We built a model that takes every seat in a stadium and assigns a fitted price to it ("fitted" in the econometric sense, meaning what the price should be for an average game). That's based on long-term historical transaction prices for each section and scaling factors for things like the row, number of tickets, angle to field, and some other inputs.
Then, for each ticket we compare the actual price to the fitted price and look at the deviation as a percentage of the fitted price, i.e. (acutal price - fitted price)/fitted price. The tickets with the biggest deviations are ranked as the best deals.
We certainly need to add an explanation of this to the site; thanks for the suggestion.
I came to this thread to find this explanation. Thanks for writing it out. In case you're wondering, the first place I looked for the description was on the legend in the lower right, I expected something to be clickable that would tell me what a "deal" meant. You might want to place the explanation down there. Even a "title" attribute would be a quick win.
Then, for each ticket we compare the actual price to the fitted price and look at the deviation as a percentage of the fitted price, i.e. (acutal price - fitted price)/fitted price. The tickets with the biggest deviations are ranked as the best deals.
We certainly need to add an explanation of this to the site; thanks for the suggestion.