Report: SI Tickets Seeking Funding to Purchase AnyTickets

SI Tickets is looking into financing options for a deal to purchase AnyTickets, a large-scale ticket broker business based in Houston. Bloomberg initially reported the prospective deal, saying that the ticketing platform has approached lenders seeking between $30 and $50 million in capital to fund the purchase, citing “people familiar with the matter.”

“While we don’t comment on speculation, we are continuously evaluating opportunities to further grow and enhance our business,” a spokesperson for SI Tickets told TicketNews on Wednesday via email. A request for comment sent to AnyTickets executives did not receive a response as of Wednesday evening.

SI Tickets has pursued an aggressive growth strategy since its launch in June of 2021, leveraging the Sports Illustrated brand as a licensee of Authentic Brands Group. It began primarily as a resale marketplace, offering consumers a “seamless and transparent purchasing experience” – with consumers paying the original price shown for any ticket listed on the website with no added fees. In the ensuing years, it has added primary market distribution deals with the U.S. Equestrian organization and Pickleball Pros, and became an official NFL ticket marketplace through the league’s “open” model as part of the season that just began.

Former NFL quarterback Drew Brees joined SI Tickets as an investor earlier in 2024, bringing more awareness to the business as it fights for real estate among other platforms like SeatGeek, StubHub, TicketNetwork, and Ticketmaster.

“I would never get into a space if I didn’t feel like we have an opportunity to be best in class,” Brees said at the time. “That goes for any business or brand I choose to affiliate myself with. … The brand already carries a ton of weight. So now it’s just the education as to Sports Illustrated the publication and Sports Illustrated the ticketing platform.”

AnyTickets was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. It is marketed to partners as a “ticket investment company” that collaborates with multiple entities in the entertainment business, from ticket brokers to teams, venues, artists, and promoters looking to distribute tickets to secondary marketplaces.

The purchase of such a business would mark a new direction for SI Tickets, which until this point is not believed to have had any direct ownership stake in tickets being listed for sale on its platform. Such an arrangement would be similar On Location Experiences purchasing PrimeSport seven years ago.

That pushed On Location Experiences – controlled by a consortium of NFL owners – from merely providing package deals to large scale events like the Super Bowl to directly controlling a large share of the ticket inventory itself.

TicketNews will provide updates as this story unfolds.