[GLOBENEWSWIRE] NEW YORK, July 12 - Cover Genius, the insurtech for embedded protection, has partnered with AudienceView, a global leader in ticketing and e-commerce solutions for the live entertainment industry, to offer embedded Refund Protection to thousands of venues and event businesses worldwide. This partnership follows a period of significant growth for the insurtech as it has seen a 251% increase in global live entertainment sales since June 2022. 

Cover Genius is the chosen Refund Protection partner for some of the world’s largest ticketing platforms, events, venues and resellers including, AXS, FreshTix, Tessitura, SeatGeek, Outbox, Spektrix and more. Its award-winning distribution platform, XCover, offers a number of unique capabilities including AI-backed optimized pricing in real-time and insurance and non-insurance solutions that are adapted for different markets. With Audienceview, Cover Genius is the merchant of record for venues that don’t take payment upfront, and is the licensed or authorized agent where needed.

“Data shows that adding protection within the checkout experience increases purchase conversion rates by 8%^‡,” said Angus McDonald, CEO and Co-founder of Cover Genius. “This increase in core conversion, or what’s called the “Protection Effect”, drives the conversion rate for AudienceView’s venue partners, leading to more ticket sales and increased loyalty.”

Live ticketholders also benefit from a seamless customer journey via XCover.com. XCover.com handles customers’ needs – from the initial sale through to administration and refunds – resulting in an industry-leading post-claims NPS of +65. Its award-winning service design has been shown to reduce support tickets by 7x.^‡

“As consumers return to live events after years of uncertainty, data shows that they want relevant protection that offers them a sense of security and, more or less, differs from the “one-size-fits-all” approach that has traditionally been offered in the space,” said McDonald. “By adding relevant protection, such as CFAR, to the checkout experience, customers and brands benefit.”

A Refund Protection Survey, conducted by Momentive.ai and commissioned by Cover Genius, found  54% of global ticketholders would be highly likely to buy Refund Protection for tickets for common issues like illness and injury, a number that grows by 9% if the protection is unlimited. Respondents said they’d be willing to pay 123% more for this ‘Cancel for any Reason’ (CFAR) protection, with most of them nominating convenience as the primary reason.

AudienceView’s partners now offer Refund Protection powered by XCover.

About Cover Genius

Cover Genius is the insurtech for embedded protection. Through XCover, our global distribution platform for any insurance or other type of protection, we protect the global customers of the world’s largest digital companies including Booking Holdings, owner of Priceline and Booking.com, Intuit, Hopper, Ryanair, Turkish Airlines, Descartes ShipRush, Zip and SeatGeek. We’re also available at Amazon, Flipkart, eBay, Wayfair and SE Asia’s largest company, Shopee.

Together with our partners, we co-create solutions to embed tailored, optimized protection that’s licensed or authorized in over 60 countries and all 50 US States.

In addition, we provide customers with a seamless, end-to-end experience via XCover.com. XCover.com handles customers’ needs – from the initial sale through to administration and claims, resulting in an industry-leading post claims NPS of +65. Its award-winning service design has shown to reduce support tickets by 7x.^‡

^‡ The score includes any type of claim and claim outcome across our partner network except for those partners with less than 30 claims and those not assessed by Cover Genius. Inquiry statistics are derived from an internal analysis of 1,355 random XCover support inquiries from December 2022, of which 1,258 (93%) had not activated their XCover account and 97 (7%) had.

About AudienceView

AudienceView believes in the power of live events and its purpose is to ignite that passion in people around the world. As the essential partner to get live events discovered, attended and remembered, we serve the entire industry, regardless of genre or size, and help our clients sell more tickets every single day. Through an unmatched set of solutions that includes innovative technology, popular consumer brands and a unique engagement model, we support 9,000+ venues, process over $3 billion in ticketing and fundraising transactions and sell over 110-million tickets each year. Learn more at audienceview.com.