StubHub

History

Founding and early years

Eric Baker had the idea for an online secondhand event ticket marketplace after he struggled to purchase secondhand tickets for a showing of The Lion King on Broadway. He began developing the concept with Jeff Fluhr as part of a competition while both were students at Stanford Graduate School of Business. In March 2000, the pair incorporated StubHub in San Francisco to act as that marketplace. The company raised US$600,000 in seed funding by August 2000. Fluhr left school to be chief executive officer of StubHub; Baker graduated in 2001 and became company president. That year, StubHub signed its first deal with a professional sports team, partnering with the Seattle Mariners. In 2002, eBay was in talks to acquire StubHub for US$20 million, although the agreement had later "fallen apart over price." By its third year of operation, StubHub had 60 employees. The company was incorporated on December 17, 2004 as Pugnacious Endeavors.

Fluhr described a 2004 falling out between himself and Baker over the company direction. Baker wanted to develop partnerships with sports leagues while Fluhr preferred to focus on building the StubHub brand. The difference in direction led to Baker leaving the company while retaining a 10 percent ownership stake. Baker founded competing agency Viagogo to operate in European markets in 2006. StubHub had a positive cash flow in 2005 with sales of approximately US$200 million and revenues of approximately US$50 million. The company successfully lobbied for law changes in New York, Florida, and Pennsylvania regarding ticket sales and the amount above face value for which tickets could be sold. StubHub made approximately US$6,500 in campaign donations to Florida legislators while lobbying for the law change in that state. In 2006, the value of tickets sold on the platform was approximately US$400 million and it generated approximately US$100 million in revenue. The company employed approximately 350 people at 12 locations.

Acquisition by eBay

Fluhr sold StubHub to eBay in 2007 for US$310 million and left the company. Chris Tsakalakis became company president. By 2008, StubHub was selling approximately US$5 billion in tickets annually. It had partnerships with 30 college and professional sports teams, including those in the NFL and NBA, by the time of eBay's purchase. Some teams took exception to StubHub's business model, with the New England Patriots suing the company in November 2006 for allegedly encouraging customers to break Massachusetts law by selling tickets for more than US$2 above their face value. StubHub countersued, saying the Patriots were engaging in unfair trade practices. A Massachusetts Superior Court judge in 2007 ordered StubHub to provide the Patriots with a list of 13,000 users who had sold or purchased game tickets. The suit was settled under undisclosed terms in 2009.

In 2006, more than 100 New York Yankees season-ticket holders suspected of reselling their regular-season seats on StubHub received letters denying them the right to buy playoff tickets and barring them from buying season tickets for the 2007 season. StubHub criticized the policy as "a witch hunt against us and eBay for giving fans more access to these games". The New York Yankees revoked the season tickets of those who resold them on StubHub, saying that doing so violated its licensing policy.

Ticketmaster sued StubHub in 2007 for offering "official premium tickets" to events for which Ticketmaster had exclusivity deals. The suit claimed StubHub intentionally interfered with Ticketmaster's venue contracts. StubHub said the tickets were being resold by the management company for the acts, Ticketmaster's fees had been paid, and that StubHub never owned any ticket inventory. The following year, Ticketmaster developed a method of paperless ticketing that made it difficult to transfer or resell tickets, implementing the methodology prior to an AC/DC concert in Detroit. StubHub opposed the blocking of ticket transfers, saying that it hindered the choices available to purchasers.

Major League Baseball partnered with StubHub in 2007 to become the league's official online ticket reseller. The agreement between the league and StubHub was renewed in 2012 with modifications, including a minimum price of US$6 for tickets and inclusion of all fees at the time of selecting seats, which StubHub said corrected an "optics issue" caused by fees not being calculated until later in the purchase process. This pricing structure was known as "all-in" pricing, which StubHub made standard across all ticket sales in 2013. Some teams, including the Yankees and Los Angeles Angels, opted out of the renewal. StubHub reversed its all-in pricing in 2015 due to declining sales. It had revenues of approximately US$940 million in 2016.

Acquisition by Viagogo and Eric Baker

In November 2019, it was announced that Viagogo, the company Baker founded after leaving StubHub, would purchase StubHub for US$4.05 billion. A week prior to the announcement, the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce announced it would be investigating ticket sales and sellers and requested information from Live Nation Entertainment and StubHub on their practices. The CMA opened an investigation into the acquisition. While it was ongoing, the companies were barred from integrating, though the sale could continue. Baker completed the sale in February 2020, approximately 5 weeks before the COVID-19 lockdowns. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the company losing approximately 90% of its revenue. Due to its timing with the pandemic, Forbes's Noah Kirsch described the transaction as "one of the worst deals in history".

The purchase by Viagogo was finalized in September 2021. Both were placed under the management of a new company, StubHub Holdings. As part of the deal, the CMA 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. In 2024, Attorney General for the District of Columbia Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit against StubHub alleging the company was using drip pricing and a countdown clock to create a false sense of urgency, thereby misleading customers. StubHub said its practices comply with the law, are consistent with the practices of competitors, and that it supported uniform "all-in" pricing regulations.

In May 2023, the company partnered with The Athletic to sell tickets to events featured on The Athletic.

StubHub Holdings had revenues of US$1.77 billion in 2024.

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 2026, some StubHub customers were unable to retrieve their tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Fans and their families lost thousands of US dollars for tickets purchased on the platform, transportation, and accommodations. They received invalid tickets, tickets that were different than offered, or failed to receive them. In the US, in the Manhattan Federal Court, they filed a US$5 million class action lawsuit against the platform. A similar class action lawsuit was filed in British Columbia, Canada where a Vancouver man spent more than US$19,000 for tickets he didn't receive.