ReplyBuy Lets Consumers Buy Tickets By Text

Ticket resellers for sports events are almost universally reviled by fans for price gouging and concerns over ticket legitimacy. This makes one wonder why fans might flock to yet another ticket app.

According to The Wall Street Journal, ReplyBuy, a startup that lets users buy tickets entirely within their preferred texting apps, is not only gaining followers, but investors, too. ReplyBuy recently secured $2 million in seed funding for growth, and the startup is wasting no time with ongoing negotiations with 50 stadiums and teams across the NBA, NFL and NHL.

ReplyBuy works by letting ticket sellers send messages directly to season ticket holders or other fans that have expressed interest in certain games or teams in general. Customers can then reply with simple text messages and purchases are billed to a connected credit card. Within minutes, customers receive a link to scannable mobile tickets.

Auburn University, one of the nation’s highest profile college football programs, recently began using ReplyBuy, and Scott Carr, senior associate athletic director for external affairs, told the Montgomery Advertiser what a difference the service has made for ticketing operations.

“It’s a good setup, because it allows us to move the tickets and to do so in a way that doesn’t feel like we’re harassing our biggest donors,” Carr said.  “Because it does feel that way sometimes, when you’re calling them up and asking them to buy tickets.”

In an interview with Sport Techie, ReplyBuy CTO Tony Saia explained that consumers are primarily looking for “simplicity, speed and access” when buying tickets to a game, and that’s what ReplyBuy tries to deliver. Styling itself as a natural extension of most teams’ existing box office operations, ReplyBuy could take the pain out of a ticket-buying process that has the potential to frustrate sports fans almost as much as a poor performance by their favorite team.

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