A website that aims to reshape how Europeans buy and sell unused tickets to sports matches was unveiled last week, with around £10 million ($18.85 million) in venture financing and big-league soccer club backers. Eric Auchard reports...

Viagogo.com, of London, said it plans to apply the strategy of StubHub.com - the most popular US online site for fans seeking to buy last-minute sports tickets - based on a unique connection between the two companies.

Founder and CEO Eric Baker was co-founder and president of StubHub before leaving the company in 2004 to move to Europe and start Viagogo.

The London-based company said it has signed partnership deals with Chelsea Football Club and Manchester United to create official exchanges so fans can avoid buying tickets from touts outside sports venues.

While Viagogo's initial focus is on sports tickets, its newly launched website also features links to music concert and theatre and arts events.

"We estimate that the secondary ticketing market in Europe is currently worth approximately 4-5 billion pounds a year, of which the UK market accounts for in excess of one billion pounds annually," Baker said.

StubHub.com has a string of similar partnership deals with American football, basketball and ice hockey franchises.

The San Francisco-based company ranks as the fourth most popular online ticketing site in the United States according to web audience measurement firm Hitwise Inc. and is the largest sports-focused site.

"We are not affiliated in any way or form," StubHub spokesman Sean Pate said of Viagogo.

"They certainly are somewhat mimicking the StubHub model. That's probably smart business," he said.

However, an industry source said Baker remains a passive stakeholder in StubHub. He was under no agreement not to form a competitive business, the source said.

StubHub expects to sell $350 million to $450 million in gross merchandise this year, Pate said.

A little over half of the transactions are for sporting events. It also has branched out to supply tickets for concerts and other events.

The new service, at http://www.viagogo.com, allows season ticket holders at some of Britain's biggest sports clubs to legally sell unwanted tickets to club members or other season ticket holders for soccer games, the company said.

Viagogo said its deal with Chelsea makes it the official online ticket reselling market for the next three years.

Under 1990s laws designed to thwart football hooliganism, it is illegal for fans in Britain to resell tickets outside official ticket registration programmes.

After its initial introduction in Britain, Viagogo plans to open up a German site and eventually expand Europe-wide, the company said.

Viagogo's investors include Danny Rimer, a general partner at European venture capital firm Index Ventures, and financier Lord Jacob Rothschild. Index Ventures is lead outside investor in the company, which has received $20 million to date.

Brent Hoberman, co-founder and former chief executive of lastminute.com and David Katz, head of sports and entertainment within Yahoo Inc.'s media group sit on the company's advisory board, along with Rimer and others.

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