In-App Tickets: More Than Just an e-Ticket

Ticket of choice

We recently surveyed over 1700 football fans of EFL clubs that have in-app ticketing and found that, of those that use the club app, significant numbers have not only used the in-app tickets but have found it easy to do so and are continuing to use the app for stadium entry.

Why Digital Tickets?

The move to digital tickets, either those sent by email or those held in an app, helps clubs and venues to improve security, tackle ticket touting, and reduce their carbon footprint, as well as offering huge potential cost savings and building valuable fan data. For fans, digital tickets are becoming the expectation, and they want a smooth experience.

Those doing it well are taking control of the process with in-app tickets, not leaving fans reliant on downloading tickets from emails and despairing when they have no phone signal as they try to enter the stadium.

e-Tickets: Need Downloading

With e-tickets a user will typically purchase a ticket for an event and then receive a confirmation email with either with a ticket attached or a link to access their ticket. The user then has to either remember to download and save that ticket to their device (as a PDF, or to their phone wallet app), or will have to retrieve the email and download the ticket when they need it – often this approach leads supporters to head to the venue and attempt to download their ticket as they are at the gate, which can be problematic if they have any issues with phone signal at that point.

In-App Tickets: Automatically Download

The peace of mind with in-app tickets comes from them automatically downloading to a user’s phone once purchased. The supporter will purchase a ticket in the usual way and as well as receiving a confirmation email the ticket will automatically download to their app. So long as a user is logged in to the app with the same account that is linked to their ticketing account then when background app refreshes happen the app will automatically download any tickets associated with that account to the app. This means that when the supporter reaches the venue they can find their ticket in the app ready to go, with no need for any internet connection at that point.

Ticket Stub Collection

Some supporters are less keen on digital tickets as they like to keep a record of the events they’ve been to. This is why in-app ticketing in all our sports apps is set up to keep a history of all tickets that the supporter has purchased. There is even the option to display the score on the ticket stubs – something you don’t get with paper tickets.

Encourage App Use

There is an opportunity, with in-app tickets, for sports organisations to incentivise their users to move towards in-app tickets and so encourage use of their app. Apps are an incredibly important part of any sports organisation’s digital experience and offer numerous opportunities not only to connect with fans but to generate revenue through, for example, retail and sponsorship.

It is possible to make select tickets available only for purchase through the app so why not set up an early-bird offer for your next ticket promotion and give fans another reason to download your club app.

Cost Savings

Knowing that you have control of how tickets are delivered through the app makes the move to reducing printed tickets an easier one to make. The cost savings on printing tickets, on the materials (especially plastics for season tickets and memberships), and on delivery can be realised across matchday tickets, season tickets, and memberships.

Environmental Impact

Any digital ticket format is a bonus for the environment, but only when it remains digital. Tickets sent by email often tend to be printed by the user, negating much of the ecological benefit. In-app tickets are not designed to be printed and so encourage the ticket holder to use them as intended.

Everything in One Place

All tickets bought on that account will show in the app signed in with that login, including season tickets.