As much as sports franchises market their players to appeal to fans, there’s much more to them than simply trying to drive ticket sales or TV ratings. Teams represent the very heartbeat of their respective city. Fans attach themselves to them insofar as looking for hope and inspiration.
The glamorization of sports notwithstanding, this same aforementioned hope and inspiration transcends communities. Sports teams, in turn, invariably have a civic duty to give back. This responsibility shouldn’t be taken lightly or overlooked. In fact, the same degree of innovation and technological change needed across the organization should be equally focused on endeavors to those in need.
AuctionsByCellular, a Chicago-based startup, has spearheaded the efforts between charities and sports teams through their mobile platform. At its core, it’s a smartphone, mobile web-based application that powers bidding with just a click of a browser link. Users then get notified when items they’ve claimed have been outbid via a text message. A technology as simple and accessible as this has enabled franchises to grow their charitable impact along with adding an auction element to in-game fundraising events.
“Our mission is to bring as much money back to the charity as possible,” Jim Alvarez, AuctionsByCellular’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, tells SportTechie.
Come this May, that’ll mark their third year of pushing this technology forward to both charities and teams. They were the first company to offer a flat-fee business model to charities partners rather percentage-based–on top of being the first to present digital bidding option at silent auctions. This simple medium’s technology has changed significantly during this time with a team of five full-time developers. What started out as just bid capability to users, these developers have since made the platform faster, better, and more user-friendly. A feature as simply being able to read a credit card number ahead of time in order to make an in-game auction possible strikes as a notable stride since its inception.
Alvarez notes that, from a charity standpoint, they have pre-planned these events close to a year in advance; and, naturally, there’s plenty of logistics to take care of within a three-hour window on the day of. They’ve lacked the time, resources, and ability to be nimble enough to maximize donors’ interest. This reality in the marketplace has only been more pronounced with shift to smartphones’ importance. Thus, AuctionsByCellular opens up this interval of time to extend days, weeks, or months before, in which they build a custom website to showcase their items and engage people prior to the event. They then send a team on the day of to run the registration, bidding, and checkout process for them.
“Not only are we doing this from a customer service standpoint, but when we implement the technology, they are seeing their normal revenues go from $20,000 to $40,000,” continues Alvarez.
Having already raised $100 million to more than 800 different charities since 2011, AuctionsByCellular has quickly entered the sports landscape and counts the Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Fire Soccer Club, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Galaxy, and Minnesota Timberwolves among their several clients. The transition into fielding sporting events has been a swift one, in light of the tangible presence they’ve established with isolated charity partners. Their track record thus far has translated to results in the sports sector, too.
The Blackhawks, for instance, used to have about eight to ten fans partake as bidders at their in-game charity functions. That’s a small percentage pool in which to draw donations of any consequence. Their mobile platform now has allowed them to capture every single individual that’s taken part in past events, which opens up the reach to anywhere between 1,000 to 1,500 per game. No longer is it necessary to physically be at the event to participate. And, naturally, the more times these take place, the greater the donations outcome; for them specifically, it’s doubled.
Simply put by Alvarez: “More time plus more bidders equals more revenue.”
Consequently, the scalability potential is virtually boundless. There’s currently well over 800,000 revenue-generating charities on file with the IRS, per Blackline Review. Some of the advantages of non-profits hosting digital auctions include: donors can bid from anywhere, anytime, big data collection, increase pool due to users’ sharing, and higher frequency of bids. Also, a “rivalry” aspect tends to take place that’s predicated by the time pressure associated with it. All of these factors are compounded further within the psychological part of sports fandom coupled with memorabilia.
That said, what about the largest enterprise in the space: eBay? Where do they stand amidst the rising of this startup? Their developments of late sheds light on the totality and strength of mobile bidding.
According to The Wall Street Journal, eBay’s mobile app has been downloaded north of 120 million times as of last year. This figure alone represents more than 50 percent of the 235 million combined users with PayPal. Their Chief Executive Officer, John Donahoe, stated mobile “continues to re-write the commerce playbook, and we continue to be a mobile commerce and payments leader” at the time. Yet, the best example to date of a sports organization teaming up with eBay for a cause remains Nike’s “Back 4 the Future” campaign.
“Look, at the end of the day, we are both doing the same thing,” says Alvarez in relation to eBay. “We are both putting items up for auction and enabling people to bid on them.”
“What I compare ours to eBay is that people go to eBay to specifically bid on items in an auction,” Alvarez continues. “So, these are savvy people that are specifically going there for that purpose. Now, in our world, we have grandparents and older generations of people that are coming to a charity event; they’re not necessarily coming to an auction.”
Conversely, the stark difference in target demographics means more forethought on the development of the technology.
AuctionByCellular’s Chief Technology Officer, Rich Aquino, mentions that the platform was initially built as a mobile web app in order to be device agnostic. Over time they realized they wanted users to bid from home besides from their smartphones; so they created a responsive website as well. The width of the devices in mind, they were able to stretch out the interface for users to see more items appropriately. The last issue they wanted for users to have is to download an app and have to be well-versed in navigating it, let alone the ecosystem.
It’s worth noting, too, that this medium has yet to be integrated in any of the teams’ apps. Aquino emphasizes that it has been “built in a way that it would be possible.” This specification, however, hasn’t been a priority brought up by the teams, themselves. While this integration as a feature would certainly be wise for teams follow-through with, Aquino would first make sure that the interface visuals change to that of the team instead. The API is readily available whenever a team decides to do so, though.
Bearing in mind the simplicity of the technology, Alvarez acknowledges that the biggest issue they face going forward is that “a lot of charities are hesitant to change.” This “change” doesn’t solely convey their willingness to adopt technology, but from the entire process in which they have raised money to this point. It’s been literally a paper and pencil business for seemingly forever now. AuctionByCellular, thus, has gathered over 100 testimonials to support their work. Overcoming the status quo oftentimes presents the toughest part in the selling phase–not so much whether a particular technology is effective.
For the Fire, it’s more than a worthwhile endeavor, says Senior Director of Community Relations and Executive Director of the Chicago Fire Foundation, Jessica Yavitz, to SportTechie: “ABC has been a great partner to help us understand the needs of our supporters and provide a service to keep up with technology. Working with ABC has allowed the Chicago Fire Foundation the ability to expand our reach and provide access to our auctions to those supporters who otherwise would not be attending our events. This, in turn, has helped raised additional revenue from our events as they can bid from anywhere with the ease of their phone. It has provided the Foundation the opportunity to engage fans of the Fire no matter where they come from; and allows them to continue to be connected to the club and Foundation.”
The Timberwolves’ Community Relations Manager, Matthew Makovec, also shared the same sentiments: “With an abundance of auction items, ABC auctions allowed our guests to bid on items without having to hover or monitor their bids on paper. Guests participating in the silent auction then were able to enjoy the event to the fullest, while easily being able to bid, re-bid, or keep an eye on our unique items. Our silent auctions proceeds have increased with the help of ABC auctions.”
Throughout this time, AuctionsByCellular hasn’t raised any professional fundraising. They have steadily grown organically with a foundation of people that believe in their overarching mission. Sports teams and charities could easily be questioned for the lack of technological implementation towards this important front up until this point. Yet, AuctionsByCellular has shrewdly filled a void that’s in dire need for innovation–something that not even eBay, themselves, can claim to own. Their goal this year is to partner with 2,000 charities, which would stand a long way from their humble beginnings of 100 of them during its first year.