eBay is planning to launch a version of its StubHub ticket marketplace division in the UK by the end of the year, according to a news report.
The move, first reported by the Financial Times, would put the company in direct competition with Seatwave and viagogo, the latter of which was established by StubHub co-founder Eric Baker.
In addition, StubHub will be competing with Ticketmaster-owned GetMeIn, which will mean that a secondary ticket market that is significantly smaller than its counterpart in the US will be crowded with four major ticket exchanges.
For years, eBay Tickets has operated in the UK, but has not proved to be much of a factor as viagogo and Seatwave, so bringing in a recognized brand such as StubHub should help those efforts.
An eBay spokesperson told the Financial Times that they envision success, in part because UK fans are already comfortable buying tickets from online secondary agents.
“From a UK perspective, our ambitions would be to provide the same kind of top-class customer service that has enabled us to be the leading secondary ticketing market in the US,” eBay said.