StubHub's IPO is this week. Here's how it stacks up in the world of online ticketing.

By Steve Gelsi

StubHub is expected start trading Wednesday, with its IPO proceeds aimed at reducing debt and outpacing rivals like Ticketmaster

StubHub's IPO is expected to price on Tuesday and start trading on Wednesday.

StubHub Inc.'s initial public offering appears to be generating hefty interest ahead of the company's planned Wednesday market debut, with the online ticket seller's deal reportedly oversubscribed.

Investors already have ways to play the online-ticketing industry, but StubHub's foray into the public markets is being closely watched because the company has strong name recognition. The company has also pursued a spending spree recently that's been rippling across its industry, altering the competitive landscape - but one question is whether it will keep up that elevated spending over the long run.

For now, Wall Street seems willing to back StubHub's plans to pay down debt in the wake of its heavy spending. Reuters reported on Friday that orders for its IPO were trumping the number of available shares by more than 20 times.

This sets the stage for another buzzy IPO, as StubHub could be valued at $9.3 billion based on the high end of its pricing range. The post-Labor Day IPO rush has already ushered in some high-profile offerings, including the Winklevoss twins' crypto firm Gemini Space Station Inc. (GEMI) and buy-now-pay-later company Klarna Group Plc (KLAR). Both of those stocks rose after trading began, but the boosts were more muted compared to huge pops recorded for Circle Internet Inc. (CRCL) and Figma Inc. (FIG) shares earlier in the summer.

Also read: Winklevoss twins grow $3 billion richer as crypto-trading company Gemini's stock trades higher

StubHub intends to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "STUB."

How StubHub stacks up

This won't be the first time that investors have had a chance to own a piece of StubHub.

For more than a decade, the company's business was embedded in eBay Inc. (EBAY), which paid $310 million in 2007 for the company before selling it to privately held European ticket seller Viagogo in 2019 for $4.05 billion in cash.

Eric Baker is a co-founder of StubHub as well as the founder and chief executive of Viagogo, which changed its name to StubHub in 2021 and then filed to go public this March.

Benchmark Research analyst Daniel Kurnos noted that StubHub shares look primed to trade at a significant premium to Vivid Seats Inc. (SEAT), a smaller, pure-play rival in online ticketing. Based on the high end of StubHub's expected IPO price range of $22 to $25, the stock could trade at a multiple of about 45 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. VividSeats shares, by contrast, trade at nine times Ebitda estimates for this year, despite "a very similar credit profile," he noted.

"We give [StubHub] CEO and founder Eric Baker a ton of credit for masterminding all of this and getting everyone on board, although it will be interesting to see how quickly investors react if the spending spigot dries up and revenue growth [turns] markedly negative," Kurnos wrote.

So far, StubHub's big-spending ways have hurt Vivid Seats, which has just a $180 million market capitalization but counts partnerships with ESPN and the San Francisco 49ers among its advantages. The company's Ebitda could fall by as much as two-thirds this year as a result of StubHub's competitive push, Kurnos wrote, but he doubts StubHub will be able to "compete [Vivid Seats] out of business."

Both companies are going up against Ticketmaster, which is part of entertainment-industry powerhouse Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (LYV) Ticketmaster doesn't have its own market capitalization, though Live Nation is valued at about $40 billion.

Live Nation disclosed that ticketing drove about $743 million in revenue for the June quarter, up 2%. That compares with $430 million for StubHub in the period and $144 million for Vivid Seats.

J.P. Morgan analyst David Karnovsky on Aug. 5 reiterated an overweight rating on Live Nation, writing that the company offers a "dominant position" in the space and offers a "multiyear free-cash-flow growth story supported by a management team focused and compensated on continued monetization of artist, tour and venue content."

While concert attendance has been strong this summer and next year's FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the U.S., is showing strong interest, the live-entertainment industry continues to face challenges related to competition as well as the higher cost of tickets and an uncertain economic outlook.

Vivid's stock price has fallen 82% so far this year, while Live Nation Entertainment Inc.'s stock is up 34%.

Also read: Live Nation's second quarter was mixed. It's still hoping to ride massive shows, more upsells to a record year.

-Steve Gelsi

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

09-15-25 1318ET