A San Francisco startup that specializes in selling last-minute sports tickets has raised $4 million.
Gametime, an app available for smartphones, lets customers buy sports tickets in 18 markets for games that could be as early as the same day as the event. Unlike other companies, Gametime doesn’t require customers to print out the tickets. Customers get an electronic ticket that can be scanned at the game.
Gametime’s funding round was led by Accel Partners and additional investors include Vivek Ranadivé, owner of the Sacramento Kings, and Jeff Mallett, a principal partner in the San Francisco Giants and co-owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Derby County FC, among others.
The startup would be competing in a large market for secondary tickets. The firm sells tickets to major-league venues for baseball, football, basketball, hockey and soccer, plus the NCAA. Major League Baseball alone sells more than 72 million tickets a year, with 20 percent in the secondary market, Mallett said.
Gametime declined to say exactly how many people have downloaded the app. The company said the money it makes per transaction can be up to 10 percent of the ticket sale.
Ben Bajarin, a principal analyst at Creative Strategies Inc., said there could be opportunity for companies like Gametime to aggressively price sporting tickets at the very last minute.
“There is a market for something like this,” Bajarin said. “The challenge is how many people decide at the last minute to watch a sporting match.”
CEO Brad Griffith said he came up with the idea for Gametime when he was late to a San Francisco Giants game because he couldn’t find a printer right away. He and his brother had bought last-minute tickets through a smartphone app, but didn’t realize they needed to print out the tickets to get into the game.
“We missed the first inning and Tony Bennett singing the national anthem,” Griffith said. “We could create a ton of value if we allowed people to go into the game without printing tickets.”
Gametime said the additional funding would go toward expanding its staff and eventually reaching 45 markets. The company plans to add cities such as San Diego, Vancouver and Miami, Griffith said.
Mallett said the Gametime app could help teams reach out to the 18- to 34-year-old demographic who are hesitant to commit to buying season tickets and prefer to buy things at the last minute.
“It’s a convenient opportunity” for those customers, Mallett said.
Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee