Festicket acquires Leeds-based Event Genius and Ticket Arena

The sale also includes the consumer facing brand, Ticket Arena. The new offering, known as Event Genius by Festicket, will create an end-to-end platform for organisers and fans.

A spokesman said: "The platform will bring together technology and expertise including ticketing, accommodation, travel and packages, marketing, data insights and analytics, access control, POS (point of sale) and cashless payment services, fan engagement tools and more to plug a gap in the market that no other organisation has addressed to date."

Festicket allows music fans to book tickets and travel packages for more than 2,000 music festivals worldwide.

The spokesman added: "The acquisition will help deliver on Festicket’s mission to become the world's largest two-sided platform for live events and build on recent success stories such as its exclusive UK and European partnership with Coachella."

Founded by managing director, Reshad Hossenally, Event Genius offers complete event services to some of Europe's best known events including Wales Rally GB, Motion Bristol, Annie Mac’s Lost & Found Festival, Summer Daze, Ibiza Rocks and BPM Festival.

To date, Festicket, Event Genius and Ticket Arena have collectively served more than 4.5m customers from 120 countries. Following the acquisition, Festicket will roll out the combined service worldwide to festivals, concerts, clubs, sports and family attractions.

Zack Sabban, CEO and co-founder at Festicket, commented: “The acquisition transforms Festicket’s product set. In Event Genius, we have found a company that shares our mission to be a disruptive force in the live entertainment market and - ultimately - to bring the best possible experiences to fans. Reshad and the team have built a great product they have good reason to be proud of, and I look forward to welcoming them to the Festicket family”.

Reshad Hossenally who will join Festicket as chief supply chain officer, said: “The Event Genius mission has always been to utilise technology to bring event organisers and consumers a better experience, regardless of the size or type of event. Couple this with Festicket’s global marketplace and supplier network and we have something truly unique for the events industry.”

Festicket is the world's largest platform for booking festival tickets. It works with more than 2,000 festival organisers including Coachella, Tomorrowland and Reading & Leeds, Festicket offers fans festival trips around the world that combine tickets with accommodation, travel and extras. The website serves a growing community of 2.5m festival goers with the latest news, lineups and updates from the festival world alongside a Festival Finder tool and Festival Guide for discovering new events.

Founded in 2012 by Zack Sabban and Jonathan Younes, the company is backed by investors including Beringea, Edge, Lepe Partners, ProFounder and InMotion Venture.

In 2008, Mr Hossenally launched Ticket Arena in Leeds because he wanted to provide consumers and gig-promoters with a better way to buy and sell tickets online. The business developed the Event Genius platform, and has increased its market share to become an award-winning provider of event technology to promoters across the UK and Europe.