With more than four million tickets delivered for some of the world’s biggest sports events, 2019 was a remarkable year for Ticketmaster Sport’s Tournaments division.
The successful projects – including Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup, World Athletics Championships and the Pan-American Games – were delivered on different continents in 
host nations and cities with radically different sports cultures and consumer habits. This makes the success even more satisfying for Richard Evans (right), who heads the specialist unit at the global ticketing company.
In fact, the success of the 2019 operations underscores the rationale for setting up a division with specific responsibility for working with governing bodies and local organising committees on their high profile and inevitably complex major events.
Ticketmaster has been providing ticketing services for event organisers for more than three decades and lists the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the Uefa European Championships among its high-profile projects. It was the knowledge and experience gained in servicing these and many other major events that led to the formation of the dedicated Tournaments division.
“We learned that because no two tournaments are alike, a one-size-fits all approach to ticketing simply won’t work,” said Evans.
“As events became bigger and more complex, there was a need for a separate structure to support tournaments because they have such a big profile, demand significant resource and require a specific focus,” he added.
As the demands and expectations of rights-holders have changed, the Ticketmaster Sport Tournaments division has itself evolved to meet changing needs.
“It became increasingly clear that there was a need to develop specific technology – in parallel to our regular sports retail business – and to create dedicated resources in terms of management and development teams to develop a specific product and service solely for tournaments,” explained Evans.
“Tournaments run in cycles of two or four years and a lot can happen within that time in terms of ticketing and technology. Back when we ticketed Uefa Euro 96, zero tickets were sold online. We managed everything manually through paper applications, ran lotteries and produced tickets. Now we see that 99.9 per cent of tickets are sold online for most major events.”
At the heart of Ticketmaster Sport’s service to major events is a scalable, cloud-based ticketing solution tailored to each and every event. It is delivered as a white-label service, designed and presented as the event’s own ticketing platform, powered by Ticketmaster.
The company then draws on its massive global database to carry out digital sales and marketing campaigns that complement each client’s specific objectives and own marketing activities.
Ticketmaster provides not only the platform and supporting expertise, but the experienced staff required to operate and maintain the system and ensure each ticketing operation delivers on its promise to the organisers and, critically, the fans.
In some cases that may be a single dedicated project manager to manage the system while others – like London 2012 – require the deployment of hundreds of Ticketmaster staff in roles ranging from IT support through to box office and access control.
The significant differences in ticketing requirements between events are driven by factors including the nature of the sport, the venues/location and local consumer purchasing habits.
“It has become far more sophisticated. Today it’s not just about opening up and selling tickets across a stadium,” Evans said.
“For example, for a rugby match the best view is likely to be from the side of the pitch in a central position, whereas in athletics people may be particularly interested in a specific discipline such as long jump and want to sit near where it is taking place in the stadium.”
While some major tournaments are planned and managed directly by international federations with their own ticketing experience and capabilities, others are handled by new local organising committees that exist only for the lifecycle of the event. Naturally, they are less likely to have a built-in ticketing capability.
These different models of event management produce different requirements for Ticketmaster’s services and support and, says Evans, the capability and flexibility to scale-up or down to meet specific requirements is one of the keys to the organisation’s success.
“We have handled the biggest events and those which are far smaller,” he said.
“Ideally we will get involved in every project at the earliest possible stage and play a role in helping develop the ticketing strategy. This is particularly appropriate and important where we have particular experience of a tournament or a local presence which enables us to understand the market better.”
Among the key challenges is understanding and being able to operate effectively in new markets.
“Understanding the market is essential to success. Because we are a global company, we have a local established presence in and understanding of many markets. But when we operate in new locations, we always start by researching and learning about the local market so that we fully understand local consumer behaviours and habits. This enables us to decide whether we need to identify and work with a local partner – as we did at Rugby World Cup in Japan – to achieve the best results,” he said.
“That understanding of the market is a starting point for every project and provides the base for the development of each ticketing operation. Our technology is then customised and scaled to meet the objectives of the event organiser.
“Every rights owner has different ambitions for their major events and one of their key concerns is establishing the right balance between generating revenue and ensuring that events are accessible, and that venues are as full as possible. Using our Ticketmaster database, proprietary marketing tools and reach, we can bring new fans to their events.”
“At last year’s Cricket World Cup, the England and Wales Cricket Board wanted to ensure the event opened the doors of cricket to new fans, and that objective was reflected in the ticketing strategy and pricing. Our marketing support was vital to help them hit their objective of raising the profile of cricket in the UK. Working with their marketing team and agencies, we helped widen the reach for the client. Increasingly, that is an important element of the legacy of events and one we are proud to play a part in.”
Looking to the future, Evans says that data and digital technology will continue to be the driving forces.
“Most organisations are trying to move to 100 per cent digital ticketing, something we’re seeing reflected across the broad spectrum of live entertainment. Fans now expect to be able to buy and use their tickets right from their phones – something we’re leading the industry in with many of our clients now using our digital ticketing technology exclusively.” Z