The mobile ticketing dilemma

After a last week’s musings on Se?or Messi’s Miami move, this week we have found ourselves winding our way back to the familiar ground of golf, thanks to the lure of the US Open at the Los Angeles Country Club. We were both glued to the action over the four days and, like many, were surprised – and impressed - to see Wyndham Clark hold off the challenge of stellar names like Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler to secure his first major trophy.

That he did so against the backdrop of a less than stellar atmosphere was a shame. The smaller than usual crowd for the US’s national can be put down to a number of reasons, (the daily attendance was down almost 25% on last year) but those who were lucky enough to be there, accessed their tickets via the United States Golf Association (USGA) ’s impressive, “one-stop-shop” app that was launched a few months back. Built in partnership with 德勤 , the app has a range of features to support the fan experience on and off the course at all 15 USGA Championships, ranging from live scoring, streaming, GPS wayfinding and mobile ticketing.

As highlighted by our very own Kevin Bain at the time, the decision to build ticketing into the app bucked the trend in sports, where rights holders have increasingly chosen to separate ticketing from the content part of their mobile offering. The decision to do so is based on a number of valid reasons.

Firstly there is the dynamic between meeting the different needs of the at-event and at-home fans – those following the action at home don’t want to be reminded about their tickets – or lack thereof – as much as those at-event, want this to be the focus of their mobile experience when they get to the ground.

Secondly, there is the development factor – building your own native ticketing solution is hugely expensive, and time consuming, and involves additional layers of regulations and certifications which make this option very unattractive. The alternative is to work with an established ticketing provider, either via a reskinned version of their own portal – the least expensive and therefore most commonly used – or by integrating their technology into the rights holder’s own app which is what USGA seem to have done well with US ticketing company AXS.

While these are both valid considerations, the impact of one is essentially perpetuating the other. Mobile apps represent a fantastic opportunity for rights holders to learn more about their fans and, by having a single sign on that connects the fans’ accounts across ticketing and content functions, teams and federations can build up a more rounded picture of their fan’s preferences and habits. In today’s fragmented media market, fans have a plethora of mobile platforms they can use to access sports content, and they will have go-to favourites they use across multiple sports, so rights holders face huge competition in getting fans to use their official apps. One of the biggest weapons rights holders have against this is ticketing. Nothing beats the power of necessity – you might use Sky Sports for your Ashes updates, but you needed to download Edgbaston’s app to get access to your ticket this week (no shortage of atmosphere there by the way!) – and this pull is a great way of getting fans, old and new, to the official apps, giving rights holders the opportunity to convert them to regular users. ??

So having ticketing built in brings more fans to the app, giving rights holders more opportunity to capture more data. This first party data can then be used to personalise their experience and send them content relevant to their situation (ICYMI, check out our latest whitepaper on the topic) – for example, if their profile has a ticket registered against it, send them details about what to do at the ground, if it doesn’t push them towards the streaming service.

Ultimately then the decision boils down to cost and resources. Those rights holders that are willing to invest in integrating ticketing into their app and delivering the personalisation benefits this increased level of traffic will bring, will reap the benefits, longer term, with more fan engagement to monetize – both from themselves and their partners.

The Sports TEC Ramble is based on the weekly musings of our consultants?Kevin Bain?&?David Wright?on the technology news and trends shaping the sports industry.

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