Company Reaffirms Commitment to Independent Live Music Venues and Expands Venue Managed Services Across Houston, Austin, Nashville, New Orleans, and South Florida
HOUSTON, TX - April 16, 2026 (NEWMEDIAWIRE) - PickleJar Entertainment Group (OTC: PKLE), an independent live event technology company, today issued the following statement in response to yesterday’s landmark federal jury verdict finding Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Ticketmaster liable for illegally maintaining monopoly power in the U.S. live events and ticketing market.
“The market is moving, and PickleJar is already there. Yesterday’s verdict confirms what independent venue operators have experienced firsthand for years - a system designed to serve the platform, not the people running the show. We built PickleJar specifically for the local and independent venues that have been overlooked, overcharged, and cut off from their own fans. We are actively working with venues and festivals across our five priority markets today, and this ruling only accelerates the conversation.”
- Jeff James, Chief Executive Officer, PickleJar Entertainment Group
The Verdict Confirms What Local Venues Have Always Known
Yesterday’s federal jury finding - that Ticketmaster controlled approximately 86% of the concert ticketing market through anticompetitive conduct - is not a surprise to the independent venue community. It is a confirmation of what local operators have navigated for more than a decade: a marketplace where their options were artificially limited, their costs were inflated, and the data about their own fans was controlled by a platform they did not own and could not leave without consequence. PickleJar Entertainment Group was built in direct response to this reality.
Purpose-Built for Local Live Music
Local and independent live music venues are the backbone of live entertainment in America. They develop emerging artists, anchor communities, and create the experiences that define a city’s cultural identity. For too long, these operators have carried that responsibility while struggling under the weight of ticketing platforms that charge excessive fees, withhold fan data, make it difficult to market effectively, and leave venue operators with little ability to stand out or build lasting audience relationships.
The PickleJar platform was engineered to solve each of these problems. Venues operating on PickleJar own 100% of their fan data, with full CRM access and the ability to market directly to their audience - on their own terms, on their own timeline. The platform’s integrated marketing automation delivers both email and SMS capabilities, eliminating the need for costly third-party marketing tools and enabling operators to engage fans meaningfully before, during, and after every event.
A True 360-Degree View of Every Fan
Through PickPay, PickleJar’s integrated venue payment platform, operators can process ticket sales online, manage walk-up payments at the door, and track merchandise and food and beverage transactions - all within a single unified system. Every transaction is attributed directly to the fan, giving venue operators a complete, real-time picture of audience behavior and per-capita spending across every revenue category. This data belongs to the venue. Not the platform. Not a third party. The venue.
Momentum Across Five Priority Markets
PickleJar is actively expanding its venue managed services platform across five strategic markets: Houston, Austin, Nashville, New Orleans, and South Florida. The Company is currently engaged in conversations with festivals and local live music venues across these markets as independent operators evaluate their long-term platform options in the wake of this landmark ruling.
The antitrust verdict creates a structural opening that the independent venue market has not seen in over a decade. Venues now have both legal clarity and a proven, operational alternative. PickleJar is positioned, present, and ready to serve them.
ABOUT PICKLEJAR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC. (OTCMKTS: PKLE)
PickleJar unlocks the potential of shared entertainment experiences through an integrated suite of software and services designed to inspire human creativity and enrich lives. Developed for an era of social commerce, we continuously work to advance tools to unify the touchpoints of Fan engagement with emerging Artists, mid-sized venues, and global brands. By embedding secure payment technology, data intelligence and content distribution, PickleJar’s innovative Artist promotion programs, Venue Managed Services and wide range of mobile apps create a 360° view of how Fans and Patrons connect with the music and moments that matter most.
For more information, please visit www.picklejar.com.
Follow PickleJar on our social channels: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Information about Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, expectations, anticipations, assumptions, estimates, intentions, and future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond the control of the Company and its officers and managers, and which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by which, that performance or those results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time they are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements.
Important factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: the Company's ability to successfully expand its venue managed services platform into new markets; the Company's need for additional funding to support operations and growth; the impact of competitive products, platforms, and pricing in the live event technology sector; dependence on third-party payment processing infrastructure; uncertainty regarding the pace and scope of remedies arising from the Live Nation Entertainment antitrust litigation and their effect on market conditions; the demand for the Company's products and services; changes in applicable laws or regulations affecting the live entertainment and payment technology industries; and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the OTC Markets Group and, where applicable, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be forward-looking statements. You can typically identify these forward-looking statements through use of words such as "may," "will," "can," "anticipate," "assume," "should," "indicate," "would," "believe," "contemplate," "expect," "seek," "estimate," "continue," "plan," "point to," "project," "predict," "could," "intend," "target," "potential," and other similar words and expressions of the future.
PickleJar expresses its expectations, beliefs and projections in good faith and believes that its expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions. However, there is no assurance that these expectations, beliefs, and projections will prove to have been correct. PickleJar undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting PickleJar (PKLE), please refer to the Company's recent filings available at https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/PKLE/overview.
Contact:
Anna Benson
Anna@picklejar.com
