English Premier League football club Leeds United has announced a new partnership with mobile-focused ticketing platform SeatGeek.
The multi-year partnership will enable Leeds to focus on its supporter experience and provide a more mobile-centric approach for purchasing tickets.
Further improvements will be made to the queueing system for large sales, the security of purchasing tickets, and eradication of third-party resale. A future project will also see Leeds have the capability to introduce a ballot process for fairer allocation of tickets.
Head of ticketing at Leeds Katie Holmes said: “We have been reviewing our ticketing platform and processes over a significant period and have engaged closely with our supporter groups in identifying a range of key initiatives that we believe will introduce significant efficiencies and improve the overall supporter experience.
“With such high volumes of our ticket sales processed online via the website, it was a key area of our review and we are delighted with the improved look, feel and functionality that will be rolled out over the coming months.”
She added: “Our queue management platform for major sales has been updated and will provide supporters with more clarity around queue numbers, expected wait times and enables live updates to enhance communication to supporters.”
Holmes also noted that improving fans’ ability to purchase tickets on their mobile phone, and the delivery of mobile tickets to supporters which can then be loaded to the Apple or Google wallet to be scanned at the turnstiles, is part of the club’s digital transformation.
“This is another key initiative to drive our digital transformation, improve speed of entry on matchdays, streamline efficient processing and reduce postage costs, ticket collection queues on matchdays and the overall paper-based processing and use across the club,” said Holmes.
“Enhancements to our ticket exchange platform will enable supporters to exchange tickets closer to kick-off and will also greatly assist in our bid to overcome issues with regards to ticket reselling and touting, which we know is an emotive and passionate topic amongst our fans.
“The club continues to work extremely hard against third-party resale of tickets and we will be in a much better position to drive on with our efforts within our partnership with SeatGeek.”
Peter Joyce, managing director (EMEA) at SeatGeek, added: “Leeds United is a club with a rich history and a fantastic fan base and we are delighted to be working closely with the club to drive a range of exciting initiatives that will benefit supporters and club staff.”
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