In this day and age, we all need as much safety and security as possible. Enter a firm like Protect Group, which provides refund protection for ticketing and live events. Refund Protect, its main product, allows customers to add protection at checkout so they can request a refund if they cannot attend for an eligible reason.
Jason Mastrine
“The commercial model is straightforward,” states Jason Mastrine, Global Head of Ticketing Strategy for Protect Group. “When refund protection is selected at checkout, the partner shares in the fee revenue — generally around 10% of the protected basket value. With roughly one in six buyers choosing protection, that ancillary revenue stream can grow quickly.”
There are definite pluses to the operational side. Refund requests can be messy and even downright emotional. Protect Group gives ticketing and live events professionals a structured way to handle those situations without putting more pressure on the box office or customer service team.
Mastrine says, “We support the customer, manage the refund request process, handle decisioning, payouts, fraud detection, reporting and partner service. That only works when the solution is led by ticketing people. We understand the pressure points because we have lived them – the box office strain, the partner expectations, the inventory value, the customer emotion and the need to make the economics work. We get it. We’ve been there.”
The Real Benefits for Ticketing Professionals
Pretty much everyone in the ticketing ecosystem is under margin pressure right now. Ticketing providers are competing hard for deals, which often means tighter economics and less room for error. Venues and rights holders are under pressure, too, especially as larger promoter groups and consolidated market forces continue to shape the economics around live events.
According to Mastrine, “Protect Group helps because we create value in a part of the transaction that already exists: the moment of purchase. Refund protection, one, gives partners a new ancillary revenue stream; two, gives customers more confidence to buy; and, three, gives ticketing teams a cleaner way to manage refund-related issues without adding more work to the box office.”
He continues, “There is also an important inventory benefit. When a refund is approved, we pay the refund from our share of the protection revenue, and the ticket is returned to the partner so it can potentially be resold. That matters. A good protection solution should not refund the customer and leave the partner with a dead asset. It should help preserve the value of the ticket and, where possible, protect the downstream revenue that comes with attendance – food, beverage, parking, merchandise and everything else that makes a live event commercially work.”
Mastrine speaks from experience. He has spent most of my career in ticketing and live events, working across platforms, venues, promoters, technology partners and the broader event ecosystem. As a result, he tends to think about the industry from multiple angles.
In his current post, his focus is helping Protect Group’s partners think more deeply about customer hesitation, ancillary revenue and the changing expectations around the ticket purchase experience. He remarks, “I spend a lot of time looking at buyer behavior, partner economics, purchase anxiety and how we can help make the buying experience feel more flexible without creating more work for the people behind the window.”
A big part of his role is helping the company stay aligned with where the industry is going. Ticketing is changing quickly. “Customers are more cautious,” he states. “Prices are higher, and partners are under pressure to find new revenue without making the buying experience worse. My job is to help connect those dots . . . and hopefully reduce the number of blue dots!”
Technology Used the Right Way
It’s not just about having a staff of dedicated and experienced professionals like Mastrine. Protect Group also uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to its advantage, For those INTIX member-readers who are not tech-savvy and have only heard about warning signs, the question was posed to Mastrine: “What are the pluses and benefits of AI?” He was quick to reply: “AI gets talked about in a way that can make it sound either magical or terrifying. I think about it much more practically. AI helps us make better decisions, faster, using more information than a person could reasonably process on their own. In our world, that means we can better understand customer behavior, pricing sensitivity, risk, timing and the context around a purchase. That helps us present the right offer, at the right price and in the right way."
It also helps with fraud detection, processing speed and overall decision-making. The human side still matters, of course, especially in live events. It’s still a business that centers on real people buying something they deeply care about. “A concert, a playoff game, a theatre performance, a festival weekend — these are emotional purchases,” Mastrine states. “AI should make that experience smarter and smoother. It should not make it colder.”
Continued Evolution
For so long, ticketing has largely been about scale. Who’s had the most inventory? The biggest reach? The largest platform? While scale still matters, Mastrine and others believe the next phase is about credibility. Fans want to understand what they are paying; what happens if plans change; whether the system is fair; and, perhaps most importantly, whether they are being treated like customers or a cog in the wheel.
Mastrine concludes, “That is where we can play a meaningful role. Protection is one layer in making the buying experience feel better. It gives fans a bit more control, and it gives partners a way to improve trust without taking on all the complexity themselves. Credibility gets you trust, and trust is what converts. That is where the better customer experience lives!”
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