Data and Ticketing Technology in the Sports 2.0 Landscape

There isn’t an area in sports that the COVID shutdown hasn’t affected and ticketing will be one of the most impacted areas in organizations when live sports return. Ticketing teams must adapt and create a strategy with the right processes and right technology to bring back the fans and thrive in the Sports 2.0 landscape or they will not survive. Now is the time to innovate and make strategic investment because “business as usual” won’t work. Technology needs to be top of mind to support improved and creative business processes. Some important technologies to focus on:

Mobile Tickets
 
Mobile entry which was a “nice to have” before the pandemic is now table stakes. Teams must work with ticketing partners to roll out a mobile entry system that is easy and efficient. While Mobile entry is important as a contactless and fraud reduction benefits for fans it gives organizations a huge data collection opportunity. 

Mobile ticketing allows teams to collect data on:

• Who is coming: With mobile tickets and the right technology, you can track not only who purchased the tickets but who the tickets were also forwarded to.
• When fans arrive: Identify peak entry times for your events
• How tickets are being used: Identify unused tickets or set up internal scanning locations to see how often exclusive lounges and areas are being accessed by your ticket holders

It also allows teams to customize the experience for the fan through the mobile experience and provide opportunities for upsells to unused seats. Mobile entry is a key growth opportunity to better understand your fan and grow revenue.

Ticketing Analytics

Ticketing analytics were previously looked at solely as a pricing and optimization exercise. Analytics can now be used to:

• intelligently spread out seats if there are social distancing measures in place at the venue. 
• understand the optimal configurations to maximize ticket sales and revenue when selling. 
• When peak sales periods are (build out marketing campaign dates)

• which games or events are highest in demand
• which ticket products sell the best
• which geographical locations have the most ticket buyers (for buying ads on Facebook, IG, etc.)
• finding lapsed customers

​Finding the ideal price point for Sports 2.0 will need all the data and modeling available to understand what consumers will pay and what demographics will pay it in order to grow your gate revenue.

Processes

Processes are important when choosing what to invest in and how to implement these new innovations. Choosing the right tool is equally as important. There are many great tools offered by companies such as Ticketmaster. Third party tools like StellarAlgo can also be invaluable partners for your ticketing team to grow during the return of live sports. 

These are just a few focus areas on how innovation and technology will help ticketing teams adjust and thrive in the normal. It’s important to think strategically and work with your technology and data teams to create an environment of growth.

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