There may be no hotter tickets in Connecticut this fall when the UConn women’s and men’s basketball teams kick off their respective seasons Nov. 2 and Nov. 4 at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs by hoisting NCAA championship banners.
And it’s likely some of the 10,000 or so fans that will pack Gampel each game will purchase their tickets on EasySeat.com, a Plainville-based online ticket reseller.
Founded in 2005 by David Evans, EasySeat has quickly gained a small, but strong foothold in the ultracompetitive world of online ticket reselling. The company’s revenues have grown 200 percent over the last three years to $6.3 million, which earned EasySeat a spot on Inc. Magazine’s “Inc. 5000” list each of the last five years (in 2014 EasySeat ranked 16th among 47 Connecticut companies on the list).
EasySeat, which has 11 employees, has also been named one of the state’s top 40 tech companies by the Connecticut Technology Council.
What’s unique about EasySeat’s business model is that its online ticket resale marketplace focuses squarely on Connecticut customers. Although it sells tickets to events nationwide, a lot of the company’s recent growth has been fueled by UConn sporting events. Evans said he sees future expansion coming from smaller venues that need help getting visibility for their events.
“We buy from venues as well as individuals — mostly season ticket holders,” Evans said. “We do a small amount of consignment sales, but generally, we make money in a loose commodity trade in trying to buy [tickets] below market and sell above.”
EasySeat typically stocks about 20,000 tickets that it purchases from venues and individuals, but lists millions of other tickets made available by consumers for resale.
In the sometimes-controversial industry of event ticket reselling, Evans said growth is largely driven by the appeal of events resellers offer; effective marketing; and customer trust. The 36-year-old said he stumbled into the business unexpectedly, after his application development firm, Geode Software, created a software program for a ticket reseller that didn’t end up using the service.
“I had about $5,000 of tickets sitting on my desk,” Evans recalled. “Up to that point, I had done nothing except on the tech side, but I knew enough about the industry that I could make it work.”
“My background is in software and technology, so we came into it with a fully transparent, customer-oriented setup,” Evans said. “We don’t make money via subterfuge; we don’t make money by misleading people. We tend to try to over-communicate at every step along the way.”
Transparency is crucial because resellers often charge a different price than what’s on a ticket’s face value. Sometimes the price is lower, other times its higher.
The fact that Hartford has no major professional sports teams has actually benefitted EasySeat because other secondary ticket vendors have sidestepped Connecticut, Evans said. With large portions of Connecticut within relatively easy driving distance of New York and Boston, however, EasySeat has been able to capitalize on its customer relationships here by offering tickets to professional games in those cities as well.
While EasySeat identifies its brand with Connecticut, Evans says only about one-fifth of the tickets they sell are for events that occur in the state. About half of the tickets are for events in New York and Massachusetts.
Last year, EasySeat locked up a sponsorship agreement with Connecticut’s biggest sports draw, the UConn Huskies. While UConn tickets had been previously available on EasySeat via resale, the sponsorship deal allows the company to post UConn’s logo prominently on its website. That has increased traffic from people seeking tickets, Evans said.
“It’s the one thing in the state of Connecticut that people can hang their hat on,” Evans said. “It was something we pursued for quite a while, and we were finally able to get something done last year.”
Concert and theater venues are also major draws for EasySeat customers. Going forward, Evans said EasySeat is working hard to expand its market share to smaller theaters.
“We’re looking to find ways to provide distribution for smaller venues that we can partner with and that we can help … attract more people and attract more eyeballs, in the same way that we put people in larger venues,” Evans said.
