Watch & buy: let Pepper get the ticket

Most fans know the routine. You check the price of a ticket, wait, check again, and then miss the moment it dropped. Watch & buy hands that job to Pepper, your ticket concierge. You say what you want once. Pepper watches, and buys when the terms you set are met.

Watch & buy gets you a whole ticket, not a card. The money side is different too, and we cover that below.

What you set

Setting up a watch takes four steps.

1. Game. The event you want to go to, how many seats and which seats.
2. When. What should make Pepper act (the options are below).
3. Limits. The most you will pay per seat (the total is shown), the date Pepper has to decide by, and how much say you want before a purchase.
4. Review. Your watch and your terms on one card, before you start.

When to buy

You pick one of four ways to start:

• Price drops to your number. Pepper waits for the ticket total to reach the price you named.
• Odds pass a line. Pepper watches a prediction market's chance cross a line you set, such as your team's chance of making the playoffs.
• Wait for my pick to hit. You choose a result that has to happen first. Pepper only buys once it does. This is the Ticket Trigger: a watch with your own condition attached.
• Start watching now. Pepper looks for the best price before the game, inside your limits.

How much say you keep

On the Limits step you choose one of three approvals:

• Pepper buys it. Pepper buys when the time is right, never above your cap and never after your decide-by date.
• Ask me first. Pepper finds the ticket and asks you before it buys.
• Just tell me. Pepper sends you a notice when your watch matches, and you buy the tickets yourself. Pepper has no permission to buy in this mode.

What Pepper does while it watches

Pepper looks at real listings from our ticketing partner XP (xp.tickets), along with price history and market odds. Checks on prices and odds run on a schedule. When something meaningful changes, such as a price drop, a move in the odds, your pick hitting or your date coming close, Pepper reviews the watch and decides whether to buy, wait, ask you or tell you.

Pepper makes the call, but it can't overrule your terms. Before any purchase, fixed checks compare it with your current terms: the event, the seats, how many, your cap and your date. If a purchase fails any of these checks, it doesn't happen.

You can edit a watch after you start it. If you change the game, the seats, the quantity or your pick, the watch starts again from your new terms. A pick that had already hit has to hit again under the new terms.

Your money: practice runs now, a held budget later

Today every watch is a practice run, and nothing is charged. Pepper does the same watching and reviewing and records what it would have bought. No money moves and no ticket is delivered.

Automatic buying with real money is in early access and opens later. Once it does, a live watch works like this:

• When you start the watch, your full ticket budget is held.
• If Pepper buys, the ticket is paid from that hold. Your budget is spent only if Pepper gets you the ticket.
• If your pick misses, the watch reaches your decide-by date without buying, or you cancel, the held amount is returned to you.

Watch & buy or a card?

The two do different jobs.

• A card costs less than the ticket. You pay a small upfront price now, and if your pick misses, that price is spent. See how a ticket card works.
• Watch & buy gets you the whole ticket at a price and time you choose. Once live buying opens, your budget is held and comes back if the watch ends without a buy.

If you'd rather have your AI assistant line up a watch for you, read your AI can buy tickets.

Start a watch

Choose the game, set your limits and let Pepper do the waiting. Start a watch with Pepper.