Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Business
David Marsland and Rachelle Abbott

OPINION - Viagogo’s Cris Miller on why people pay so much for events like Wimbledon: How to be a CEO podcast

Cris Miller, doesn’t give many interviews but the online secondary ticket market he helped pioneer, and the company he’s global MD for, Viagogo, have been taking a reputational battering. Over the last twenty years, he’s faced a range of crises from an initially sceptical market, to a major rival announcing a competitive service… to a global pandemic shutting down the world.

In this interview we talk about:

  • Why his first employer, StubHub, was set up because its founder couldn’t get tickets for a date
  • How the company saw the opportunity in a fragmented, untrustworthy secondary ticket market
  • Why it’s the buyer that sets the market value of a ticket, not the seller
  • The “constant hustle” to find and secure partners to help get the start-up off the ground
  • Why the company wasn’t “really ready” for government scrutiny
  • The £300 million hit they took during the covid pandemic, and how they survived
  • Advice on when the best time to buy a ticket on the secondary market might be

Listen above, or wherever you stream your podcasts.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.