FanXchange, a Toronto-based online ticket marketplace, has taken real estate on TheScore.com to connect buyers and sellers on the sports site’s homepage.

The idea stems from the US partnership of ESPN and StubHub, with one difference: visitors to The Score don’t have to leave the website to browse available seats and purchase the tickets, Brandon Koffler, president, FanXchange, tells MiC.

‘The goal of the partnership is to make it easier and faster for sports fans to find the tickets they want,’ he says. ‘We’re giving them access to the teams they love while staying on The Score’s platform.’

FanXchange is promoting the new partnership through banner ads and will, in the new year, have TV ads on The Score. This is on top of the service’s existing ad buy that started in the fall and runs until spring 2011 in print, online and radio, focused on the six NHL markets in Canada.

Spoke Agency in Toronto is handling the media buy, creative and digital for the campaign.

FanXchange has also partnered with hockey magazine The Fourth Period‘s website and is exploring other placement options.

‘It’s an extended version of our offering and getting the brand out there, and that’s our biggest task on a daily basis,’ Koffler says. ‘To be able to strategically partner with someone like The Score allows us to further develop our brand.’