News & Insight
Two Circles has acquired Sports Ink Ltd to further bolster its industry-leading sports ticket and hospitality marketing capabilities. Following the deal Two Circles is now working on ticketing and hospitality briefs for the next editions of the world’s five most-attended major sports events, including the FIFA World Cup.
Since December 2012, Sports Ink has used innovative pricing and revenue planning to generate over 30 million ticket and hospitality sales worth in excess of $2 billion for major events including the 2016 Olympic Games, 2017 IAAF World Championships, and 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Sports Ink founder Paul Williamson (pictured) – who as London 2012 Director of Ticketing, built the commercial team and sales strategy that generated $1 billion in revenue from 11 million ticket sales – will join Two Circles as a full-time Director.
Two Circles will also take on all existing Sports Ink clients and projects, which include the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, 2022 UEFA Women’s Euro in England, 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and 2022 Men’s ICC T20 World Cup.
Gareth Balch, CEO of Two Circles, said: “Post-Covid we project a period of record demand for live sports experiences. Sports Ink’s proprietary end-to-end commercial solutions will enable us to tap into this demand and strengthen our ability to reach new audiences and maximise event-day revenue for our clients’ events. Paul’s experience and leadership will also play a central role in our evolving ticketing and hospitality offering going forward.”
Paul Williamson added: “I’ve witnessed first-hand the impact Two Circles’ marketing strategies and technology have had in attracting more people to live sport and driving sustainable eventday revenue growth. The addition of Sports Ink’s major event experience will strengthen Two Circles’ capabilities in ticketing and hospitality marketing, and I’m excited to contribute to the development of Two Circles’ service-led product offering.”
Two Circles is the leader in end-to-end ticketing and hospitality marketing for premium sports events, processing and analysing more sports ticketing and hospitality data than any other sports specialist since 2011 and helping events such as the ICC Cricket World Cup and golf’s Open Championship deliver record attendances and revenue.
The Sports Ink deal marks Two Circles’ second acquisition in as many months following the acquisition of TRM Partners, the leading independent sports rights-sales business, in November 2020. Between 2014 and 2020, TRM was responsible for $700 million in deals for sports rights-owners including the NFL, UEFA, ICC, Chelsea FC and AC Milan and has been integrated into Two Circles through the creation of a new Rights Management function.