Like similar marketplaces, Seatwave, which operates in the UK and several places in mainland Europe, provides what it describes as a fan-to-fan ticket exchange, essentially an aftermarket where people can buy and sell tickets to theatre, sport and music events. The company’s pitch, however, is that its online marketplace ensures that ticket sales and purchases are 100% safe, presumably with proven mechanisms in place to counteract fraud and unreliable buyers and sellers.

The idea is also that by creating an open and transparent marketplace, it can help to bring down prices in the secondary ticketing market, a trend that we’ve seen in other markets where the Internet is disrupting.

Of course, Seatwave has a whole bunch of competitors: There’s TicketMaster (IAC), StubHub (eBay) and the likes of UK-based Viagogo, another well funded startup in the aftermarket ticket space whose backers include tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

Recently named Europe’s fastest growing digital media company by investment bank GP Bullhound, Seatwave allows fans to trade theatre, sport and music tickets online and thus competes (hard) with TicketMaster (IAC), StubHub (eBay) and that other well-funded startup in the ticket reselling space, Viagogo, which raised over $65 million to date including an investment from tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. The primary reason it was selected is because the company reportedly saw its revenue rise 2203 per cent in the past two years, with user numbers having increased to 1.9m monthly users today and exchange operations in five countries.

The company was founded in 2006 by Joe Cohen, formerly with Ticketmaster and Match.com, and Atlas Venture, which remains the largest shareholder. Seatwave has now raised a whopping total of $53 million including this round. The startup raised seed and $3 million in Series A funds from Atlas Venture in 2006, $8 million from Mangrove CP and Atlas in 2007, and raised a large $25 million round back in February 2008.

Agassi and Graf invested in the common-stock round alongside existing shareholders Index Ventures, Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA; German media mogul Herbert Kloiber; and international financier Jacob Rothschild, via his family’s interests. The new funding values Viagogo at more than $300 million, although I hear from sources that they were aiming for a $30 million round.

The company currently serves ticket seekers in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and the Netherlands. Founder Eric Baker says Viagogo has annual sales close to a $100 million annually and expects those figures to double or triple this year. Viagogo, which charges buyers a 10% fee and sellers a 15% fee on each confirmed transaction, handled $100 million in transactions in 2008.

The London-based secondary ticketing site has deals with UK soccer clubs Manchester United, Chelsea and Germany’s Bayern Munich as well as music companies Warner Music International, Live Nation and Madonna. It is looking to push into more European markets such as Spain and Italy, and the US, but Germany is key to this.

Graf and Agassi are going to open their contact book for partnerships in tennis, and Graf is clearly a draw in the key German market – but one wonders if signing up a celebrity is really going to give Viagogo the extra juice it needs.

Because it’s not just about having deals with clubs and live music promoters. A growing proportion of resold tickets are sold by fans to other fans. To that end Viagogo competitor Seatwave has a 3-year exclusive deal with StudiVZ, the “German Facebook”, for instance.

Seatwave is Viagogo’s headache in Europe. According to a Hitwise spokesman I spoke to today, Viagogo is the third largest secondary ticketing site in the UK. As of January this year Seatwave is on 35% market share, GetMeIn (a UK startup founded by US guy James Gray and acquired by TicketMaster) is on 25%, and Viagogo is on 14%.

Seatwave also has deals with European soccer and rugby clubs and saw a 50% increase in transaction volume in the fourth quarter last year. Seatwave is also London-based and backed by a phalanx of investors including Adinvest, Atlas Venture, Fidelity Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners to the tune of $36 million. Seatwave was founded in 2006 by Joe Cohen, formerly with Ticketmaster and Match.com, and is widely tipped on the London scene as a smart entrepreneur.

One of those backers, Fred Destin of Atlas Ventures, has blogged vociferously against Viagogo, at one point last year calling out Viagogo as being poised to deadpool.

Clearly he was wrong, but third party observers Hitwise reported last October that Viagogo’s traffic numbers had fallen from 3.8% in April to 1.7%. We know traffic leads to sales but Baker denied it was of significance and preferred to talk about transactions. Nevertheless, perhaps that’s why they signed some high-profie celebs to push the site? Agassi is liked in the UK, Graf in Germany. Queue advertising blitz maybe?

Then again both Viagogo and Seatwave stand to benefit in the recession, which is driving down prices for live events. That’s good for secondary ticket markets of course, because people start to sell their tickets more often. Viagogo said ticket prices for this year’s Super Bowl dropped 40% – a $5,000 ticket last year sold for $3,100. People are now bargain hunting which puts more power in the hands of secondary markets. The trouble is, these markets have to get volume.

In the US it Viagogo faces StubHub, which in 2007 signed a five-year contract with Major League Baseball to be its official ticket reseller and TicketsNow, was acquired by TicketMaster Inc. in 2008. Forrester estimates U.S. online secondary ticket sales reached almost $3 billion last year, up from about $2.6 billion in 2007.

Last year TechCrunch named both Viagogo and Seatwave a well placed to weather a downturn.

Viagogo was launched by Baker in August 2006 after reportedly fell out with Stubhub CEO Jeff Fluhr, hence Viagogo. StubHub was sold to eBay in 2007 for $307 million.

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Ticket reseller Seatwave has taken $25 million Series C in a round led by Fidelity Ventures that included Atlas Venture, Mangrove Capital Partners and Adinvest. Total funding for Seatwave to date is $36 million.

The London based Seatwave, like StubHub (acquired by eBay for $310 million) and TicketsNow (acquired by Ticketmaster for $265 million) resells tickets to major events. The company was founded in 2006 by Joe Cohen, formerly with Ticketmaster and Match.com. Seatwave launched ticket exchanges in Germany, Holland, Spain and Italy during the last quarter of 2007. Seatwave has also taken investment from Holtzbrinck and a 3-year exclusive deal with StudiVZ, the “German Facebook”. According to PEHub, the European market hasn’t had a strong online reselling presence, particularly compared to the United States.

Reselling tickets is not illegal in the UK and a recent Culture, Media and Sport Committee released a report actually saying the secondary ticketing industry had been ‘transformed’ by the Internet and provided convenience. However, the resale of football (soccer) tickets is illegal in the UK unless the resale is authorized by the organiser of the match, such as an under an agreement Seatwave competitor Viagogo has.

The secondary ticketing market has been heating up with a spate of M&A activity which has seen Stubhub, TicketsNow and GetMeIn snapped up in the last 12 months by eBay and Ticketmaster.

VC Fred Destin with Atlas Ventures , a Seatwave backers, says on his blog that heavily funded Viagogo has been focused on expensive marketing partnerships and low margin deals with sports clubs, while Seatwave has taken a grassroots approach, with fan-to-fan sales and viral marketing. He also levels some allegations towards Viagogo which I won’t repeat because I understand libel law in the UK.

London based Seatwave, like StubHub (acquired by eBay for $310 million) and TicketsNow (acquired by Ticketmaster for $265 million) resells tickets to major events. The company was founded in 2006 by Joe Cohen, formerly with Ticketmaster and Match.com.

According to PEHub, the European market hasn’t had a strong online reselling presence, particularly compared to the United States.

Scalping tickets (reselling tickets) is not the easiest market to be in, with the practice frowned upon by many, and often illegal as well. The resale of football (soccer) tickets is illegal in the United Kingdom unless the resale is authorized by the organizer of the match, such as an under an agreement Seatwave competitor Viagogo has.