From excessive prices to sold-out shows, online search for theater tickets can be fraught with friction. But in London’s West End district, APIs are quickly connecting customers with their ideal seats. In the September B2B API Tracker, Mark Prethero, director of partnerships for London Theatre Direct, tells PYMNTS how APIs are delivering real-time ticket inventory across multiple venues.
When it comes to London, there are plenty of sights to see. Some might make their way to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey or the London Eye, while others might decide to ride a double-decker bus, or visit Buckingham Palace in hopes of spotting members of the royal family.
For those looking to enjoy an arts and culture excursion, the West End of London is a renowned theater scene and among the city’s top attractions. According to recent data, London theaters took in approximately £705 million (US$910.1 million) at the box office last year.
Finding tickets for a show can be a pain point for theatergoers. A venue might only have undesirable seating remaining, tickets could be too expensive, available times and dates could be inconvenient, or a show could just be completely sold out. This poses a problem for the theater as well. If a customer becomes frustrated while searching for tickets, it could mean curtains for the entire transaction.
Ticket sales and distribution company London Theatre Direct (LTD) is turning to APIs in an effort to more effectively manage available ticket inventory. LTD consolidates multiple box office system APIs, which allows it to sell tickets from a wide range of venues in London. LTD’s Director of Partnerships Mark Prethero told PYMNTS about the company’s decision to apply APIs to online ticketing, and how the technology is changing the theatergoing experience and the culture of London’s theater market.
The API Show Must Go On
Even with nearly 20 years of eCommerce experience under LTD’s belt, having opened its first online store in 1999, Prethero said that buying theater tickets online can be filled with friction for consumers.
“We used to work on allocation,” he explained. “Each venue would give us a set of tickets for each performance.”
These allocations were often limited to a certain number of tickets, and were typically the same seats from one performance to the next. Without a wide range of seating options, customers would be driven to find better tickets on another website.
“It wasn’t a good choice for consumers,” Prethero said. “They would have to browse multiple websites to find the seats they wanted.”
This kind of friction didn’t just drive customers away — it put LTD in a situation where it had more demand than available supply.
“It’s bad for us … We could lose the sale because of a lack of choice,” he said.
That risk can be minimized with APIs, which LTD uses to connect with a wide range of London-based theaters, revealing each theater’s inventory in real time and thereby offering customers a wider range of options.
“Anything that is available from the venue is available through our website,” Prethero said. “If [consumers] want to choose a cheaper price or a different seat or have a different view, they [no longer] have to visit a different website.”
An API-Driven Culture Change
APIs are not only changing the way consumers access tickets — they’re also working to change the culture of the theater industry.
“In the West End,” Prethero said, “[there] can be, at times, an old-fashioned way of doing things.”
With the allocation model, theaters felt they had greater influence over which companies or partners had ticket access. These venues were hesitant to use APIs to make tickets publicly available, because once the inventory became accessible, they had little oversight of the sales process.
“They were a bit nervous, at first, to open up their inventory, because they thought they would lose control over [their] tickets,” Prethero noted.
These venues eventually moved past their hesitations after they realized APIs could significantly boost ticket sales. For example, a recent production of “Jersey Boys” saw a 600 percent increase in ticket sales due to LTD’s API. The APIs provide an opportunity for venues to reach a broader share of customers, and LTD offers an API developer portal on its website, which theaters can use to customize solutions for their specific facility.
“Now, when a new startup wants to launch a ticketing company, they can bypass all of the work we have had to do over the years and gain instant access to inventory across the whole West End,” Prethero said.
In other words, APIs are not just disrupting the way patrons find tickets to their favorite shows — they are also changing the way these venues conduct business and establish partnerships.
A Layered API Theater Experience
The API disruption is not limited to theater venues, either. LTD’s solutions can also be put to use in the broader entertainment, experience and travel markets, streamlining vacation planning by connecting customers with options to reserve travel-related expenses such as flights, hotels and meals.
“We have different solutions for different types of businesses,” Prethero said.
For example, LTD’s API inventory includes a platform that allows hotel concierges to book theater tickets for guests. Another solution enables patrons to consolidate their ticket purchase with a restaurant reservation, making it easier to catch dinner and a show.
LTD’s API developer portal is also available for companies in the travel industry, so their customers can buy theater tickets as part of their tourist experience. With the solution in place, travel firms can make the theater experience a common part of the purchasing process without having to establish a partnership or make significant back-end changes.
“When you book a [flight], you might get offered a rental car or some extra insurance,” Prethero noted. “But if you’re traveling to London, most people will go see a West End show, so why not offer them a fun entertainment product to book rather than just a rental car?”
All told, APIs have pulled back the curtain on the ticket-buying process, and are ushering in a full range of additional travel and entertainment experiences for theatergoers. For London tourists, APIs could make going to the theater easier than navigating the Tube.
What do the movies “Blade Runner,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Back to the Future Part II” and Spike Jonze’s “Her” all have in common?
These science fiction movies, each depicting various versions of a future full of fantastic technologies, all take place in the year 2025 or earlier.
Though some of the high-tech gadgets and futuristic innovations seen in these films, such as hoverboards and flying cars, haven’t quite materialized in everyday life, they have sparked imagination and set the stage for the very real innovations. As the dozens of groundbreaking products and wacky gadgets that debuted at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week reveal, the future is certainly now.
CES, after all, rarely disappoints when it comes to providing a first-look at some truly strange gadgets that might just represent the ultimate showcase of tomorrow’s technology.
From artificial intelligence (AI) being embedded into everything and smarter than ever home devices, to autonomous robotic companions and wearable tech that both bends and blends reality, many of the inventions that once seemed out of reach in Hollywood films are now being unveiled on the convention floor.
See also: The Five Not-So-Obvious Things That Will Change the Digital Economy in 2025
It’s becoming clear that today’s technological advancements are increasingly bridging the gap between what was once imagined and what’s now becoming real.
For example, smart home robots are no longer a futuristic fantasy — they are being positioned as potentially indispensable components of modern households.
CES 2025 saw the debut of the Roborock Saros Z70, a robot vacuum with a telescopic, five-axis arm. Rosey the Robot from “The Jetsons” has nothing on this little gadget, which its maker describes as “a mechanical arm that sees and thinks,” and is able to pick up and put away items like socks, shoes, tissues and more.
For more serious household tasks, the SwitchBot Multitasking Household Robot K20+ Pro was also unveiled at CES 2025. “Whether it’s delivering objects, vacuuming, monitoring pets, purifying the air, providing home security, or even mobilizing smart tablets, the K20+ Pro juggles household management with ease … from delivering food and drinks to carrying small packages,” said a company release.
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The K20+ Pro’s core is designed for customization and flexibility, serving as a modular foundation that allows users to create, adapt, and personalize the robot for a wide variety of innovative applications, and can connect with third-party smart devices like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, ensuring integration into any smart home ecosystem.
Elsewhere, TCL premiered its “AI Me” (Amy) concept companion robot, complete with animated eyes, autonomous movement and an AI-powered camera on its head; while Dreame showcased its X50 Ultra robot vacuum that has legs to avoid obstacles.
As smart home technology continues to evolve, the integration of robots designed to assist in daily activities could significantly alter how we interact with our homes, manage tasks and even shape the future of work.
TomBot, for example, debuted an emotional robotic lap dog, Jennie, an AI robot therapy dog designed to keep seniors company. On the more playful side of things, Tokyo robotics startup Yukai Engineering introduced the Nékojita FuFu, a portable cat-shaped robot that can blow air to cool hot food or drinks.
It wasn’t solely robotics for use at home being showcased at CES. John Deere used the Las Vegas event to reveal its own autonomous agricultural products. The fully autonomous machines were on display from Jan. 7 to 10, and were a bit bigger in size, if equivalently less cute, than the TomBot puppies.
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Behind the strangely futuristic convenience of a robot picking up your laundry and taking out the trash while it vacuums and interfaces with the rest of your household appliances lies a much larger story: the rise of the smart economy.
As CES 2025 showed, augmented reality (AR) glasses are the eye candy of the smart economy. A host of futuristic specs were unveiled, capable of a range of tasks that turn the wearer into a high-tech superhero.
Halliday showcased “the world’s first proactive AI glasses with invisible display,” while freshly debuted Loomos.AI glasses offer a ChatGPT-4o integrated AI assistant.
But other appendages remain up for grabs, and innovative products from smart rings to apps like WowMouse, which allows smartwatch wearers to control devices using just their gestures and fingers, are vying for market share in ways that aim to make daily life more convenient, efficient and secure.