Finishers, a French platform dedicated to running event discovery and registration, has begun rolling out official, price-capped marketplaces that let runners resell race bibs they can no longer use, as growing participation and fast-selling events increase pressure on race registration systems.
A young company backed by early investors
Finishers is a young company, not an established name. It launched in Lyon in June 2021, founded by Benoît Grassigny, Hugo Charrier and Arnaud Didry as a discovery platform for running and outdoor events. The company later expanded into registration management and organizer services as endurance sports participation grew. In late 2023, Finishers completed a €3.3 million seed round backed by around 20 investors, including Anthony Bourbon’s Blast.Club, with the company saying the capital would support product development, new outdoor disciplines and international expansion.
Sold-out races strain registration systems
More than 6,000 races are now held in France each year, selling close to six million bibs to roughly three million competitors. The combination of high demand and long registration lead times has contributed to persistent no-show rates across many events.
Organizers report no-show rates of around 10 percent on a 10-kilometer race, rising to as much as 30 percent on longer or harder events, depending on the race. Runners who can no longer take part, because of injury, work commitments, pregnancy or a change in plans, have had few official channels to pass on their spot.
An unofficial resale market fills the gap
That gap has fed an unofficial secondary market on Facebook groups, Strava and private chats, where bibs are resold outside any organizer oversight. Some organizers estimate fraud risk in that market at around 20 percent, citing speculative pricing, counterfeit bibs, double-sold entries and undeclared transfers, patterns organizers compare to the secondary ticketing markets that have long dogged concerts and major sporting events.
Bibs carry safety data, not just entry rights
The stakes go beyond convenience. A race bib carries a runner’s identity and underpins event safety systems, from emergency contacts and medical questionnaires to start-corral management and on-course tracking. When a bib changes hands informally, that data no longer matches the person on the course. Some organizers say up to 10 percent of runners at certain races no longer correspond to their original registration record. Organizers also lose the revenue that changes hands in those informal resales, despite bearing the cost of running the event.
Charrier described the secondary bib market as having become “a strategic issue for organizers,” touching their revenue model, the participant experience and the reliability of race-day data.
Verified resale, capped prices
Finishers’ platform lets organizers open an official, price-capped resale channel for runners who can no longer compete, verifying the new registration, securing payment and updating participant data automatically. It also manages waitlists so freed-up spots go to another confirmed runner rather than sitting empty.
Early results from one marathon
According to figures Finishers shared, the Marathon de la Traversée des Dentelles saw its no-show rate fall from 35 percent to 7 percent after adopting the official resale platform, reassigning bibs that would otherwise have gone unused. Across its platforms, Finishers said it has processed more than 8,000 resales in under five months, representing over €300,000 in transactions
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