StubHub Bets on IPO Lifeline As Ticketing Competition Heats Up

StubHub, once a dominant entity in ticket resale that helped make the market appealing to sports leagues and teams, is seeking to go public in a bid to revive its fortunes. 

The company filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a new listing on the New York Stock Exchange, though its submission did not include a target date or share price. StubHub has been owned by multinational ticket company Viagogo since 2020 after being purchased from the publicly traded eBay in a $4.05 billion deal. 

Viagogo is led by Eric Baker, one of StubHub’s founders.

StubHub said in its prospectus that it generated $1.77 billion in revenue in 2024, up 29% from the year before, but saw its net income swing from a $405 million profit to a $2.8 million loss last year as sales, marketing, and administrative costs all increased substantially. 

That same filing, however, detailed a goal to elevate the business, in part through a greater blending of primary and secondary ticketing.

“We are in the early innings of disrupting the legacy primary ticketing model by making our tech-enabled marketplace available to content rights holders to distribute original issuance tickets,” StubHub said. “We believe that buyers want a single, trusted, and reliable destination to buy any ticket anywhere in the world … and do not care whether a ticket is originally issued or resold.”

Market Dynamics 

Roughly two decades ago, StubHub played a highly influential role in elevating the entire ticket resale market—something that previously existed largely in the shadows and was widely shunned by the sports industry. Now, it exists as a fundamental part of all ticketing operations. Over subsequent years, StubHub saw sharply heightened competition from numerous other companies including SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, and Gametime, while Ticketmaster, the largest player in primary ticketing, also moved into the secondary business. 

More recently, ticket resale also has seen heightened turbulence, with many of these players seeing diminished margins and depressed economic results. Vivid Seats went public in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) but has seen its stock lose more than three-quarters of its value since then. SeatGeek has considered an IPO on multiple occasions but has yet to do so, and according to multiple reports, recently cut about 15% of its staff. 

While sports have been a fairly predictable source of business for these companies, their financial fortunes have often wavered based on the status of big music tours. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which set a series of financial and attendance records over its 2023–2024 run, temporarily lifted the business but no such major outings are planned for this year.

The StubHub IPO effort, however, arrives ahead of a wave of major international events coming to the U.S. in the next few years, including the men’s 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympics.