Vivid Seats Inc. 10-K

Item 1. Business Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this Form 10-K to “Vivid Seats,” “we,” “us,” “the Company” or “our” refer to Vivid Seats Inc. and its subsidiaries. Overview We are an online ticket marketplace that utilizes our technology platform to connect fans of live events seamlessly with ticket sellers. Our mission is to empower and enable fans to Experience It Live . We believe in the power of shared experiences to connect people, with live events delivering some of life’s most exciting moments. We are relentless about finding ways to make event discovery and ticket purchasing easy, fun, exciting and stress-free. Our platform provides ticket buyers and sellers with an easy-to-use, trusted marketplace experience, ensuring fans can attend live events and create new memories. We operate a technology platform and marketplace that enables ticket buyers to easily discover and purchase tickets from ticket sellers while enabling ticket sellers to seamlessly manage their operations. To generate ticket sales, drive traffic to our website and mobile applications, and build brand recognition, we have mutually beneficial partnerships with a number of content rights holders, media partners, product and service partners and distribution partners. Our platform is built on years of customer transactional and engagement data that provides us with deep insights into how to best connect ticket buyers with the experiences they seek. We understand the feeling of anticipation as the start of an event approaches and work diligently to enable fans to experience as many of these moments as possible. We seek to provide enriching customer engagement opportunities with personalized recommendations, engaging discovery options, a streamlined shopping experience and our Vivid Seats Rewards program, which allows ticket buyers to earn Reward Credits to spend on future orders and experience even more of their favorite events. In December 2021, we acquired Betcha Sports, Inc. (“Betcha”), a real money daily fantasy sports app with social and gamification features. Betcha provides an adjacent opportunity for us to extend our marketplace technology into the daily fantasy sports gaming sector, in which we believe many of our buyers will increasingly engage. Betcha's intuitive and simple-to-use interface allows both casual and super fans multiple ways to enjoy the action of their favorite sports. Betcha also brings unique social elements that allow fans and friends to play and win together. Our Business Model We operate our business in two segments, Marketplace and Resale. Marketplace Through our Marketplace segment, we act as an intermediary between event ticket buyers and ticket sellers. We earn revenue from processing ticket sales on our website and mobile applications and sales initiated through our numerous distribution partners. Using our online platform, we process customer payments, coordinate ticket deliveries, and provide customer service to both our ticket buyers and sellers. A key component of our platform is Skybox, a proprietary enterprise resource planning tool used by many of our ticket sellers. Skybox is a free-to-use system that helps ticket sellers manage ticket inventories, adjust pricing, and fulfill orders across multiple ticket resale marketplaces. We primarily earn revenue from service and delivery fees charged to ticket buyers. We also earn referral fee revenue by offering event ticket insurance to ticket buyers, using a third-party insurance provider. We do not hold ticket inventory in the Marketplace segment. We incur costs for developing and maintaining our platform, providing back-office and customer support to ticket buyers and sellers, processing payments, and shipping tickets. We also incur substantial marketing costs, primarily related to online advertising, which we expect to increase over time as we grow and scale the business. 5 The tickets we sell through our Marketplace segment are diversified across sports, concerts and theater. A diversified mix across these three major categories broadens our opportunities, limits exposure to any particular category, and reduces seasonal variation in volumes. Within each of these categories, there are a broad range of productions that provide further diversification: • Sports. The sports category includes four major professional leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL) and college sports as well as a wide variety of other sporting activities including golf, car racing, rodeo, boxing, and mixed martial arts. • Concerts. The concert category includes musical acts across a broad range of genres touring across major venues, small venues, and music festivals. • Theater. The theater category includes Broadway and off-Broadway plays and musicals, family entertainment events, comedy acts, and speaker series. Resale In our Resale segment, we acquire tickets to resell on secondary ticket marketplaces, including our own. Our Resale segment also provides internal research and development support for Skybox and our ongoing efforts to deliver best in class seller software and tools. Our Growth Strategies Increase Our Brand Awareness and Affinity We want Vivid Seats to be the destination ticketing marketplace buyers and sellers consider when searching for, purchasing and selling event tickets. We seek to offer the best value to ticket buyers and sellers in the secondary ticketing market and want to amplify our message to maximize awareness of what differentiates our offerings. We believe we differentiate from competitors by offering extensive breadth and depth of ticket listings at a competitive value. Our Vivid Seats Rewards program allows ticket buyers to earn Reward Credits to spend on future orders. We provide a reliable and secure experience for ticket buyers through our award-winning customer service and our 100% Buyer Guarantee designed to give our ticket buyers peace of mind. Our customer service provides full-service customer care, safe and secure transactions, and valid tickets delivered before the event while our Buyer Guarantee provides compensation for cancelled events. Live event tickets are often a significant purchase and the more customers understand our value proposition, appreciate that we are a trusted marketplace, develop an affinity for our brand, and interact with our technology, the more transactions we expect to complete. Increase Customer Engagement We want to connect with our customers and we want our customers to connect with us. We aim to close the awareness gap to ensure that fans know when their favorite artists or sports teams are performing or playing near them. Accordingly, we strive to improve the discovery process to help fans attend more of their favorite events. We provide customized content to our customers to enhance their experience while driving continued engagement. We provide a broad selection of competitively priced tickets and we provide access to live stream performances, blog content, and industry news. We also provide personalized recommendations to our ticket buyers. In December 2021, we acquired Betcha, a real money daily fantasy sports app, with social and gamification features. We completed this acquisition to enhance our connection with our customers by providing adjacent features and unique experiences alongside our ticketing marketplace that will enable more frequent engagement. Increase Customer Retention Once customers transact with Vivid Seats, many return and complete additional transactions. We seek to increase both the number and frequency of these repeat customer visits and transactions by having ticket buyers view us as their ticketing platform of choice. We believe the combination of our Vivid Seats Rewards program, increasing brand awareness and ongoing product improvements will drive a more personalized and engaging experience and will 6 result in greater affinity towards our marketplace. As ticket buyers gain a full appreciation of our value proposition relative to other ticketing marketplaces, we anticipate they will increasingly visit our website and mobile applications to complete more transactions with us. Develop Additional Seller Tools and Services We enable our ticket sellers to thrive by offering products and services that support their business needs. Our proprietary Skybox platform helps ticket sellers manage their inventory, set pricing, fulfill orders, and track sales. We have a proud history of innovating to support our ticket sellers and continue to develop additional tools and service offerings that address existing problems or add efficiency to the sales and fulfillment process. As we increase the quality and depth of our seller tools, we will attract additional sellers and listings to our platform, reinforce our existing seller relationships and reduce friction. We anticipate this will result in more transactions in our marketplace. Expand our Partnerships Partnerships are an important and additive part of our ecosystem. They help generate ticket sales, drive traffic to our website and mobile applications and build brand recognition. Our partner ecosystem includes: • Content Rights Holders (“CRH”) . Teams, leagues and venues engage with us in partnerships in which we receive certain marketing or advertising rights in exchange for a monetary commitment. We may also receive ticket allotments, or the right to purchase tickets, from CRH partners. • Media Partners . We have partnered with well-known media companies to integrate our branding, promotions and links to allow their users to access and purchase tickets from us. We broaden our reach by working with media partners and we enhance their users' experiences by providing a wide variety of tickets at competitive prices. Our partnership with ESPN, for example, exposes our tickets sellers’ inventory to new audiences who are interested in attending a variety of live sporting events. • Product and Service Partners . We partner with providers of related products and services when they are additive to our customers' experiences. For example, we offer ticket buyers the option to purchase ticket insurance and are exploring several relevant adjacencies that we anticipate will be additive to the customer experience. • Distribution Partners . We allow our distribution partners to offer event tickets to their existing customers by leveraging our technology, fulfillment and customer service capabilities. We will continue to seek out mutually beneficial partnerships in our existing ecosystem and other categories that improve the experience for our customers while leveraging our existing brand, traffic and reputation. Our Platform Modern Technology that Delivers a Seamless Experience Our “built in the cloud” technology platform supports all elements of the fan experience. Customers can search for an event, buy or sell a ticket, engage with curated content, and contact customer support. Our technology mission is to continually innovate and deliver market-leading products and services that support the evolving needs of our ticket buyers and sellers. Our scalable, reliable and performant systems power a consumer and partner-facing platform that supports ticket buyers while our tools power inventory management and ticket fulfillment for ticket sellers. Buyers Technology and Products Our consumer systems are architected to respond to the dynamic, fast-paced landscape of the live events industry. Our marketplace, supported by proprietary digital marketing technology, is adept at capitalizing on demand opportunities by bringing ticket buyers to our platform for their desired event and seamlessly supporting their shopping and checkout experience. We continually invest in optimizing our consumer-facing technology across our website and mobile applications. We see opportunities to create engaging and delightful experiences through enticing listings, relevant content, curated recommendations and a seamless checkout process. We power that experience through a host of technology systems that consider historical transactional and engagement behavior, 7 proximity and ticket buyer preferences. We leverage the latest technologies in search, customer relationship management and data analytics and incorporate these capabilities into our advanced and flexible infrastructure. Seller Technology and Products Our premier enterprise resource planning tool, Skybox, enables ticket sellers to manage, price and fulfill their inventory. Utilizing a cloud-based technology infrastructure and a web-based application interface, Skybox serves as an asset to the entire ticket seller ecosystem. We invest in building capabilities that serve the needs of small, medium and large ticket sellers alike, including offering free integrations to other inventory distribution channels and third-party tools. Skybox allows ticket sellers to more effectively move their inventory, which in turn could help increase the number of orders transacted in our marketplace. Partner Technology and Products Our platform allows distribution partners to bring additional ticket buyer demand into our ecosystem. Distribution partners can integrate our event feeds and ticket listings into their online properties through application programming interfaces (“APIs”) or fully-managed web sites. We also provide turn-key checkout, customer service and fulfillment. This offering increases the number of ticket buyers and sellers accessing our platform, allowing us to leverage our scale to drive operational and marketplace efficiencies while enabling our partners to offer additional products to their customers. Technology Infrastructure Our platform is extensible and flexible. We can integrate with new partners, target new customer channels, access new supply bases, and connect with complementary technologies. We have scalable and reliable systems. We continue to build and modernize our technology infrastructure to support the growth of our marketplace. We can handle increases from unpredictable surges in site traffic across our ticket buyer, seller and partner platform. We utilize a host of technology availability, monitoring and scaling solutions to respond to rapid changes for a business that operates around the clock. Our technology architecture is service-oriented, cloud-based, and modular. Each individual component of our architecture is independent. We can innovate quickly, increase development velocity and leverage new development technologies available in the market. We can also scale our platform to meet changing levels of ticket buyer demand and evolving ticket seller needs. Third-Party Developers Our APIs allow a broad ecosystem of third-party tools and systems to integrate with our platform. Third-party tools integrate with our marketplace ticket broker API and ticket broker portal to streamline and automate the sales and fulfillment process. Our Skybox enterprise resource planning integrates with numerous third-party automation and workflow management solutions. Thus, ticket sellers can leverage other applications and functions to support the specific needs of their business. Our Values Our passion and excitement for live events drives us to provide memorable experiences and services to our customers and partners. Our values ground us in all that we do: • We Create Exceptional Experiences. Whether we are engaging with a ticket buyer, seller, partner or teammate, we do not compromise when it comes to their experience. We hold ourselves accountable and lean into every connection to make the moment count. • We Raise the Bar. We shape our industry. We are ambitious and disciplined teammates who make smart plays and get better every day. • We Commit as a Team. We are one team that trusts and supports each other, and we are ready to tackle the most difficult challenges. 8 • We Embrace Change. The only constant is change; we are ready for it. As a team, we are energized by working with speed and agility to anticipate both the known and unknown. • We Enhance Communities. We invest in our communities. We are united in raising awareness around causes close to our hearts and are passionate about giving back. o We are proud to partner with Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital, one of the country’s top-ranked pediatric institutions, by bringing joy to patients and their families. Our employees have recorded bedtime stories, donated wish list gifts and hosted patients and their families at live events. o Starting in 2020, the live entertainment industry was severely impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in thousands of people having an uncertain future. We, and our customers, have donated millions of dollars to the Recording Academy’s charity, MusiCares, to support those in the music community and their families. Employees and Human Capital We aim to hire talented, dedicated and diverse team members. The main objectives of our human capital resources are identifying, recruiting, developing, incentivizing and retaining our existing and new employees. Our talent management team identifies key positions based on current and future business strategies and creates robust programs for talent development. Our succession planning includes identifying key roles, evaluating bench strength, building redundancy, and identifying potential successors. As of December 31, 2021, we had 430 full-time employees. Competition Our business faces significant competition from other primary and secondary ticketing service providers to acquire new and retain existing ticket buyers and sellers. The main competitive factors are: • availability and variety of ticket offerings; • pricing, including pricing in the primary ticket market; • brand recognition; and • technology, including functionality and ease of use to search for offerings and complete a purchase. We believe we have several competitive advantages that enable us to maintain and grow our position as a leading secondary ticket provider: • wide selection of listings and ticketing options; • competitive pricing; • Vivid Seats Rewards, the most comprehensive loyalty program among our key competitors; • full-service marketplace with excellent customer service; and • free-to-use Skybox enterprise resource planning tool for our ticket sellers. Our key competitors are StubHub, Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and TicketNetwork. With our real money daily fantasy sports gaming offering on our Betcha app, we face a highly competitive gaming market, including other free-to-play and real money online gaming and daily fantasy sports providers. We believe we provide a differentiated product and experience to users with an easy-to-use app with simple player props. The app is enhanced by social and gamification features and the opportunity to play and win real money. We also face competition from other avenues for entertainment. Consumers have a wide array of entertainment options including restaurants, movies and television and we compete for the discretionary spend of our ticket buyers and users. 9 Government Regulation Government regulation impacts key aspects of our business. These laws and regulations involve: • privacy, • data protection, • intellectual property, • competition, • consumer protection, • ticketing, • payments, • export taxation, and • sports gaming. For example, we are required to comply with federal, state and international laws regarding privacy and the storing, sharing, use, disclosure and protection of personally identifiable information and user data, an area that is increasingly subject to legislation and regulations in numerous jurisdictions, including the California Consumer Protection Act. From time to time, federal, state, local and international authorities and/or consumers commence investigations, inquiries or litigation with respect to our compliance with applicable consumer protection, advertising, unfair business practice, antitrust (and similar or related laws) and other laws, particularly as related to ticket resale services. Some jurisdictions prohibit the resale of event tickets at prices above the face value of the tickets or at all, or highly regulate the resale of tickets. New laws and regulations or changes to existing laws and regulations imposing these or other restrictions could limit or inhibit our ability to operate, or our ticket buyers’ and sellers’ ability to continue to use, our ticket marketplace. In addition, state ticketing laws vary from state to state, and it is unclear how such laws will be applied to our business as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced a high volume of event reschedules, postponements, and cancellations and made certain changes to our refund practices. Although we have restored our refund policies to be consistent with our policies pre-pandemic, such changes to our refund practices have drawn the attention of, and inquiry from, various attorneys general and other regulators. We are subject to laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the Internet in many jurisdictions where we operate. With the continued state adoption of Internet sales tax laws and marketplace facilitator laws, more buyers across the United States will encounter sales tax for the first time on our platform in the future. Tax collection responsibility and the additional costs associated with complex sales and use tax collection, remittance and audit requirements could create additional burdens for ticket buyers and sellers on our website and mobile applications. Many of the laws and regulations to which we are subject are still evolving and being tested in courts and could be interpreted in ways that could harm our business. In addition, the application and interpretation of these laws and regulations often are uncertain, particularly in the rapidly evolving industry in which we operate. Compliance with these laws, regulations, and similar requirements may be onerous and expensive, and variances and inconsistencies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction may further increase the cost of compliance and doing business. Intellectual Property Our business relies substantially on the creation, use and protection of intellectual property related to our platform and services. We protect our intellectual property through a combination of trademarks, domain names, copyrights and trade secrets, and we are currently pursuing patent protection in connection with certain technology developments. We further protect our intellectual property through contractual provisions with employees, customers, suppliers, partners, affiliates and others, including, but not limited to, employee confidentiality and 10 intellectual property assignment agreements, and commercial contracts that protect our intellectual property and other confidential information. Seasonality Our financial results can be impacted by seasonality, with increased activity in the fourth quarter when all major sports leagues are in season and we experience an increase in order volume for theater and concert events during the holiday season. About the Company Vivid Seats was founded in 2001 and in 2004, we launched our website www.vividseats.com. We initially focused on developing and refining our proprietary systems to enable us to best serve our customers who are both ticket buyers and ticket sellers. We launched Skybox in 2014, a free-to-use cloud-based enterprise resource planning tool for sellers to manage their business, and first deployed our mobile application in 2015 to capture the increasing volume of tickets purchased through mobile channels. We have continued to innovate with ongoing updates and upgrades of our systems and products. In March of 2021, we incorporated an entity in Delaware for the purpose of completing the transactions contemplated by the transaction agreement dated April 21, 2021 (the “Transaction Agreement”) among Horizon Acquisition Corporation (“Horizon”), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, Horizon Sponsor, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, Hoya Intermediate, LLC ("Hoya Intermediate") and Hoya Topco, LLC (“Hoya Topco”), a Delaware limited liability company. In October 2021, as contemplated by the Transaction Agreement, Horizon merged with us (the “Merger Transaction”), upon which the separate corporate existence of Horizon ended and we remained as the surviving entity. At the same time, we became a publicly traded company listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”) with our Class A common stock trading under the symbol "SEAT" and warrants trading under the symbol "SEATW." Our internet address is www.vividseats.com. At our Investor Relations website, investors.vividseats.com, we make available free of charge a variety of information for investors, including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file that material with or furnish it to the SEC. Material contained on our Internet site is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.