The Agency as a Platform

The agency is a market-maker: we put buyers (such as Disney, or Live Nation, or Netflix, or The Coca Cola Company) together with sellers (clients, and ourselves) and generate transactions, or deals.

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    columns 1
    agents(("agents"))
    space
    block:ID
        b(("buyers"))
        space
        d((" deal "))
        space
        s(("sellers"))
    end
    b --> d
    s --> d
    agents --> ID

    style ID stroke:none

UTA creates and manages these deals while operating what is effectively a B2B marketplace platform that takes money in one side and distributes payments to the market participants.

In fact, if we were building UTA today as a startup, we would very likely represent this platform as software that operates a multi-sided marketplace, and we would clearly identify our ability to operate that platform well as a key competitive differentiator.

block-beta
    columns 1

    agents(("agents"))
    space
    block:ID
        buyers(("buyers"))
        space
        uta((" UTA "))
        space
        sellers(("clients"))
    end
    participants(("participants"))

    buyers --> uta
    sellers --> uta
    agents --> ID
    participants --> ID

    style ID stroke:none

This conceptual model of the agency as a market-making platform operating in an entertainment, sports, and culture industry ecosystem means that success can be judged by UTA’s “take rate” on the gross merchandise value (GMV) of the services sold through its platform.

This lens allows us to look at the interactions of not only clients and their agents, but all participants in the ecosystem. Competitors are operating in the same entertainment, culture, and sports space and have their own ecosystems -- the better we operate ours, the more participants we will draw on both the buy and sell side, which will increase our take rate.