Live events and ticketing company CTS Eventim has reported a 19.1% year-over-year increase in revenue and a similar jump in adjusted EBITDA, driven by both organic growth and the integration of several acquisitions in Q4 2024.
For calendar 2024, the Bremen, Germany-headquartered company reported record high revenue of EUR €2.809 billion, or USD $3.04 billion at the average exchange rate for 2024.
Adjusted EBITDA rose 21.9% YoY to €542.2 million ($586.8 million), and the adjusted EBITDA margin grew to 19.3%, from 18.9% in the prior year.
“Rising demand, organic growth, ongoing synergies and a successful international acquisition policy are the pillars of our robust growth,” CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg said.
CTS Eventim, which describes itself as the number-one live events and ticketing company in Europe, and number two worldwide (behind Live Nation), said it consolidated a number of recent acquisitions into its earnings in Q4 2024.
Perhaps most notably, that includes the addition of See Tickets – a prominent ticketing operation in the UK and US – to its ledger. CTS took possession of See Tickets from Vivendi last year when it acquired the French media giant’s ticketing and festival business for €300 million (approx. $322.6 million).
Also added to the ledger were two Latin American ticketing companies – Chile’s Punto Ticket and Peru’s Teleticket – which CTS acquired in late 2023.
The company’s books also include what is now a majority stake in France Billet, the ticketing company in which CTS Eventim took a minority stake in 2019. In late 2024, CTS acquired an additional 17% stake, giving it majority control.
However, Germany remains the company’s largest market accounting for nearly half of revenue, followed by Italy, accounting for nearly a fifth of revenue.
The company’s ticketing segment saw revenues jump 22.7% YoY to €879.9 million ($952.3 million), and the segment’s adjusted EBITDA rose 21.1% YoY to €416.5 million ($450.8 million).
The company sold 103.4 million tickets online in 2024, up from 82.9 million the year before.
The live entertainment segment saw a 17.6% YoY increase in revenue, to €1.971 billion ($2.133 billion), and adjusted EBIDTA rose 24.4% to €125.6 million ($135.9 million), marking a nearly half-percentage-point jump in the margin, “despite persistent upward pressure on the cost of infrastructure, personnel and fees,” the company said.
On the live entertainment side, CTS Eventim has been focused on growing its portfolio of venues (not unlike rival Live Nation). The company is touting the opening later this year of Arena Milano, which will be Italy’s largest arena, as well as an upcoming arena in Vienna, for which CTS won the tender late last year.
“The intention behind both projects is for CTS EVENTIM to operate the venues for the long term, thereby securing highly lucrative business that offers a wealth of synergies with our other activities,” the company said in its earnings report.
“Our involvement as an official ticketing partner for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, in collaboration with AXS, and for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, through our Italian subsidiary TicketOne, underscores our expertise in large-scale projects of global relevance.”
In sheer scale, CTS Eventim remains considerably smaller than global leader Live Nation – but it narrowed that gap somewhat in 2024. The US-headquartered Live Nation reported revenues of $23.16 billion for 2024, more than seven times the revenue of CTS Eventim, but revenue growth at Live Nation came in at 3% YoY.
“We have ensured that – in addition to our technologies – our processes and business models are becoming great exports,” Schulenberg said.
“They are the basis on which we will integrate future acquisitions even more quickly, realize synergies even sooner and enhance our success and attractiveness as a partner for international acquisitions and equity investments.”
Despite the strong growth seen in 2024, the company is forecasting a “moderate” increase in revenue and adjusted EBITDA for 2025, noting a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicting 3.0% YoY growth for Germany’s entertainment and media industry in 2025.Music Business Worldwide
