Our Story
It was 2002, and one of our founders, Yaniv Ozana, was out of options. He wanted to see the FA match between Chelsea and Manchester United. However, things were not exactly working out.
“I’m crazy about football,” says Ozana, “so I was at the ticket window, really early, when the tickets went on sale. I spent hours in front of the counter, just to find out that tickets were sold out almost instantly.”
Not so easily defeated, Ozana checked the secondary market.
“I looked everywhere,” he says. “Scalpers, brokers, the Internet, friends—no one had any tickets. And even if the ticket brokers would’ve had tickets, I think they were charging more than £150 for one ticket! That’s more than the league was charging for three at face value.”
“So I missed the match. It was frustrating. But while I was running around town from one broker to another, I realized that all of the people in line with me were in the same situation. They were fans who were putting up with all of this extra work just to find a ticket. Something seemed wrong about that—after all, they were the real fans, the ones that any league needs to survive. Someone should have been looking out for them! And that was when I got the idea for Ticket2Final.”
Excited about the chance to step in and get tickets back in the hands of the real fans, Ozana and partner Oren Tal began the process of starting Ticket2Final.
“It took us a little over a year to develop the idea for Ticket Options and figure out the best way to get them to the fans,” says Tal. “A year can seem like forever—especially when you’re working late nights like we were. But we were encouraged the whole time by our friends and families. Plus, we couldn’t walk away from the idea—we really believe that Ticket Options are just what fans need.”
Ozana continues, “The biggest thing for us was to lay the foundation. You can have a wonderful idea, but if you can’t pull it off, who is it helping? So when we ironed out all the details, we knew we were onto something. Everyone we shared our plan with agreed: Ticket2Final could really help sports fans.”
The sports leagues were equally supportive. After some successful pilot projects, Euroleague Basketball was the first sports league to partner with Ticket2Final, offering their fans access to Ticket2Final’s innovative idea.
“Euroleague Basketball is the most important professional basketball competition in Europe,” says Tal. “We were confident that Euroleague understood their fans’ needs and would see the potential in our Ticket Options.”
The partnership was an overwhelming success. Ticket Options sold out, and Ticket2Final’s viability was verified. Other leagues immediately took notice, and Ticket2Final began working with the Israel Basketball League to introduce their fans to the revolutionary idea. “We may not be surprised that others believe in our idea, but we’re certainly excited about it,” says Tal. “In five years, I believe we will be the number one way for real fans to see their favorite teams play in championship games.”
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We started Ticket2Final to help fans get to the games they don’t want to miss. We took a broken system and made it work. Our great team works hard to get real fans to the final games—because we’re fans too.