Nearly two months after the U.S. Department of Justice’s conditional approval of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, Billboard's Ray Waddell examines the new ticketing landscape.

Before it dropped Ticketmaster and launched its own ticketing division in early 2009, Live Nation had represented about 10% of Ticketmaster’s overall business. The bulk of that was in Live Nation’s 40-plus amphitheatres and the numerous clubs and theatres it operates. A year later, Live Nation Entertainment appears certain to ticket its own venues. Indeed, that’s where the synergies exist in being a venue owner, concert promoter, artist manager and ticketing company. Billboard estimates the combined company will sell about 200 million tickets this year.

The real battleground for new ticketing contracts will be in the box offices of areanas and stadiums. Ticketmaster is dominant in this area, but contracts with arenas and the teams that are their primary tenants (and often their owners and/or managers) expire all the time. Two of the first to migrate were the 9:30 Club and Merriweather Post Pavillion, both now have ticketing contracts withTicketfly. The Merriweather signing was significant because it was the first large-venue shift from Ticketmaster to another ticketing company since the merger was approved.  Owner of Merriweather, I.M.P.chairman Seth Hurwitz told Billboard.biz  “I was happy with Ticketmaster, but I can’t have my competitor selling my tickets. It’s just not going to happen.”

And sports could be the wild card. Comcast-Spectacor now has Paciolan to add to its New Era Ticketing, with many of Paciolan’s 200 clients in college athletics. In addition to facility management firm Global Spectrum, Comcast-Spectacor owns Philadelphia’s NBA and NHL franchises, the 76ers and the Flyers. Comcast-Spectacor president Peter Luukko says he expects the company to leverage its sports expertise.

And then there’s Anschutz Entertainment Group, whose primary business is arenas and sports teams, despite owning the second-largest global concert promotion firm, AEG Live. This makes AEG a hugely influential player in the market as a sort of hybrid of Live Nation Entertainment and Comcast-Spectacor. AEG’s integration of the Ticketmaster ticketing system has advantageous terms now, but sources told Billboard when the DOJ’s approval of the merger was announced that the agreement between AEG and Ticketmaster was a scaling deal that would become more expensive for AEG every year. By 2013 all signs point to AEG launching its own ticketing system, whether through acquisition or building it from the ground up.