“We just made a limited number of Game 2 tickets available for $45. Get them exclusively on Twitter” This is what the Atlanta Hawks tweeted Monday afternoon, a day after their Game 1 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. In their tweet, there is a link that allows their Twitter followers to select and use a credit card to pay for tickets for Wednesday night’s playoff game against the Brooklyn Nets.
We just made a limited number of Game 2 tickets available for $45. Get them exclusively on Twitter: https://t.co/e5KnyZL2zj
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) April 20, 2015
Selling tickets via Twitter is not a new thing, but it is the latest endeavor for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks are selling a limited number of playoff tickets directly from Twitter, so fans that are already following the team can have immediate purchasing power without leaving Twitter. Not a bad idea, considering the number of followers of professional sports teams Twitter has.
If the Atlanta Hawks can pull this off, it will be a huge breakthrough in an untapped area of e-commerce. Many sports fans follow their favorite teams on Twitter, and read, as well as post live commentary during games. The NBA – and possibly even more so, Twitter, are hoping these loyal fans who read and tweets daily will also “buy in” to purchasing last-minute ticket offers thru Twitter.
Shopping-enabled tweets could lead to an increase in Twitter’s advertising business, since teams and brands will have to pay for the “buy” button to be visible to users who don’t follow their accounts. Using Twitter as a distributor eliminates the ticketing middleman – for now at least. Twitter is not taking a cut from the ticket sales at this time, but that could change in the future.
The only question that remains is whether or not Twitter users actually want to be able to purchase anything through their Twitter accounts. If ticket sales are better than good, this could be a win-win situation for the NBA and Twitter. And with former Ticketmaster CEO, Nathan Hubbard, as head of Twitter’s commerce division, it is possible that Twitter can become the new go-to platform to buy sports tickets.