Whenever fans return to stadiums, the experience they encounter will likely be significantly different from what it was before 2020. Mobile ordering technology in particular has the potential to expand across venues as teams look to assuage health concerns and draw fans new and old back to the park.
Through a new partnership with mobile commerce tech provider VenueNext, Ticketmaster is looking to push adoption even further. The company plans to offer venues new contactless payment and concession-ordering options available to current VenueNext customers, which include multiple NFL and NBA teams. In many cases, that will mean integration with either the Ticketmaster app or client-specific apps.
In return, Ticketmaster will help VenueNext, which was started by the San Francisco 49ers in 2014, connect with more franchises at a time of increased competition in the mobile solutions space. Ticketmaster processes more than 500 million tickets each year across 32 countries.
“Ever since COVID-19, everybody is a mobile-first company all of the sudden,” VenueNext CEO Anthony Perez said. “Even prior to COVID, we recognized there was a clear opportunity to really go deeper in how we work together [with Ticketmaster] to provide the best and most personalized experience to attendees.”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Now with the ability to tie ticketing information to in-venue offerings, Perez added, teams can provide specific offerings based on seating location or give certain deals to season ticket holders. VenueNext previously signed a five-year deal with Sidearm Sports to expand in the college market.
“COVID has given teams and venues more cover to do things that pre-COVID were maybe considered a bit more risky,” Perez said. “We don’t know exactly where we’re all going to be three or four years from now, but we do know this partnership is going to meet those needs.”
(This story has been corrected with the company name VenueNext in the headline and second paragraph.)