Vivid Seats Gets Ticket To SPAC Craze; Opens Talks With Horizon Acquisitions

Digital ticketing marketplace Vivid Seats has been in advanced talks to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Bloomberg reported.

The company plans to go public with Horizon Acquisition Corp., the blank-check firm run by Todd Boehly, the ex-Guggenheim executive who co-owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to anonymous sources quoted by Bloomberg. That SPAC is sponsored by the Greenwood-based Eldridge Industries, an investment firm Boehly also founded. Horizons raised $544 million in an August initial public offering (IPO).

Horizons has been holding discussions about potentially valuing Vivid Seats at around $2.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. The company is led by CEO Stan Chia and is based in Chicago. It works to facilitate the buying and selling of sports tickets, event and concert tickets and more.

The industry has taken a hit because of the pandemic, and the company is now looking to differentiate itself from rivals through a new rewards program which will offer 9 percent cash back on some transactions, according to Bloomberg.

Another Boehly SPAC called Horizon Acquisition Group II is in talks to merge with Swiss gambling company Sportradar, which would have a value at around $10 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing an unnamed source.

The world is moving back toward something like normal with vaccines becoming available and cities and countries looking at reopening. Event planners for sports and entertainment still say there’s a fair amount of uncertainty.

Part of that comes from the changing rules week by week, including specifics like capacity caps for sports. College sporting events have been canceled many times, putting pressure on other programs.

Despite all that, pandemic fatigue is real, and demand is still high for all kinds of live events.