Avalanche Is The New Destination For Sports Illustrated Tickets

Avalanche has acquired a stake in Sports Illustrated Tickets and has become the blockchain provider for its NFT-enabled ticketing service, Box Office, which is a blockchain-based ticketing service, allows individuals to organize paid or free events. The Super Tickets NFT tickets offered by Box Office include features such as NFT videos, exclusive offers, and loyalty benefits, according to a press release by SI Tickets.

Sports Illustrated Tickets operates as a secondary market ticketing platform under the Sports Illustrated brand umbrella. While it leases the Sports Illustrated brand through a brand management firm, it is a distinct entity compared to the troubled magazine, emphasized SI Tickets CEO David Lane in an interview.

An Inevitable Move

Since its launch in May 2023, Box Office has issued approximately 300,000 tickets, according to SI Tickets. Initially, Box Office was launched on Polygon with support by Consensys. Ava Labs, the company behind Avalanche, had discussions with SI Tickets to support the platform at that time, explained John Nahas, Ava Labs Senior Vice President of business development. Less than a year later, SI Tickets transitioned to Avalanche.

According to John, Polygon had its moment, and then SI Tickets returned and indicated that many of the things which had been promised for assistance purposes, particularly on the tech side, seemed to be true and then the switch over to Avalanche seemed inevitable.

The Rise Of NFT Ticketing

Ava Labs appears to have high hopes for NFT ticketing. It has invested in another Web3 ticketing platform called tixbase, and the South Korean concert ticket platform Dreamus has integrated with Avalanche. However, when it comes to NFT tickets, Box Office is considered the primary component of a multi-faceted strategy, according to Nahas.

Lane of SI Tickets expressed optimism about the potential of Web3 for the ticketing industry, highlighting that traditional barcode scans are comparatively ineffective compared to NFT tickets, which facilitate easier verification and can serve as keepsakes after events.