Photo Credit: Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance (Tim Leiweke)
Former Oak View Group (OVG) CEO Tim Leiweke’s indictment has uncovered not just a bid-rigging scheme, but also secret kickbacks paid by Ticketmaster. That is, tens of million in kickbacks while venues (and everyone else) were none the wiser.
Last week, DMN first reported on the US Department of Justice’s indictment of Oak View Group cofounder Tim Leiweke, specifically over allegations of rigging the bidding process to oversee Austin’s Moody Center. But that’s just part of a far broader set of allegations according to DOG indictment documentation reviewed by Digital Music News this morning.
Whlie the DOJ’s indictment does mention OVG’s alleged bid-rigging activities, the standout revelation centers on evidence from internal emails pointing to tens of millions in kickbacks from Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster. These communications reveal that Ticketmaster funneled secret payments to Leiweke and Oak View Group for pushing venues to exclusively use Ticketmaster instead of other ticketing partners.
Oak View Group is helmed by Leiweke and Irving Azoff, who cofounded the firm in 2015. Since the DOJ’s high-profile indictment, Leiweke has stepped back from CEO duties.
The payments were made in exchange for OVG and Leiweke’s efforts to steer other arena owners and operators toward signing exclusive ticketing deals with the Live Nation-owned company. Throughout those processes, venue representatives were not informed of any relationship between OVG and Live Nation.
The emails exposing these kickbacks were first discovered during a regulatory investigation into the proposed merger between Legends Hospitality and ASM Global. They show that Leiweke and OVG received both upfront money and annual incentive payments from Ticketmaster. As mentioned, the arrangement was not disclosed to OVG’s partner venues—even though OVG was hired to represent their interests.
“OVG agreed to receive tens of millions in payments in return for promoting [Ticketmaster] services to venues OVG managed without disclosing this conflict to venue owners, despite fiduciary duties,” government investigators describe. Documents from the non-prosecution agreement show that Ticketmaster wired OVG an up-front payment of $20 million in November of 2022 and agreed to pay $7 million annually thereafter.
The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that the secret relationship gave Ticketmaster a lock on ticketing for many arenas nationwide, undercutting competition and transparency across the industry.
OVG is accused of advocating for exclusive Ticketmaster contracts for both its own venues and those managed by third-party owners. Officials note that OVG served as a “pimp, hammer, and protector” for Live Nation and Ticketmaster by exploiting their management footprint to shield the companies from rivals and scrutiny.
During the high-profile 2010 merger of Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation, Irving Azoff served as the CEO of Ticketmaster. Azoff’s leadership at Ticketmaster was considered critical to the merger approval.
Feature Story, Live Concert Industry, Music Industry News, Pop Culture
This post was originally authored and published by Ashley King Digital Music News via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
