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I found some very cool news in my inbox this morning. One of our newest BattlePass clients, Xtreme Fighting Championships, has inked a very cool deal with MTV.

XFC President John Prisco and crew put on shows in Tampa to crowds averaging over 10,000, making him the largest regional promoter in the United States. In this deal, the XFC will host tryouts for the MTV reality show “Made”, the winning contestant will then train at the XFC training facilities, and the newly made fighter will debut on the April 18 fight card in Knoxville, Tennessee. The “made” episode will air in 2009.

John is a savvy promoter, so say the least. I encourage anyone in the marketing or public relations fields to read his Anatomy of a Fight Promotion series on mmajunkie.com. His strategy is pretty straightforward: tell an honest story, tell a compelling story, and aggressively court the “free” media to help you tell your story. This MTV deal is evidence of that strategy in action. How much free community exposure will John’s operation get when MTV comes to town and hosts tryouts? How much free national exposure will the XFC brand and franchise-able training facilities get when the show airs on MTV?

John knows the difference between commercials and media – commercials create awareness, media creates action. Oh, and media is a LOT cheaper.

This is where Elite XC got it wrong. They spent too much money too quickly and failed to establish a brand that could compete with the UFC. I don’t know if Prisco is interested in competing per se with the UFC, but it is apparent he has the foundation and skills to carve out a significant share of the market for the sport. And we’re in his corner.

This week, Jeff and I had the distinct pleasure of traveling to Southern California to promote BattlePass and our new relationship with Roy Englebrecht Promotions. As you may remember from an earlier post, Roy is one of the nation’s top promoters, and has been promoting fights in California for almost 30 years. Next year marks the 25th anniversary of his Battle In the Ballroom Series, for which we will be the official ticketing provider. Anyway, from this past Friday until Monday, Roy held Fight Promoter University Five, a four day seminar and experiential learning curriculum targeted at wannabe promoters. Since Jeff and I were very interested in establishing relationships with these guys, we decided to sit in on Roy’s classes.

Boxing and MMA Promoters have gotten a pretty bad rap recently, thanks largely to the antics of Don King and a few other shady characters. What I learned, though, is that promoters like Roy adhere to a few solid business principles that make them successful. Here are ten that I picked up this past weekend, that seem to drive Roy and his team.

  1. Always pay attention to details. The professionally printed fight card won’t make people buy tickets, nor will the police beacons above the ring poles. But, they do convey a sense of uniqueness and professionalism. These sorts of subtle clues can influence your credibility in a big way. Which leads us to #2:
  2. Credibility is everything. You have to cultivate relationships in business in order to last. The degree to which you can make and keep commitments and continuously deliver a phenomenal product at a great value is directly related to your longevity.
  3. Have fun. Though Roy got a bit stressed immediately before the fighter weigh in, he always looked in control and like he was loving it. As the night unfolded, Roy took on the persona of a master puppeteer, as his meticulously crafted show unfolded to the delight of the sold out crowd. He was entertaining 1500 people, and having a ball.

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    Yours truly with Michael Buffer. "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!"

  4. Bartering is good business. You have something of value. You need something of value from another businessman. In a world where cash is king, the act of bartering buoys many a small business. Roy is a mastermind at the act of trade. Professionally printed fight cards? 20 seats. Fight Staff? Internship credit at the local junior college. Even Richard Schaeffer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions (on it’s way to becoming the largest fight promoter in the country), stressed the importance of bartering. Many of their sponsorship deals for their upcoming MMA fight have some sort of trade aspect to them.
  5. Do good. This one is pretty self explanatory, but for Roy, it is central to his character and his operation. If you do good, good things happen. Not just to you, but to the people around you, your sponsors, your fighters, employees, and so on.
  6. Empty seats breed empty seats. Roy will barter huge blocks of seats in exchange for products or services. While the exchange itself is valuable, there is also value in his attendees’ perception of a full house. It’s like verification that they are doing the popular thing. If you went into a restaurant at lunch hour and the place was empty, how confident would you be in the quality of the meal? In a more generic business sense, find out how much of your product you can afford to give away in order to establish a sense of presence in the market.

    The "Winterfist" Fight went on before a sellout crowd.

    The "Winterfist" Fight sold out completely.

  7. Try some crazy ideas. Jeff and I got pretty tickled hearing about some of Roy’s ideas. The most memorable was one where he set up a barber’s chair in the back of the boxing arena and ran a hair cutting promotion in the middle of a boxing match. For every crazy idea that didn’t work though, Roy had ten examples of things that did. Never be afraid of risk.
  8. Know who your customers are. You don’t sell out 19 straight shows on accident. Roy spends no money on radio, TV, or print advertising either. What he does do is create exciting incentives for every show attendee to provide their name and contact information. Roy used a cash prize promotion, a pretty straightforward idea. But, he incorporated principles of showmanship (calling out the winner and inviting them to a ringside seat for one bout) and instant and visible gratification (the winners were paid, in the ring, in front of everyone) to make it almost impossible to resist.
  9. Great people make a great operation. As part of the curriculum we got to watch one of Roy’s MMA fights. There were seven incredible bouts, many by fighters making their professional debut. Roy’s matchmaker, Arnold Berger, has a huge future in the business. The degree to which he spends his time and effort really getting to know the fighters was evident in the quality of the matches. The two hour show never got boring, even in between the bouts, thanks to Mike Hart, the ring announcer. Mike carried on a conversation with 1500 people with a smooth as butter style. And don’t even get me started on the ring girls. Roy hires right, period.
  10. Passion breeds achievement, achievement breeds success. This sounds like one of those cheesy inspiration posters, but it is nonetheless true. Only through the continuous relentless dedication of themselves to producing top quality shows has Roy and team been able to enjoy the success they have. You can’t fake it in that sort of pressured environment. Without passion, you burn out quickly.
    Jeff and "Razor" Rob McCullough
    Jeff and “Razor” Rob McCullough

Check out Roy’s website at www.battleintheballroom.com.

Wow. I can’t say that I am surprised by this news, only that it happened so quickly. According to Dave Meltzer of Yahoo Sports,

Elite XC, which produced seven of the 10 most-watched MMA matches in U.S. history on two CBS specials in recent months, will be closing its doors at the end of the week.

Check the full article here.  The good news is that Gina Carano may be looking for work. And we can use some muscle in the BattlePass Marketing Department. Gina, call me.

Gina Carano

Gina Carano

I’ve gotta admit, I was a big fan of MMA before but since the launch of BattlePass my fandom has gone almost to the nuclear scale. So it was with great anticipation that I awaited this last weekend’s matchup between seasoned veteran Ken Shamrockand Internet phenom Kimbo Slice.

Only the fight didn’t happen. Hours before the fight Shamrock apparently suffered a cut and was not allowed to fight. his last minute replacement was a previously relatively unknown fighter named Seth Petruzelli.

Petruzeilli knocked him out in 14 seconds. Kimbo was supposed to be the best thing for MMA since, well, (forgive the pun here) sliced bread, but he suffered an embarrassing beatdown at the hands of a no-name. And now, there are allegations that the fight was supposed to be fixed. But before I get there, why don’t you watch the fight in it’s entirety? Seriously, it will only take 14 seconds. Go ahead.

Okay so Seth delivers a beatdown. But Seth isn’t used to the limelight. So naturally, when everyone and their mother wants to talk to the guy who beat Kimbo, our boy Seth tells too much:

“They didn’t want me to take him down, let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to try to stand up and punch with him.”

Ouch. You can read the whole article here if you are interested, but this could be big trouble for ProElite. We’ll keep you posted. One of the great things about MMA is that to this point it has been about combat, performance, preparation, skill. this kind of shenanigan would put a black eye on the sport, but it would be nothing new. I mean, there have been empires (*cough cough WWE*) built on this type of tom-foolery. The BattlePass team will actually get to meet ProElite head of Operations Jeremy Lappen at Fight Promoter University V in November, so I’m anxious to get his take on this whole matter (away from what says to the media).

On a side note, I am now a HUGE fan of Gina Carano. Wowza.

*swoon*

*swoon*

Last week we added a couple of clients that I’m pretty thrilled to have on board.

Jackopierce

Jackopierce

Jackopierce is an acoustic rock band. Jack O’Neill and Cary Pierce formed the group in 1988 and they released six albums up through 1997. These guys were really popular when I was in college, and they even came to the BSC campus once and played a live set (they are GREAT live).  After a decade long split, the band recently reunited and are touring again – you can catch the dates on their website.

Jackopierce is putting together a limited access show at the Star Hill Ranch in Texas for May of next year, and they chose the Biscuit to ticket the event. If you’re going to be in or around the Texas Hill Country in mid-May of next year, this should be very cool- stay tuned to www.jackopierce.com for details.

Roy Englebrecht

Roy Englebrecht

Roy Englebrecht is owner of Roy Englebrecht Promotions, California’s third largest boxing promotions company, and Roy Englebrecht Events. Roy has managed one of the most successful professional boxing shows, the Battle in the Ballroom, for 22 consecutive years. Jeff and I flew out to Orange County in early September to meet with Roy and discuss ticketing his events with BattlePass. Last week, we inked the deal – BattlePass will be the official ticketing company of the Battle of the Ballroom series for 2009, and we will be the official ticketing company of Roy’s Fight Promoter University. This is a huge step for us and looks to be a promising relationship. Check out the Battle in the Ballroom site.

Having proven talent and legendary industry players like Jackopierce and Roy Englebrecht seek us out and choose us to do business with is a great feeling of validation. It shows that our efforts are paying off, and TicketBiscuit is emerging as the premier choice in ticketing. Welcome to the family, guys!

The Biscuit Team (or at least a couple of us) are packing up and heading to Colorado Springs, CO this week for the Association of Railway Museums (ARM) Conference, where we will be hosting a seminar on automated ticketing and mingling with the hardcore railfans. We’ll be blogging from the event AND we’ve got some special news in store for later this week, so stay tuned.

 
Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs
Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs

 

It’s been a while since we talked about BattlePass, our first product line extension in the history of the company. BattlePass is doing extremely well, with new MMA Promoter clients being added daily. We launched a myspace page shortly after we released the product, and quickly made “friends” with Dana White (head of UFC), Chuck Liddell, and many other icons of the sport.

Check out our myspace page by clicking here

Speaking of Liddell, did anyone see the fight this weekend?

ouch.

Battlepass.com

Today is a pretty cool day for us. We’re taking the wraps off of BattlePass – the first and only ticketing system custom built for mixed martial arts events. MMA is one of the fastest growing sports nationwide, with pay per view audiences rivaling those of boxing and professional wrestling. But in addition to the handful of elite leagues like UFC and Elite XC, there are multiple farm league promoters hosting events nationwide.

When we began discussing the concept for BattlePass a few months ago, we discovered that promoting an MMA or combat sport event is an incredibly complex undertaking. Not only do these promoters have to secure fighters and a place to fight, but also have to worry about getting the word out, processing payments, and above all, selling tickets. BattlePass was built for them – it takes all of the challenge out of the administrative side of event promotion.

We’ll be releasing this news to the press later this week, along with news of an alliance agreement with one of the nation’s premier farm league promoters.

BattlePass is cool, no doubt. I think even more than the benefits attached to the features though, it represents a different way of thinking about ticketing. Ticketing can no longer be about processing transactions, it has to be about adding real value to clients and their businesses, integrating systems and functionality to make the whole business better, not just handle the stubs of paper granting admission. We’re focused on the future of ticketing, and we’re making it happen on a daily basis.