Los Angeles - Venue owner and concert promoter Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) announced on Thursday that it has signed a multi-year deal with SMG, to be the exclusive ticketing agent for the company's 216 venues.

Live Nation, which itself owns over 100 venues, will enter the ticketing market in early 2009, and sever its relationship with Ticketmaster.

The deal with SMG is a coup for the company, as SMG was Ticketmaster's second-biggest client -- behind Live Nation.

Live Nation expects to handle more than 13 million tickets for Live Nation and House of Blues venues by 2010, and expects SMG's business to represent an estimated 25% annual increase for its new ticketing venture.

The five-year deal with SMG is expected to include some 25 million tickets.

In 2007, SMG -- which is owned by private equity fund American Capital (NASD: ACAS) -- hosted over 10,000 events, attracting more than 50 million patrons.

"The fact that SMG, the world leader in venue management, has selected our new ticketing platform as its exclusive service provider validates that our unique content plus ticketing proposition delivers a double win via one single provider," said Nathan Hubbard, CEO of Live Nation Ticketing.

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