Ticketmaster has reached a collaboration agreement with ticketing app Gametime to reach millennial sports fans. Under the new partnership, the company aims to attract younger consumers with digital products to drive sales growth. While the ticket organization sells seats via its apps, potential consumers can choose any available seat at time of purchase on Ticketmaster.com or one of the company's affiliate sites.
The Live Nation-owned ticketing platform headquartered in West Hollywood, California aims to utilize similar partnership deals with tech companies such as Facebook, Groupon and Spotify in the future. The company sold four million tickets globally in the first quarter of 2017. Those numbers reflect an increase of 32 percent from the previous year.
Competitive edge
Sports leagues, teams and venues have sought partnership agreements with other resellers lately. SeatGeek and StubHub gained a competitive advantage by signing deals with professional and collegiate leagues and teams that merge the primary and secondary ticket markets.
The objective of the strategic partnership is to aid the companies in expanding the online ticket business.
Gametime secures $20 million in funding
Gametime announced in September 2016 that it raised $20 million in venture capital funding to sell sporting event tickets. Overall, Gametime, which was established by Brad Griffith in 2013, has raised $33 million thus far.
The startup aims to stand out in the crowd of event ticketing competitors by creating features and launching video advertisements to seize the attention of millennial sports and music enthusiasts. Gametime has competed against some of the largest ticket marketplaces such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, and others.
Using e-ticketing service to improve customer experience
Empowered by digital devices,18-34-year-old consumers are increasingly buying tickets through the use of mobile smartphones and apps. The data provided by Ticketmaster revealed that 60 percent of traffic comes via mobile, while 75 percent of tickets were purchased via Gametime for a particular event last year.
According to PriceWaterhouse Coopers -- and relayed by TechCrunch -- the sports ticketing market is anticipated to generate more than $20 billion by 2019. Technology continues to evolve, and the way consumers purchase tickets is evolving right along with it.