and collectibles. The platform aims to attract ticket listings from a range of events, including music venues, nightclubs, conferences, private parties, fitness studios, comedy clubs, charity organizers, and religious retreats.
The launch of Box Office marks the first mass-market adoption of NFT ticketing, according to David Lane, CEO of SI Tickets. The platform is built with Ethereum software studio ConsenSys and aims to offer a 20% lower fee structure than Eventbrite.
Box Office’s revenue-sharing model provides a 50-50 split with event organizers and performers. They can track the on-chain data of Box Office transactions to receive revenue from resales. The platform allows users to transfer their tickets to NFT marketplaces and other secondary ticket platforms.
SI Tickets aims to offer more visibility to small events that partner with Box Office by listing them alongside A-list events on the SI Tickets secondary marketplace. The platform aims to increase consumer demand for NFT event ticketing in the coming years as the global economy continues to recover from the pandemic, according to Johnna Powell, global co-head of ConsenSys NFT.
Overall, the launch of Box Office marks a significant step towards making NFT ticketing more accessible to a broader range of consumers, which could help drive further adoption of NFTs in the ticketing industry.
