Gametime, the next app in ticket selling. This app helps you locate and purchase tickets to concerts and sporting events near you, last minute and right on your phone!
In 2013, Brad Griffith missed innings of a baseball game because he had to go into the basement of a bar to print out the last minute tickets that he purchased. This inspired the idea for Gametime, when Griffith thought there needed to be an easier way to get those last minute tickets and not miss part of your event in the process.
Gametime has put its main focus on the ease of buying right from your smartphone. The app provides digital copies of the tickets with barcodes for easy entrance and zero hassle. The app also offers the ability to send the tickets via text message or email for easy transferring to friends and family.
In 2016, $13 million dollars was raised to fund the Gametime project idea and expand its business. Today, Gametime has raised over $50 million in capital sales. Gametime leads ticket sales for huge sporting events like the the LA Dodgers and San Francisco Giants.
Although there are already many ticket selling websites in the industry, Gametime sets itself apart by a matter of convenience. Sites like Ticketmaster and StubHub provide printable versions of tickets while Gametime sends them straight to your mobile device, eliminating the need for a printer. Although, it’s still up to the venue to decide whether it accepts digital tickets, Gametime will be ready either way.
Early investors on this project were Jeff Mallett and Casey Wasserman, Stanford’s StartX Fund, and Accel Partners, bringing in $20 million in venture funding. The app’s focus on staying strictly mobile has drawn investors because of its appeal to millennials. The targeted young demographic goes out more, does more things, and in turn needs tickets fast. Luckily for Gametime, smartphones are in the hands of everyone meaning apps are too.
Since its start, Gametime has gotten primary ticket sources to add more of a variety to their ticket stock. The app now offers tickers to sporting event, concerts, and theatre shows near you. Resellers also have the “Snap and Sell” feature, which lets users sell already purchased tickets by having a photo taken of the paper ticket, priced and listed within seconds.
The “Connect” part of the app allows each user to follow friends and see what they’re going to attend or what they have for sale. This allows friends and family alike to easily get tickets to the same events with little to no hassle!
Gametime makes finding and buying the best possible tickets for the right price. Once the venue is selected, the app scans over 10,000 seats leaving you with the best option that’s closest to what you’re looking for in price and location.
The app offers encrypted payment protection that is stored right in the app so checkout is simply a tap of the screen instead of the 10 minutes it takes to reenter your information every time. The app also includes high-resolution photos of the venue, the view from your seat, and other location and/or price options for your choosing.
Since prices change as dates near and tickets sell, so do prices. With a mobile app the opportunity to fill seats is beneficial to the person buying as well as for the venue. Griffith believes that Gametime is creating a connector between fans and the event being sought out, instead of having a middle-man like most ticketing sites.
Griffith has made it a point to try and stay a secondary marketplace. This leaves Gametime with not having to worry about exclusive deals and percentage cuts, giving its users the best price options available. Founders and investors believe that buying tickets “should be just as amazing as the actual event experience.”
The startup now has about 65 employees and has had $7.5 billion generated in ticket sales over the last year. Gametime is launched in over 50 cities across the U.S. and Canada. Investors hope to see Gametime grow and expand into one of the top ticket selling options for mobile users. With putting fans and their experience first, Gametime makes tackles ticket buying with the consumer in mind.
