Jump, a platform dedicated to the fan experience of professional sports teams, announced in August 2025 the closing of a $23 million Series A. The round was led by Seven Seven Six, Alexis Ohanian's fund, with participation from Courtside Ventures, Will Ventures and Forerunner Ventures. The raise brings the company's total funding to $58 million and values it at over $100 million. Co-founded in 2021 by Marc Lore (ex-Walmart eCommerce), Alex Rodriguez (former MLB star) and Jordy Leiser (CEO), Jump is one of the few platforms offering a unified ticketing + CRM + digital experience layer.
A Series A to scale against Ticketmaster
According to AlleyWatch, the round will fund three areas:
- Commercial rollout to NBA, WNBA, NHL and MLS franchises in the United States.
- Product R&D on the mobile stack, the integrated CRM and dynamic ticketing.
- Hiring across engineering, sales and customer experience roles.
The company has already signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Lynx, two NBA and WNBA franchises partially owned by Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez. According to the figures released, the early results speak for themselves: a 3x increase in in-season subscription sales and a 33 % rise in multi-game attendance.
The product: "one account, one wallet, one relationship"
Jump positions its value proposition around a simple promise: one connection, one wallet, one relationship between the franchise and the fan. In practice:
- Ticketing natively integrated into the franchise's app, with control over dynamic pricing and promotions.
- Consolidated CRM marketing: fan segmentation, email/push campaigns, purchase attribution.
- White-label mobile app: tickets, content, merchandising, live stats.
- Official franchise website running on the same backend.
The differentiating angle: enabling franchises to reclaim fan data, 90 % of which is currently held by Ticketmaster (a Live Nation subsidiary), as highlighted by The Sports Stack.
Market: $24.8 billion dominated by a near-monopoly
According to Grand View Research, the global sports ticketing market is worth $24.79 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $27.61 billion in 2026. Analyst projections for 2033 range from $65 billion to $142 billion, driven by accelerated digitalization and dynamic pricing.
Live Nation, Ticketmaster's parent company, is valued at $38.6 billion on the stock market. StubHub went public in September 2025 with an initial valuation of $8.6 billion. This de facto duopoly controls virtually all fan data, which is the main point of friction for sports franchises.
Three shifts are shaping the 2025-2026 landscape:
- Antitrust pressure on Live Nation in the United States, with the DOJ proceedings initiated in 2024.
- Ticket digitalization: mobile tickets now account for over 80% of sales, according to Ticketmaster Business.
- Franchise demand for fan data, particularly among franchises investing in owned media and content platforms.
Competition: a crowded but segmented field
Jump competes against several categories of players:
- Ticketmaster (Live Nation): long-standing dominance, but an increasingly negative perception among franchises and fans.
- SeatGeek: a growing alternative, partner to several NBA and MLB franchises.
- StubHub, Vivid Seats: focused primarily on the secondary market.
- Greenfly, YinzCam, FortressGB: fan engagement and mobile app specialists, but with no unified ticketing layer.
Jump's angle of attack combines three elements rarely found together: a full stack of ticketing + CRM + app + website, complete white-labeling, and aligned interests with team owners (Lore and Rodriguez co-founded the company and operate an NBA/WNBA franchise).
Seven Seven Six's bet
Alexis Ohanian's arrival as lead investor is no coincidence. Ohanian has invested heavily in women's sports and new fan engagement formats (Angel City FC, Sports Innovation Lab). His thesis aligns with Jump's: franchises want to take back control of the fan relationship to monetize beyond ticketing alone (NFTs, exclusive content, betting partnerships, and wagering to come).
For B2B SaaS founders structuring their growth strategy, Jump illustrates a pattern for taking on a market dominated by an incumbent: enter with a massively superior product on a specific use case, prove value with a few pilot clients (the Timberwolves serve as a showroom), then scale across the rest of the league.
Execution risks
Three areas to watch:
- Ticketmaster contractual lock-ins: franchise-Ticketmaster contracts are long and often include exclusivity clauses that are difficult to unwind.
- Migration cost for franchises, particularly around training ticketing teams and integrating with existing systems (Salesforce, KORE, etc.).
- Internationalization: the European market (Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga) has its own players and rules, which complicates rapid expansion.
Positioning against European franchises
For European football clubs — historically less mature than NBA/NFL franchises when it comes to digital monetization — Jump's proposition lands at just the right time. Pressure on media revenue is pushing clubs to diversify into direct revenue streams (subscriptions, content, matchday experience). A platform like Jump, built around AI applied to sports CRM, becomes a credible lever for increasing ARPU and improving subscriber retention.
A growth take on vertical B2B SaaS
Jump confirms that markets dominated by an incumbent (Ticketmaster here) remain attackable as long as the challenger (1) delivers a clear product leap, (2) benefits from aligned interests with early customers, and (3) is backed by founders with real credibility in the vertical. For French startups targeting equivalent sports or leisure markets, this is a case worth studying closely.
FAQ
How much has Jump raised?
Jump raised $23 million in a Series A announced in August 2025, in a round led by Seven Seven Six with Courtside Ventures, Will Ventures and Forerunner Ventures. Total funding now stands at $58 million, at a valuation above $100 million.
What exactly does Jump do?
Jump offers a unified platform for sports franchises: ticketing, marketing CRM, white-label mobile app and official website on a single backend. The goal is to give franchises back ownership of their fan data, which is currently captured by Ticketmaster.
Who are the founders?
Jump was co-founded in 2021 by Marc Lore (former CEO of Walmart eCommerce and Jet.com), Alex Rodriguez (former MLB player) and Jordy Leiser (CEO, ex-Stella Connect). Lore and Rodriguez are also co-owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Lynx.
What results have early customers seen?
With the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, Jump reports a 3x increase in season-ticket sales and a 33% rise in multi-game attendance.
How big is the sports ticketing market?
The global market is worth $24.79 billion in 2025 according to Grand View Research, with a projection of $27.61 billion in 2026 and between $65 billion and $142 billion by 2033, according to analysts.