Case Study: Livingston Classic PBR Harnesses the Power of Online Premium Seating Tickets

Featuring the world’s top 35 bull riders and 60,000 pounds of bucking bulls, the Livingston Classic PBR is Livingston, Montana’s premier sporting event. Now in its tenth year, the Livingston Classic PBR is held at the Park Country Fairgrounds, with a capacity of 5,000 total seats. Of those, 700-800 are sold at a premium as reserved seating because many of the seats are covered and all face the chute from which the riders and bulls explode.

Founded by twenty bull riders 23 years ago, The Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) is an international professional bull riding organization. It has since grown into an international sports phenomenon which has awarded more than $140 million in prize money. More than 100 million viewers annually watch primetime PBR programming on networks around the world, including CBS and CBS Sports Network.

Challenge: Wrangling Premier Seating

Tickets for the event were sold at various outlets, and tracking how many as well as assigning them was, in the words of management, “a wild goose chase.” To reconcile what was sold and what was not, Livingston Classic PBR management physically collected all the sold tickets, then manually assigned and reconciled the premium, reserved seats against the venue’s seating chart.

Solution: Online reserved ticket sales, a mobile management platform, and easy-to-integrate marketing tools

Instantly, running all over town was a thing of the past. Through Eventgroove’s intuitive, interactive seating chart, guests could  purchase and reserve their premium seats via their phones or tablets.  To access sales and seating information, all management had to do was open the EG Mobile Dashboard.

Marketing tickets was streamlined, too. Eventgrooves’s email marketing functionality enabled the Livingston Classic PBR to virtually harvest sales through email blasts. Using one of Eventgroove’s customizable templates auto-filled with event information, the Livingston Classic PBR created on-brand printed tickets and flyers and enabled powerful marketing outreach.

From 2012 (when the Livingston Classic PBR began using Eventgroove) to present, there has been 200% annual growth rate in ticket sales. In 2019, the event completely sold out in record time thanks to Eventgroove’s marketing tools and the ease with which customers could purchase and reserve seats online.

“When you can sell out of premium seating, your event is pretty much paid for, and Eventgroove is a key component to the success of ticket sales for the Livingston Classic PBR.”