Member Insights: StubHub’s GM of Sports, Akshay Khanna Talks To iSportconnect

Stubhub’s GM of Sports, Akshay Khanna, took the time to talk to Ben Page about his career, how he came to work at Stubhub, what he makes of their recent acquisition by Viagogo in late 2019 and the wider ticketing market in 2020.

Khanna was named in Forbes’ Sports 30 Under 30 in 2017 and worked for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers prior to moving to StubHub. At StubHub he has spent time as both General Manager, and previously Head of Partnerships, of – NFL, NBA and NHL at the company before moving into his current role.

After spending much of his childhood between Southeast Asia and Holland, Akshay moved to the United States for university, unsure of where his future would lie.

“I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, I kind of grew up all over the world,” Akshay says, “I decided I wanted to go and make some money and at some point I will figure out what I’m passionate about and make that switch.”

He spent the first four years of his career working in private equity before to heading to Wharton business school, where realisation hit that sports had always been his biggest passion, so the focus immediately flipped to understanding how sports business worked.

“I spent the majority of my two years at business school trying to understand more about the business side of sports. How the leagues, the teams, the agencies and the other businesses around that were created and how they all fit together.”

“It wasn’t that long ago that almost the entirety of this business used to be transacted on laptops or desktops, so shifting not only how we market, how we create demand but also how we deliver tickets for fans who are now transacting primarily on mobile, that’s regular tech innovation that’s allowed us to stay at the forefront of this industry.”

From business school he was fortunate enough to join the Philadelphia 76ers NBA franchise, where he worked as Vice President of Strategy for two and a half years, covering everything from business strategy to the unique sponsorship deals.

“I was lucky enough to be introduced to Scott O’Neil, CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, a massive empire in the sports media and entertainment space. He wanted someone who had a different skillset from the traditional ‘sports failed’ or marketing experience,” he explains.

“I think that gelled with the ownership group. Both Josh (Joshua Harris) and David (David Blitzer) are both [from] Wharton and private equity, so I think that background really helped and I think I was lucky they were looking for this kind of person.”

One of those unique sponsorship deals with the Sixers was with ticketing brand StubHub, where the two brands combined to launch their own ticket marketplace for Sixers fans. Did that eventually lead to Akshay moving to San Francisco to join the company?

“It did. I think that was a really interesting experiment to understanding the future direction in which the business was going, it was revolutionary for both. I think you’ll continue to see versions of that. When you ask Sixers fans generally of their experience using that blended platform they will tell you that generally they’re really positive.”

“[At the Sixers] It was everything from acquiring an Esports franchise, to setting up our own start-up incubator in-house, things a lot of the traditional sports teams hadn’t historically done. The StubHub deal was one example and that’s how I got to know a lot of the that I work with today.”

The huge news about StubHub’s purchase by Viagogo late last year can of course not be ignored, so how does Khanna believe this can benefit the business?

“It’s still new and hard to speak in hypotheticals. Viagogo obviously has a substantial footprint outside of the United States and Canada, we are the largest secondary marketplace inside the US and Canada.

“I think the biggest challenge still is removing fan friction – if I had to summarise what it is that we strive to constantly improve on it’s to remove that.”

“I think the ability to take learnings on what has succeeded in each one of those markets and to be able to collaborate across them represents a massive opportunity, about expanding the geographicals and truly becoming a global company, if I’m hypothesising for the Viagogo folks. I know I’m incredibly excited to see the road this takes us down.”

Therefore, looking ahead, is constant improvement of knowledge and innovation like this always a necessity to succeed?

“Ultimately it’s our job to get fans into live experiences in this easiest, most pain-free, most facilitated manner possible, and that includes innovations, fan guarantees and all of the work that goes on behind the scenes to reduce ticket fraud.

“It wasn’t that long ago that almost the entirety of this business used to be transacted on laptops or desktops, so shifting not only how we market, how we create demand but also how we deliver tickets for fans who are now transacting primarily on mobile, that’s regular tech innovation that’s allowed us to stay at the forefront of this industry.”

So what are the biggest difficulties for teams in this modern ticketing environment?

“I think the biggest challenge still is removing fan friction – if I had to summarise what it is that we strive to constantly improve on it’s to remove that. The goal is to make the fan experience from couch to arena, back to couch, as seamless as possible.

“There are examples even today, significant issues in that experience. Creating that friction is reducing consumer power at a time we need to be increasing it.”

And of course no teams want empty seats do they…

“Absolutely. Ultimately we want the same things, we want as many people attending these live experiences because live experiences are amazing. It kills me when I hear about an issue they had with a ticket or not being able to transfer a ticket they’d purchased, because I’m invested in ensuring that’s not the case.”

So after his complicated route into the industry, what would Akshay say is the best lesson learnt on his journey?

“It’s a great question. This has been the best path for me, but it’s hard for me to live the counterfactual. What I do know is that I really value the learnings I got from 4 years working in financial services and I think that apprenticeship model that exists is really invaluable.

“For me that’s a very personal choice and not necessarily for everyone, but for me I think that’s the benefits of spending time at business school, I now have this unique opportunity to really follow my passion and if it works out then fantastic and if it doesn’t then so be it I have other options I can always fall back on…”