Stubhub Inc. helped move the ticket reselling business off the streets and onto the Internet.

The San Francisco company operates an online marketplace for people to sell tickets for athletic contests, concerts or other entertainment events.

The practice of selling unwanted tickets -- known as scalping -- is still the domain of ticket brokers and other entrepreneurs who roam parking lots and other fringes of entertainment venues.

But Stubhub, along with other competitors, helped change a reselling business that "was fragmented and inefficient" and give it a more orderly, accessible format, said Stubhub Chief Executive Officer Jeff Fluhr.

Stubhub's business plan has undergone a transformation. Originally the company split commissions with teams on each ticket transaction. But under recent deals the company has made, Stubhub keeps all of the commissions and pays the teams a flat fee to promote its web site and provide contact information to teams' season ticketholders. The goal is to drive even more users to Stubhub's web site.

In another bid to win more customers, Stubhub has entered into 18 exclusive deals with pro and college sports teams, including the Golden Bears of UC Berkeley and Stanford. Stubhub is a sponsor of both programs, allowing Stubhub to link to the school's online ticket sales.

Fluhr worked on the idea for the company as a business school student at Stanford University. Since then, the 6-year-old company has grown to $50 million in revenue and more than 200 employees. The Stubhub web site allows sellers to post information about tickets they want to sell. Once a buyer is found, Stubhub arranges for FedEx delivery of the tickets and makes sure the seller is paid. Stubhub charges both buyers and sellers on each transaction.

The site offers customer service, a guarantee of ticket delivery and offices in some cities that facilitate last-minute ticket sales. Customers are responding. The site got more than 1.6 million viewers last January, ranking it above several competing sites that cater to resold tickets, according to Internet measuring firm Comscore Media Metrix.

There are plenty of challenges to Stubhub's business. A number of sites trying to attract buyers and sellers, including Ticketsnow.com, Razorgator and Gotickets.com, are popping up. Some state laws dictate price caps or other restrictions on reselling tickets. But for the most part Fluhr said his business has managed to cater to consumer demand for an orderly marketplace for resold tickets. More>>>

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