DEAG promotes Moritz Schwenkow to CTTO
Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) CTO Moritz Schwenkow has been elevated to chief ticketing and technology officer (CTTO) at the company.
Schwenkow was appointed CTO in 2020, taking charge of DEAG’s entire ticketing business, including MyTicket in Germany, Austria and the UK, and the UK’s Gigantic, acquired in December 2019.
In addition to his existing duties, Berlin-based Schwenkow will assume strategic responsibility for digitalisation and technology including the exploration and introduction of new systems and infrastructures. He will also focus on further developing and leveraging synergies between DEAG’s ticketing platforms.
The move takes into account the ongoing developments in ticketing tech and digitisation while underscoring the sector’s importance to DEAG’s wider operations.
“We will continue to use new technologies such as blockchain technology and NFTs to further strengthen our position in the market and expand into new markets”
“We are already excellently positioned on the international ticketing market with our state-of-the-art platforms,” says Schwenkow, son of DEAG CEO Peter. “The digitalisation of the event industry has gained even more momentum, not least due to the corona pandemic. This not only affects areas such as e-ticketing, but also new digital formats.
“With our Nature One and Mayday livestreams, we anticipated new trends early on and showed that we can react quickly to new circumstances. We will continue to use new technologies such as blockchain technology and NFTs to further strengthen our position in the market and expand into new markets. This will enable us to continue to offer our customers first-class entertainment – digitally and locally.”
DEAG recently reported the most successful summer in its 44-year history, with more than three million tickets sold for the promoter’s events. A record total of 3.1m people are scheduled to attend DEAG shows in Germany, UK, Ireland, Switzerland and Denmark between June and August.
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DEAG appoints Schwenkow chief ticketing officer
Moritz Schwenkow, CEO of MyTicket, has been appointed chief ticketing officer (CTO) of Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG).
As CTO, Schwenkow, 38, will be responsible for DEAG’s entire ticketing business, including MyTicket in Germany, Austria and the UK, and the UK’s Gigantic, acquired in December 2019. He is tasked with “develop[ing] synergies” between the four, as well as spearheading further expansion into other European countries.
Schwenkow (pictured), son of DEAG CEO Peter, moves into his new role on 1 April 2020, following more than 15 years working in live entertainment. He is also appointed a member of DEAG’s executive board.
DEAG currently sells more than five millions tickets annually, and aims to at least double that figure in the years to come, according to the Berlin-based company.
“With Moritz’s expertise and market knowledge, he will continue to drive the successful expansion of our ticketing business”
“I am very much looking forward to working together with my colleagues on the board,” comments Moritz Schwenkow. “The DEAG group is already excellently positioned internationally in the area of ticketing through MyTicket and Gigantic.
“On this strong basis and as a result of increasing digitalisation, we want to continue to grow, provide impulses for other business areas and further expand our earnings power in the years to come.”
Wolf-Dieter Gramatke, chairman of DEAG’s board, adds: “Moritz Schwenkow has extensive knowhow in the live entertainment industry. With his expertise and market knowledge, he will continue to drive our successful expansion of the ticketing business and further strengthen our position in the market.”
DEAG reported its 2019 financial results earlier this week.
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MyTicket appoints Lukas Goy as COO
Lukas Goy, who previously worked as operations manager at MyTicket, has been promoted to COO of the German ticketing company.
As reported by MusikWoche, Goy will join the management team at MyTicket, headed up by CEO Moritz Schwenkow. Prior to his position at MyTicket, Goy worked for River Concerts, a subsidiary of MyTicket owner Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG).
“Last year, together with Lukas Goy, we laid the foundation so that MyTicket can be further developed as a premium ticket provider,” says Moritz Schwenkow.
The MyTicket CEO adds that new partnerships with Swiss white-label service Secutix and For Sale Digital, which enable MyTicket to use technologies including blockchain and dynamic pricing, offer “the perfect package to implement the next growth phase of MyTicket”.
“I am convinced that we can continue MyTicket’s successful course in 2020 and that we can continuously expand our market presence”
Goy comments: “I am pleased with the trust placed in me and I am convinced that we can continue MyTicket’s successful course in 2020 and that we can continuously expand our market presence,” says Goy.
MyTicket recorded a successful year in 2019, with strong sales for large events including concerts by Iron Maiden and Böhse Onkelz.
According to DEAG, MyTicket will becomes its “fastest-growing business segment and an important earnings driver in 2020”.
The German live entertainment powerhouse also acquired stakes in promoters I-Motion, C2 Concerts and Live Music Production/Live Music Entertainment, as well as UK ticketing company Gigantic last year.
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DEAG acquires majority stake in UK’s Gigantic Tickets
German live entertainment group DEAG is to acquire a 75% stake in Nottingham-based ticket agency Gigantic, significantly bolstering its UK ticketing business.
Founded in 2007, Gigantic is one of the UK’s largest independent ticket sellers, with some two million registered customers and annual sales of more than a million tickets (via Gigantic.com).
The acquisition – via DEAG’s MyTicket UK (MyTicket Services Ltd) subsidiary – will create synergies between MyTicket.co.uk and MyTicket platforms in Germany and Austria, including expanding the number of non-DEAG-promoted events for which the Berlin-based company sells tickets, according to a DEAG statement.
Gigantic founders Mark Gasson and James Woodward remain shareholders and will continue to manage the company on a long-term basis.
DEAG (Deutsche Entertainment AG) says it expects the number of tickets sold via MyTicket.de, MyTicket.at and MyTicket.co.uk to increase organically to over 1.1 million in the 2019 financial year, with that number growing to 2m+ following the acquisition of Gigantic.
“MyTicket will become DEAG’s fastest-growing business segment and an important earnings driver in 2020”
“MyTicket will thus become DEAG’s fastest-growing business segment and an important earnings driver in 2020,” says the company.
“We are extremely proud that we have established and maintained consistent growth for Gigantic in a competitive marketplace. We now look forward to continuing this growth alongside the committed team at MyTicket,” say Gasson and Woodward in a joint statement.
A MyTicket spokesperson adds: “MyTicket is delighted to be working with Mark and James, who have built a company with a reputation for providing reliable, customer-focused and honest ticketing. Gigantic will remain an independent company and will continue to do great work for promoters, festivals and customers throughout the UK.”
DEAG is the majority owner of leading UK promoter Kilimanjaro Live. Recent acquisitions in the UK, DEAG’s second-largest market, include theatrical producer Flying Music Group, which it bought in late 2017, and Scotland’s Belladrum, which it acquired via Kilimanjaro the following year.
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DEAG on track for record fourth quarter
Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) expects the fourth quarter of 2019 to be “one of the strongest in company history”, with a high number of events and 2020 pre-sales scheduled before the year end.
As explained in its H1 report, DEAG focused the bulk of its sales on the second half of 2019. In the third quarter, sales rose by 70% from €34.8 million to €59.2m, less than €5m short of the total sales accrued in the first six months of the year.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased to €4.9m in Q3, compared to €900,000 in the same period of 2018.
According to DEAG, a “significant share” of tickets for the events and pre-sales taking place in Q4 are being sold through wholly owned ticketing agency MyTicket, which is on course for a record year. DEAG is currently in the final stages of acquiring another ticketing platform.
Although sales for the first nine months of the year are down on 2018, from €152.9m to €123.1, operating EBITDA rose more than 50%, from €5.1m in 2018 to €8m.
DEAG will publish final figures on 29 November together with the quarterly report, available here.
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Major moves: consolidation sweeps the ticketing sector
The past 12 months have seen big-money deals by global firms who have been expanding their reach through buying up existing companies.
Eventim’s major expansion into the €800 million French live music market will see it establish a joint venture with the retailer by the end of 2019. Under the proposed new structure, Eventim would acquire 48% of France Billet, with an option to increase its holding to a majority stake over the next four years. It is folding its Eventim French business into the partnership, and the established brands – which in addition to Francebillet.com include Fnacspectacles.com and Billetreduc.com – will remain in operation.
This move will be a blow for Paris-headquartered multimedia conglomeration Vivendi, which owns the local company Digitick and was the third-largest competitor behind France Billet and Ticketmaster.
Leapfrogging its rivals, Eventim has secured the top position in the ticketing space. However, it currently does not have a promoter presence in France, unlike Live Nation or Vivendi, the latter of which owns the venues L’Olympia (1,996-cap.) and Theâtre de L’Œuvre (326-cap.) in Paris, as well as Olympia Production, the operator of a number of French festivals including Les Déferlantes (12,000-cap.) and Garorock (45,000-cap.).
In 2017-18, Eventim bought three significant promoters in Italy – Vertigo, Friends and Partners, and D’Alessandro e Galli (Di and Gi) – solidifying its brand TicketOne as the dominant ticketer in the country after Ticketmaster opened operations there in 2017.
On the other side of the world, Live Nation Entertainment’s (LNE) $480m decision to buy a 51% stake in Ocesa Entertainment, the largest promoter in Latin America, and owner of Ticketmaster Mexico, is noteworthy.
Promoting about 3,100 shows a year, Ocesa reportedly sold 3.8m tickets in 2018. Ticketmaster Mexico is comfortably the country’s biggest ticket seller, with around 37m tickets sold each year.
While LNE and Ocesa have had a long partnership, this move significantly enhances the global entertainment company’s footprint
While LNE and Ocesa have had a long partnership through touring, festivals and the Ticketmaster brand, this move significantly enhances the global entertainment company’s footprint.
It demonstrates LNE’s growing confidence in the Latin American market and will likely lead to an increasing number of tours by international talent to the continent, and potentially further acquisitions of promoters, ticketing companies or venues.
What impact it will have on Ticketmaster in the US, where the second language is Spanish, remains to be seen. The Spanish- language market in the US is arguably currently underserved, and this could be seen as an internal growth opportunity for the global behemoth.
But more importantly, this could be part of a wider move by LNE into Latin America, where the firm historically has no major presence. Last year it acquired one of Argentina’s top promoters, DF Entertainment, while earlier in 2018, it took a stake in one of the largest music festivals in the world, Rock in Rio (100,000-cap), recently increasing its holding to 60%, which could be a sign that Ticketmaster is preparing to make a move into Brazil. Does this indicate a strategy of expansion across the region? We’ll have to wait and see.
LNE-owned Ticketmaster also bought Australia and New Zealand’s most significant independent ticketing company, Moshtix, in February, further expanding its presence in a market where it competes fiercely with TEG’s Ticketek.
Although it’s not likely to shift the balance of power, Ticketmaster’s move will add another indie brand to its suite of ticketing platforms.
Meanwhile, TEG grew its Asian reach by buying the Philippines-based ticketing company TicketWorld. This adds to its existing interests in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau. As well as major international tours by the likes of Guns N’ Roses and Katy Perry, TicketWorld has a strong presence in the local theatre market, and provides ticket services to Philippines’ venues including Solaire Resort and Casino, Resorts World Manila, BGC Arts Center and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
What we can say is that the last 12 months have seen no sign of the trend for consolidation slowing down – and it may just be hotting up even further
“We see great opportunities in many Asian markets and our strategy puts us on course to becoming a truly pan-Asian promoter,” said TEG CEO Geoff Jones at the time.
While not strictly new acquisitions, DEAG continued its policy of wholly owning companies by completing the purchase of the MyTicket platform, which going forward will be powered by the Secutix SaaS solution, while Eventim completed its takeover of German online movie ticketing platform Kinoheld and Scandinavian ticketing solution Venuepoint.
So what’s next? In the fast-moving world of ticketing, it’s hard to say.
India’s BookMyShow sells some 20m tickets a month, mainly in the cinema sector, but is looking to grow further into live entertainment. In 2018, COO of non-films at BookMyShow Albert Almeida told the Economic Times the firm wants to increase its revenues from non-cinema events from 30% to 50% by 2020.
It is one of the ticketing partners at the newly opened Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai and is addressing a lack of infrastructure in its home country by building its touring venues and producing its own shows. At a recent fundraising round, the company was valued at $1 billion, and there is still huge potential in the country of 1.3bn people. But maybe it will look to acquire in new markets, or further consolidate its position in the Middle East.
Another interesting area is the growing trend of Chinese companies taking an interest in Western music companies (for example, Tencent acquired a 10% stake in Universal Music, with an option to take another 10% in a year). Could we see a Chinese firm take an interest in a ticketing company outside of its homeland?
What we can say is that the last 12 months have seen no sign of the trend for consolidation slowing down – and it may just be hotting up even further.
For more insight into the state of the global ticketing industry, read IQ’s International Ticketing Yearbook 2019.
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DEAG plans further EU expansion for strong H2
German live event powerhouse Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) forges on with its buy-and-build strategy, after reporting a decline in sales for the first half (H1) of 2019.
Despite reporting a strong start to 2019, sales in the first half of the year are down, with operating earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation (EBITDA) also decreasing, from €4.2 million in 2018 to €3.1m.
In its 2019 H1 financial report, DEAG attributes the decline in sales of almost 46%, from €118m in H1 2018 to €63.9m, to the “’seasonal postponement’ of certain events”. For example, DEAG organised twelve high revenue-generating Ed Sheeran shows in the second quarter of last year, whereas the company’s six Sheeran concerts in 2019 fall in the third quarter.
DEAG attributes the decline in sales to the “seasonal postponement of certain events”
Q3 2019 is forecast to be successful all round, with concerts by Böhse Onkelz, Foreigner, Stereophonics, Limp Bizkit and Toto expected to contribute to revenues of €55m, 60% more than the same period last year.
DEAG also says it plans to continue its 2019 buying spree, adding to recently acquired controlling stakes in Stuttgart-based C2 Concerts, Swiss concert organisers LMP and LME, LiveStyle’s German arm I-Motion and Schlager powerhouse Mewes Entertainment.
Finally, the use of the DEAG-owned MyTicket platform to distribute more than half a million tickets will also contribute to “one of the strongest fourth quarters in company history”.
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DEAG heralds open-air concert success
German live entertainment giant DEAG has had a successful summer season so far, profiting from recent European investments.
DEAG sold 110,000 tickets for open-air events Sion Sous Les Étoiles in Switzerland, Scotland’s Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival and Germany’s Nature One in Germany. All events were sold out.
DEAG made three promoter acquisitions last month, most recently taking a majority stake in Sion Sous Les Étoiles (Sion under the stars) promoter Live Music Production, along with sister company Live Music Entertainment.
A few weeks before, the powerhouse bought into Livestyle’s German subsidiary I-Motion, the promoter of rave event Nature One.
“We are not only contributing to strengthening our profitability, but also providing growth impetus in our ticketing business”
DEAG increased its shareholding in German ticketer MyTicket, which provided the ticketing for Kilimanjaro-promoted Belladrum, in January.
“We are supplementing our organic growth by expanding our own successful entertainment formats with very selective M&A activities,” comments DEAG chief executive Peter Schwenkow.
“All three open-air events are great proof of how successful we are. We are not only contributing to strengthening our profitability, but also providing growth impetus in our ticketing business. Via MyTicket we sell tickets for all our events, as well as third-party content.”
DEAG has also recently taken a majority stake in Stuttgart-based promoter C2 Concerts.
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DEAG acquires MyTicket, partners with SecuTix
In line with its recent strategy of eliminating all minority shareholdings, Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) has acquired the remaining 24.9% of shares in MyTicket from publishing company Axel Springer SE.
DEAG increased its shareholding in mytic myticket AG, the company behind its MyTicket.de and MyTicket.at ticketing platforms, last July, bringing its total holding up to 75.1%. The buy-out of Alex Springer, the publisher of Bild, Die Welt and Fakt, and the largest digital publishing house in Europe, means MyTicket is now 100% owned by DEAG.
“Many thanks to our partners from Axel Springer SE for working together to establish MyTicket AG in the start-up phase, and I look forward to continuing our close cooperation in the other areas as before,” comments DEAG CEO Peter Schwenkow. “The market shares of MyTicket AG are growing strongly, and with MyTicket.de and MyTicket.at it has developed into one of the leading electronic ticket platforms.
“The transaction will enable us to further implement our strategic goals; the acquisition of the shares in MyTicket will enable us to increase earnings per share over the next few years. In addition, we will continue to expand DEAG’s ticketing business and intend to expand further internationally. After the introduction phase, with millions of tickets sold and hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers, the team can now implement the next phase of the growth course.”
“Both the repurchase of all shares and the upcoming ticketing software exchange are decisive steps for MyTicket in 2019”
DEAG has also announced a new partnership with Swiss white-label ticketing platform SecuTix, beginning this summer. SecuTix, which offers software as a service (SaaS) solutions for concerts, festivals, sporting events and more, will enable MyTicket to implement “the latest technologies, such as blockchain and dynamic pricing” in order to “be able to act in a customer-oriented manner and prevent a secondary market from forming”.
“Both the repurchase of all shares and the upcoming ticketing software exchange are decisive steps for MyTicket in 2019, in strengthening the company for future tasks and challenges,” says MyTicket CEO Moritz Schwenkow. “Furthermore, this will enable us to market the events of the DEAG family and new, innovative formats in direct communication with our customers in an even more targeted manner.”
Frédéric Longatte, CEO of SecuTix, adds: “We are very proud to be able to contribute to the continued success of MyTicket with [ticketing solution] SecuTix 360°. SecuTix has extensive experience in all genres that MyTicket offers on its portal. With our ticketing engagement platform, we are the ideal partner for MyTicket to offer promoters and events, be it sports, festivals or culture, a powerful solution for marketing and distribution.”
According to the International Ticketing Yearbook 2018, CTS Eventim – Europe’s largest ticket seller – is by far the market leader in Germany, with Ticketmaster Germany and MyTicket among its competitors.
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DEAG to issue bond after strong H1 2018
Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) has announced plans to issue a new corporate bond to finance further growth after a strong start to 2018.
According to provisional financial results, the Berlin-based promoter recorded a 34.2% increase in turnover in the first half (H1) of 2018, to €118 million – up from €87.9m the previous year –while earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) grew to €8.1m, from €2.2m in H1 2017.
The figures are adjusted to account for the recent acquisition of 49% of DEAG Classics and the sale of Raymond Gubbay Ltd, with a profit on deconsolidation of €5.3m.
According to the company, “a number of event highlights contributed to its positive development [in H1 2018]. For instance, DEAG had a successful first half year with open-air events, rock/pop tours, classical events, theatre productions and events for the entire family, as well as the ticketing business, in its core markets.
“With a well-filled pipeline of events and over 2m tickets already sold, DEAG has a solid basis for further development”
“DEAG’s operations are thus well on target for 2018 as a whole. Besides its positive development, measures were also taken to increase the earnings per share attributable to shareholders by reducing minority interests. For example, DEAG acquired 49% of DEAG Classics AG and now holds 100% of the shares. Furthermore, DEAG bought back 24.9% of the shares in MyTicket AG and now holds 75.1% of the company.
“DEAG also underscored the growth focus of its business in the UK by acquiring 100% of the shares of the Belladrum Festival in Scotland, which sold out for the ninth consecutive year in 2018.
“With a well-filled pipeline of events and over two million tickets already sold, DEAG has a solid basis for further development in the financial year. The executive board confirms the sales and earnings forecast for the full year 2018.”
DEAG has appointed IKB Deutsche Industriebank of Dusseldorf to handle the issuing of the bond, expected later in the year.
DEAG’s final H1 2018 results will be published in full tomorrow (31 August).
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