Oztix Acquires Competitor Local Tickets

Oztix has bought rival ticketing outfit Local Tickets.

The deal will see Local Tickets rebranded to Localtix, while Oztix events will now be populated across 70 local ticket marketplaces, expanding the marketing potential and reach for events ticketed by Oztix.

All Local Tickets employees will join Oztix, while Local Tickets CEO and founder, Kristen Goldup, will become brand director across both brands. The combined business will now employ over 50 Australian-based staff and hundreds of contractors each year. The company said it is expecting to inject over $350 million into the Australian economy this year.

Stuart Field, Oztix co-founder and managing director, said the acquisition is a ‘two-brand’ market strategy, which will cover everything in ticketing from major venues, festivals and expos, through to hyper-local events and experiences.

“This acquisition reflects our 20-year leadership and investment in the Australian events industry. Local Tickets is a well-respected ticketing agency with over a decade of regional event experience. They are agile and innovative and offer one of the best ticket-selling apps on the market. Together the two brands will service both big and smaller events, in urban hotspots and regional corners of the country,” he said.

Goldup added: “Our brands and product offerings are entirely complimentary, and after just one meeting with Oztix, it was clear that we had great synergy and shared a mutual culture of putting our clients first. My Local Tickets clients will benefit greatly from access to a new collaborative platform, and even more eyeballs will be on our local tickets marketplace websites with Oztix events being listed.”

Brian Chladil, co-founder and director of Oztix, noted both independent companies compete against the big international outfits, but said people are actively supporting Australian businesses at the moment.

“Both of our businesses compete with foreign-owned ticketing agencies in our respective market spaces. It’s been inspiring to see such a strong conscious shift by consumers, businesses and the government to proactively support the Aussie companies and entrepreneurs who are doing their part to help our country financially recover and grow, post-COVID,” he said.

In 2019, Oztix became Australia’s largest independent ticketing company. In 2021, it teamed up with Tixel to combat unethical ticket resale practises. It leads the event ticket sales for festivals such as Big Red Bash, Crafted Beer & Cider Festival, Good Things Festival and Summernats, while Local Tickets has agricultural shows, rodeos, turf clubs and hospitality events among its client base.