Curtis Cheng, the founder and CEO of DTI Management, based in Virginia, dropped out of college to get into the ticketing business. He started as a traditional ticket broker, sold that company in 2006, and then got into beverage distribution. That’s where he learned everything about dissemination of products and how difficult logistics can be. With this knowledge under his belt he returned to tackle the ticketing world in 2012.
What do you see as DTI’s role in the future of the ticketing industry?
We want to change the culture of how a customer buys a ticket. Right now, you can’t buy a parking pass, you can’t buy merchandise and you can’t order food and beverage ahead of time. These are all actions that can be handled on ecommerce.
We’re trying to create shopping carts that allow consumers to purchase all the products they want in one place. It happened really quickly for the travel companies like Expedia and Sabre who are selling hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises and, now, experiences. We’re trying to push on all angles, and I think in three to five years, we’ll see a drastic change.
Have you had any issues getting the rightsholders on board?
The content holders control the destiny of our industry. The owners need to get comfortable with the idea that their fans want to buy tickets where they want to buy them. Mini-plans and season ticket packages should be distributed by the team, but I see all single game tickets being sold on ecommerce very soon. How much would Coca-Cola sell if they only sold it in Walmart? The key for any product is to reach as many consumers and get on as many shelves as possible.
What exactly does DTI Management do?
DTI Management is a platform for the ticket distribution of sports and live entertainment content. Our goal is to be the central part of distribution for the content holders to reach the retail outlets. There are hundreds of thousands of outlets that sell tickets and it’s quite difficult to reach all of them in an efficient manner; it’s even more difficult to fulfill all those orders and manage those relationships. We’ve recently moved into the content space, where our goal is to provide a controlled environment to distribute inventory. We have data-sharing plans directly with teams and tools that allow them to reach the outlets in an efficient way.
Did you model this on other industries?
Yes, we modeled this on the travel industry. Sabre is a middleman that sits between the customer and the airlines. We want to be the central point between the fan and the rights-holder, and we believe the end consumer will pay less for a ticket and the rightsholders will make more money.
How has growth been?
Our first year, in 2013, we did a little under $100 million in gross ticket sales. We’ve grown 70 to 80 percent every year since.
How is the ticketing industry changing?
It’s going through a complete evolution. It changes every six months and, with Amazon coming in, we expect it to change again. We haven’t defined yet how the industry will look in the future. There are a lot of companies that want to keep the status quo and other companies that are innovating and moving the industry forward. We like to consider DTI an innovative company.
What made you get back into ticketing after being a beverage distributor?
To apply what I had learned. In 2012, we formed DTI Management. We gave a version of the platform to all the brokers in our space, which allowed them to manage their inventory through our platform. This allows brokers to focus on what they are best at — buying a ticket and selling a ticket.
Do you have investment capital?
In August 2016, we raised $75 million from CVC Capital Partners to improve our tech platform and create a liquidity event for some of our stockholders. New Amsterdam Capital is another investor.
What do you love about being in this business?
We’re in a very dynamic space that’s moving very quickly. That’s what makes it exciting. It’s refreshing to see people trying to do it a different way. We want to bring the best minds in ticketing and match them up with the best minds in technology to create the ultimate ticket distribution system.