StubHub tanks 10% as World Cup ticket fiasco wipes out profit boom

StubHub shares tanked over 10% Thursday on its disastrous World Cup partnership, which erased its quarterly profit and left customers who bought tickets stranded outside stadiums – resulting in a frenzy of media coverage and litigation. In its Wednesday earnings report, the massive ticket reseller reported a loss attributable to common stockholders of $40,000, or less than a penny per share, for the quarter ended June 30, an improvement from a $75.9 million loss in the same quarter last year.Revenue soared 33% to $573.1 million, beating analysts’ estimates of $513.3 million – but expenses rose even faster at 37% as the World Cup ticketing catastrophe wiped out its profits.The 2026 FIFA World Cup – which was hosted by 16 cities, including 11 in the US – was largely expected to deliver StubHub a boom in profits. But the company was plagued by complaints from customers who paid for tickets months in advance – and then found themselves stuck outside stadiums around the country without an entry pass.“As fans ourselves, we understand the disappointment when these issues occur,” CEO Eric Baker said during an earnings call late Wednesday.“Our marketplace only works when fans attend an event.”Baker blamed the dismal earnings on FIFA’s mobile app, which he said was created by the event organizer as “just a bespoke thing for this tournament, not anything that anybody would typically rely on.”FIFA’s app “added an additional layer of complexity” as StubHub attempted to manage an influx of ticket orders for 75 soccer matches held in cities nationwide across a two-week span, he added.Baker said the majority of StubHub customers did not experience any issue with their World Cup tickets, adding that “there was a small subset of fans who didn’t have the experience they wanted and had to get a refund.”“That’s unacceptable to us.

We work every day to try and eliminate that.Even one refund … is one too many,” he added.The stock is now do...