Insurance that offers peace of mind for the price of a latte

A once in a lifetime event can quickly spiral into a one-way ticket
to despair if disaster steps in and stops you from attending.
Imagine saving up and spending $500 on a ticket for a music
festival only to fall sick and miss your dream opportunity.

Now, take your imagination a step further and go beyond the
despair of missing the festival to the realization you can get a full
ticket refund at the click of a button and for the average price of a
tall café latte from Starbucks.

That’s what live event ticket insurance company TicketGuard is
promising. The insurtech start-up burst on to the ticket insurance
scene in 2016 with the aim of transforming the industry and
giving it a Silicon Valley makeover.
“We wanted to disrupt the ‘non-refundable’ world that is ticketing
and put the power back into the hands of the fans,” said founder
and CEO Bryan Derbyshire.

“TicketGuard’s easy-to-use platform
provides low cost ticket insurance coverage, bringing peace of
mind to consumer, and adding value to our partners, merchants
and customers.
“Today’s tech-savvy consumers value convenience over brand
loyalty when it comes to financial products and services. They
want everything on-demand and at the click of a button. Our
tech-focused solution is attractive and convenient for digital
consumers. Not only are we bringing the lowest prices for
consumers, but we’re also providing proprietary technology for
ticketing platforms to help them take actionable decisions based
off live data.”

TicketGuard’s standard coverage can be purchased for as little as
$2.99. It covers loss derived from all sorts of unforeseen
circumstances such as traffic, weather, military duty or family
emergency. All the claimant has to do is produce valid evidence
of the peril, which can be uploaded to an online platform.
The company also offers full attendee protection, which can be
purchased by event organizers and ticketing platforms to cover
every ticket to an event. Derbyshire described this solution as a
“value-add differentiator” for live-event providers, while also
providing “peace of mind for consumers – the people putting all
of us in business.”

Insurance conversion rates in the live event ticketing space have
traditionally been very low. For many, it’s simply not top-of-
mind upon purchasing a ticket for an event. Before TicketGuard
entered the space in 2016, the average conversion in ticket
insurance was less than 4%.

“TicketGuard’s data-driven approach enables us to achieve up to
10 times the conversion rate of our competitors. We’re only
making dimes rather than dollars off every policy, but we’re
making a great deal of dimes because we’re covering more
people and solving more of the problem,” Derbyshire

“Our average conversion rate of event attendees purchasing
ticket insurance is just north of 32%, which is our blended rate
across all tickets, whether that’s a $12 ticket to a circus or $2,500
to a major sporting play-off. We’ve drastically improved the
space for consumers and we’re always tweaking and finding
ways to make our conversions better.”

As the live events and experience economy continues to grow
worldwide, conversion rates are likely to continue increasing,
according to Derbyshire. He said TicketGuard will continue to
develop “cutting edge technology” and products to maximize
upon this attractive market.