SM Prime partners with world’s largest ticket marketplace

MANILA, Philippines — The Sy family’s SM Prime Holdings Inc. has forged a partnership with Ticketmaster, a global market leader in live event ticketing products and services, to introduce a new ticketing service to support the next phase of live entertainment in the Philippines.

The partnership creates SM Ticketmaster, which will provide ticketing services currently offered through SM Tickets.

SM Prime president Jeffrey Lim said the collaboration combines Ticketmaster’s global technology and fraud-prevention expertise with SM Prime’s local operating experience and knowledge of the Philippine market.

“Our goal is to make the ticket-buying experience more reliable, secure and convenient for customers,” he said.

The launch of the new ticketing service also marks Ticketmaster’s entry into the Philippines.

Ticketmaster is the leading global ticket marketplace, processing 500 million tickets in over 35 countries each year.

Its entry into the Philippines comes at a time when demand for live experiences in the country continues to rise, from club shows and major concerts to sports events.

“Fans in the Philippines are showing strong and growing demand for live experiences, from major international tours to sports and local shows. For Ticketmaster, this is an important new market and a natural next step in our international expansion,” Ticketmaster APAC regional vice president Jim Kotsonis said.

SM Ticketmaster will provide end-to-end ticketing, event operations, marketing and customer service for promoters, organizers and venues.

It will work with third-party venues and promoters for concerts, sports and other events, including SM Prime’s own venues such as SM Mall of Asia Arena, SMDC Festival Grounds  and soon-to-open SM Seaside Cebu Arena.

“SM Ticketmaster will give fans a simpler way to buy tickets and organizers stronger tools to manage their events,” Kotsonis said.

The partnership with Ticketmaster continues SM Prime’s development of its ticketing business.

Established in 2011, SM Tickets is the Philippines’ largest ticketing service, with more than 100 outlets nationwide, including the SM Mall of Asia Arena Box Office, all SM Cinema branches and select partner establishments.

SM Prime said over the next few weeks, SM Tickets will transition from its existing ticket reservation and sales services to SM Ticketmaster.

The company encouraged fans, including existing SM Tickets account holders, to register early with SM Ticketmaster to get uninterrupted access to upcoming events.

“We have a strong pipeline of concerts, events and experiences scheduled across our venues, with more announcements to come,” Lim said.