ScoreBig, a new members-only site offering deep discounts on tickets for sports, concert and theater events nationwide, has raised $14 million in Series B financing led by U.S. Venture Partners with Bain Capital Ventures participating in the round. With this latest financing, ScoreBig has raised a total of $22.5 million.
Founded by CEO Adam Kanner, former National Basketball Association executive and COO and CTO Joel Milne (formerly founder of SeasonTicket.com), ScoreBig is designed to help owners of unsold event ticket inventory fill seats and make money off the sales.
Venue owners, sports teams, producers, promoters and any entity with unsold live event inventory can sell this inventory on ScoreBig. Similar to Priceline.com’s model, consumers can name their desired price for tickets, select seating preference and inventory owners can accept or deny this bid. ScoreBig says that every ticket offered on the site is below face value (anywhere from 10 to 70 percent below), and includes free delivery. Similar to the flash sales site model, Membership is free but by invitation only.
In addition to the startup’s executives, ScoreBig has a host of impressive advisors and individual investors including Gideon Yu, Shari Redstone (vice chair of CBS and Viacom); Michael Bronner (founder and former chief executive of Digitas); and Finn Wentworth, former president and chief operating officer of YankeeNets.
Other startups trying to compete in the space include Ticketfly, which just raised $12 million in new funding.