Entertainment event ticket purchase and exchange system

摘要

An electronic ticket exchange system has a market-making system by which patrons submit bids over a limited time period for seats of different quality. A trading system provides for a secondary market in which patrons who have purchased tickets for an event can sell them to other patrons. All of the rights associated with a ticket, such as entry into the venue, are stored in electronic form. An electronic venue entry control system verifies that a person owns an electronic ticket property right, and authorizes the privileges associated with the ticket, such as entry to the venue. A seating system is employed to determine an optimal seating configuration based upon patron-specific preferences, after the initial sale of tickets and prior to entry into the venue.

主权项

1. A system for selling and exchanging electronic tickets for entertainment events, comprising:
a patron interface via which a first patron purchases an electronic ticket for an entertainment event at a venue from a vendor; a database storing:
(i) identifying information about at least the first patron and a second patron, and(ii) a token representing the electronic ticket purchased via said patron interface by the first patron, said token being associated with the identifying information about the first patron that is stored in the database; a trading system via which the electronic ticket for the entertainment event that was purchased by the first patron, and represented by the token stored in said database, can be transferred by the first patron to the second patron, wherein the association of said token is transferred from the identifying information about the first patron to the identifying information about the second patron within said database; a payment system that stores profile information regarding at least an account of the first patron and an account of the second patron, and that is configured to:
(i) automatically debit the account of the first patron for the purchase of the electronic ticket,(ii) automatically credit the account of the first patron when the electronic ticket is transferred to the second patron via said trading system, and(iii) automatically debit the account of the second patron when the electronic ticket is transferred to the second patron via said trading system; and an entry system having at least one access control device with a reader at the venue of a current event, which is responsive to presenting of identifying information pertaining to an entering patron at said reader to:
(i) communicate with said database to determine that the presented identifying information pertaining to the entering patron is associated with the token representing the electronic ticket for the entertainment event which is the current event, and(ii) in response to said determination to automatically provide the entering patron who is determined to be associated with the electronic ticket with physical access to the venue at which the entertainment event is being presented.