Gametime
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Ticket resale, Mobile application |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founder | Brad Griffith |
| Headquarters | San Francisco , United States |
Area served | North America (60 cities) |
Key people | Brad Griffith (Founder) |
| Products | Mobile marketplace application for ticket resale |
Number of employees | 80 (2017) |
| Website | gametime |
Gametime is a mobile marketplace application for Ticket resale developed by Gametime United Inc., headquartered in San Francisco and established by Brad Griffith in 2012. The application debuted on iOS in May 2013, followed by an Android release in March 2014. Through several funding rounds, Gametime has secured over in capital. The company has received industry accolades, including honors from SportsBusiness Daily and the Appy Awards, and has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. by Deloitte, Inc., and Accel Partners.
Features
Gametime allows users to purchase tickets for prominent sports leagues such as MLB, NFL, NCAA, NBA, NHL, and MLS, alongside events like WrestleMania, AMA Supercross Championship, and the PGA Tour. Additionally, it provides access to tickets for concerts, comedy shows, and theatrical performances. The platform consolidates unsold tickets from teams, primary sellers, secondary outlets, and individual users, presenting the top 50 options ranked by price and seat location through its proprietary algorithm.
Available seat choices include photographs of the view and venue maps when accessible. Ticket prices are designed to decrease strategically as the event time nears to attract last-minute buyers, with availability extending up to 90 minutes after the event begins. Approximately 80% of purchases happen within a week leading up to an event, half on the day itself, and over 10% occur after the event has started. Tickets are delivered digitally via barcode scanning, eliminating the need for paper printing. Payment options integrate seamlessly with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo.
Launched in 2015, Gametime’s loyalty program High Fives rewards customers with vouchers for buying tickets to multiple winning home games. In 2016, the Snap and Sell feature streamlined ticket resale by employing optical character recognition technology, simplifying listing compared to competitors. Gametime Connect added social networking capabilities that enable users to view friends’ ticket sales and attendance plans for coordinated purchases. The Gametime FanViews feature allows customers to provide feedback on seat quality and share event photos, enriching buyer information during checkout.
Origin and growth
Brad Griffith, previously a senior financial analyst at Google, envisioned a digital instant-ticketing solution after missing part of an October 2012 National League Championship Series game due to printing physical tickets. He founded Gametime United in San Francisco to create an app that would simplify ticket purchasing. The iOS version launched in May 2013, followed by Android in March 2014 and an Apple Watch app in May 2015.
Starting with coverage of select stadiums in San Francisco, Gametime rapidly expanded first into Los Angeles and then reached 35 cities across the U.S. and Canada by July 2015. By February 2016, it serviced 48 cities with over 500 teams; today it operates in 60 cities throughout North America. In August 2015, college football tickets from 50 leading programs were added, followed by an expansion into concert ticket offerings that included both last-minute deals and advance sales by December.
By March 2017, Gametime employed around 80 people based in San Francisco. According to Griffith, the typical user is a 31-year-old male with a household income averaging $67,000—significantly younger than users of competing services. The app’s strategy focuses on millennials who make up roughly 75% of its customer base, leveraging a mobile-centric approach to effectively engage this demographic segment.
Funding
Gametime's initial capital amounted to $900,000, sourced from the founders of HotelTonight, owners of sports franchises including the San Francisco Giants, and Matt Brezina, co-founder of Xobni. In September 2014, a seed financing round led by Accel Partners secured $4 million, attracting investors from entities such as HotelTonight, Box, the Giants, Vancouver Whitecaps, Yahoo!, TIBCO Software, Sacramento Kings, and StubHub. Subsequent to this investment round, Colin Evans, founder of StubHub, joined the company as chief revenue officer.
A Series A funding round in May 2015, again spearheaded by Accel, brought in an additional $13.3 million with participation from executives affiliated with the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils, and Trunk Club. Later, in September 2016, Gametime completed a Series B round that raised $20 million from new backers including GV (Google Ventures), Evolution Media Partners, and StartX. The most recent funding event occurred in May 2022 when Gametime obtained $30 million from Nimble Partners—featuring Golden State Warriors owner John Burbank—alongside Maven Ventures, Accel, GV, and other investors to facilitate ongoing expansion and business development.
Partnerships
In September 2015, Gametime collaborated with the digital fan engagement platform Bleacher Report to embed ticket advertisements within its Team Stream application. This integration directed users seamlessly to Gametime's event pages. By May 2017, Ticketmaster entered into a partnership with Gametime to enable ticket distribution through the app while sharing revenue with teams and venues. This alliance targeted Gametime’s predominantly younger demographic and provided approximately 12,000 Ticketmaster-affiliated teams and venues with an additional avenue for secondary ticket sales via Gametime. The financial specifics of this agreement were not publicly disclosed.
Recognition
Gametime United experienced extraordinary growth in business performance, recording a revenue surge of 3,856% between 2013 and 2016. This achievement earned it the distinction of "fastest growing digital content/media/entertainment company" in Deloitte's 2017 Technology Fast 500 rankings. Inc. magazine highlighted an astonishing three-year growth rate of 34,021% alongside $49 million in revenue for 2016, positioning Gametime as the third fastest-growing company nationwide and the leading consumer products company in growth terms. Brian O'Malley of Accel Partners noted that Gametime reached $50 million in gross sales during fiscal year 2016, describing it as "the fastest growing ticketing company ever." In addition to financial milestones, the company received SportsBusiness Daily's "Best in Mobile Fan Experience" award and was honored with an Appy Award in the "Events" category in 2017.