StubHub

• 1. The Lion King Struggle

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  Eric Baker stood in a theater line, unable to buy tickets for The Lion King on Broadway. He needed a way to find secondhand seats without paying inflated prices from scalpers. This frustration sparked an idea while he and Jeff Fluhr were students at Stanford Graduate School of Business. They entered a competition to build a business around this concept. In March 2000, they incorporated StubHub in San Francisco to act as that marketplace. By August 2000, the pair raised 600,000 in seed funding. Fluhr left school to become chief executive officer while Baker graduated in 2001 and took the role of company president. That same year, StubHub signed its first deal with a professional sports team, partnering with the Seattle Mariners. By its third year of operation, the company employed 60 people.

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• 2. eBay Sale And Legal Battles

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  Fluhr sold StubHub to eBay in 2007 for 310 million and departed the company immediately after the transaction closed. Chris Tsakalakis became company president following the sale. By 2008, StubHub was selling approximately 5 billion in tickets annually. It had partnerships with 30 college and professional sports teams by the time of eBay's purchase. Some teams took exception to StubHub's business model. The New England Patriots sued the company in November 2006 for allegedly encouraging customers to break Massachusetts law by selling tickets for more than 2 above their face value. A Massachusetts Superior Court judge ordered StubHub to provide the Patriots with a list of 13,000 users who had sold or purchased game tickets. The suit settled under undisclosed terms in 2009. Ticketmaster also sued StubHub in 2007 for offering official premium tickets to events where Ticketmaster held exclusivity deals. Ticketmaster developed paperless ticketing methods prior to an AC/DC concert in Detroit to block transfers.

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• 3. Paradise Papers Investigation

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  Documents released with the Paradise Papers showed Julien Lavallee used StubHub, Vivid Seats, and Ticketmaster to run a multimillion dollar ticket resale business. An article published in The Toronto Star on the 9th of November 2017 described how Lavallée expanded his operation using exploitative tactics that put entertainment beyond the reach of millions of fans. Investigations started by the CMA and Trading Standards revealed StubHub offered a separate section of its website for high-volume ticket sellers. This section included tools that made it easier to batch upload tickets and reduced fees for hitting certain sales volumes. The CMA raided StubHub's offices in 2017 to acquire information for the investigation. They subsequently expanded their scope to include advertising for tickets not yet in stock and high-pressure sales tactics. In 2020, the CMA stated StubHub was not providing adequate information about venues that may not accept resold tickets. The company said it was working to resolve valid concerns raised during the probe.

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• 4. Viagogo Buyout And Restructuring

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  In November 2019, Viagogo announced it would purchase StubHub for 4.05 billion. Baker completed the sale in February 2020, approximately five weeks before COVID-19 lockdowns began. The pandemic led to the company losing approximately 90% of its revenue. Forbes Noah Kirsch later described the transaction as one of the worst deals in history. The purchase was finalized in September 2021 with both entities placed under the management of a new company called StubHub Holdings. As part of the deal, the Competition and Markets Authority required StubHub to sell its operations outside North America. The Stubhub International brand was sold to Digital Fuel Capital. Baker became chief executive of the company. It closed its offices in Hong Kong and San Francisco in 2022. Nayaab Islam was named company president that year. StubHub Holdings had revenues of 1.77 billion in 2024.

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• 5. Pandemic Revenue Collapse

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  The COVID-19 pandemic caused StubHub to lose approximately 90% of its revenue shortly after the Viagogo acquisition. This financial collapse occurred because events were cancelled or restricted during global lockdowns. Despite the downturn, StubHub Holdings became a public company via an initial public offering in September 2025. The IPO came after previous delays in 2022 and early 2024. In 2024, Attorney General for the District of Columbia Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit against StubHub alleging the company used drip pricing and countdown clocks to create false urgency. StubHub responded by stating its practices comply with the law and support uniform all-in pricing regulations. The company maintained that it offered refunds for late or incorrect tickets while sending staff to major venues to replace faulty ones when possible.

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• 6. Fee Structure And Partnerships

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  StubHub generates revenue by collecting fees from buyers and sellers at rates of 10 percent and 15 percent respectively. Payments are handled via PayPal API integration. The company guarantees delivery to buyers by the time of the event. It has offices in Los Angeles, New York City, Taiwan, China, Ireland, and Switzerland. StubHub partnered with Amazon, Anschutz Entertainment Group, The Athletic, BandPage, Spotify, and Uber. In sports, it entered partnerships with individual professional teams including the Seattle Mariners, LA Galaxy, and Everton F.C. As of 2013, it had partnerships with 35 college sports teams. These included universities such as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. The company was also the first to purchase an advertisement patch on an NBA jersey through a three-year deal worth 15 million with the Philadelphia 76ers starting in the 2017-2018 season.

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