Event ticketing behemoth Ticketmaster announced today that it will adopt the Flow blockchain from Dapper Labs for minting tickets as NFTs for select events.
The NFTs—unique blockchain tokens that signify ownership—will function primarily as collectible digital memorabilia, but also as a shareable “proof of attendance.”
Over the past six months, Dapper Labs and Ticketmaster quietly launched an NFT pilot program. In it, Ticketmaster automatically issued ticket NFTs as memorabilia to attendees of specific events like the Super Bowl LVI this year.
In the pilot program, more than five million Flow NFTs were minted in a six month period, according to Dapper.
As a result of the partnership, Ticketmaster has built a wallet and marketplace feature into its site, said Maher, and that’s where holders will be able to view and trade the NFTs they receive as a result of the partnership.
Dapper is most commonly known for its NBA Top Shot NFTs—which have seen over 21 million transactions and $1 billion in total volume traded, per CryptoSlam data. But the Web3 company doesn’t want to be known just for its sports NFTs.
“Flow has always been built to support the mass market,” Mickey Maher, Dapper Labs’ senior vice president of partnerships, told Decrypt in an interview.
That said, Dapper will continue to release plenty of sports-related NFTs. While exclusive, its partnership with Ticketmaster isn’t all-encompassing—Ticketmaster will only release NFT tickets for select events, like for 100 games in the upcoming NFL season.
Asked whether he believes all tickets should become NFTs, Maher was unsure.
“The data will ultimately show that, user behavior will ultimately show that. I don’t have a strong stance on that yet,” he said.
“I think one could make an argument that that’s where the world is going, but I’d like to see how some of these partnerships and activations materialize, and that I think will drive the direction of ticketing on the blockchain,” Maher added.