Professional basketball team the Philadelphia 76ers is launching a branded mobile-first ticketing experience on eBay’s StubHub as it looks to blend primary and secondary ticket purchasing into one convenient experience.

The NBA team is the first to launch on StubHub’s new ticketing platform for rights holders. As mobile purchases for tickets has grown, creating an experience for smartphone owners was a key part of the development process.

“Mobile will play the biggest role in rights holders’ branded experiences,” said Geoff Lester, head of partnerships and business development at StubHub.

“Consumer behavior has shifted to mobile and we have to provide the absolute very best user experience to our partners and their fans, so mobile has to come first,” he said. “That has guided much of the discussions and development process for our new ticketing platform with the 76ers.”

A unified experience
StubHub has grown into a leading marketplace for secondary ticket sales where fans can buy and sell tickets to one another, with its mobile offerings one of the attractions to users.

By partnering with StubHub, the Philadelphia 76ers is able to provide fans with a single source for all tickets, combining both primary sales from the team as well as secondary ticket sales.

StubHub will be the official ticketing partner for the Philadelphia 76ers, with tickets available on the new platform in advance of the 2016-2017 NBA season.

The 76ers will direct all buyers to its team-branded experience on StubHub.

The mobile experience will enable users to purchase a ticket using a four-tap transaction. Users will also be able to search for specific seating locations in a new way designed for a mobile device.

Bundled offers
The platform will show users all ticket inventory together in one seat map without designating tickets as primary or secondary. The white-label experience will put the Philadelphia 76ers brand front and center.

Users will be able to see recommendations based on their search criteria, purchase history and preferences matched against available tickets.

Users will also be able to purchase tickets from multiple sellers in one transaction while teams will be able to bundle in other products and services, such as parking.

For teams, the benefits of directly selling tickets via StubHub include full-market visibility, data ownership and access to real-time market data so they can maximize pricing.

Spectra Ticketing and Fan Engagement, through a series of integrations with StubHub, will continue to provide the 76ers with box office tools, season ticket holder sales, account management and access control.

A number of sports teams have created their own mobile ticketing offerings. StubHub hopes its platform, by providing a fuller experience, will be a primary channel for sales.

“We think [StubHub’s offering] augments, and if desired by the rights holder, replaces [their own offering],” Mr. Slavin said.

“We are building this solution in a way that – over time – allows flexibility, whether the customer transacts within StubHub, the rights holder’s app, or both,” he said. “Not to mention providing rights holders with the ability to distribute on other channels, some of which may be better best-suited for mobile.”