Autumn Nations 2022 sees first digitally-ticketed rugby series in the UK

Context

The 2022 Autumn Nations marked the first rugby series to be digitally-ticketed for fans across the United Kingdom. All three UK international rugby unions - England Rugby (RFU), Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), and Scottish Rugby - utilised Tixserve's digital ticket fulfilment solution for twelve international home games of rugby.

Over 660,000 digital tickets were delivered to local and and international fans who attended fixtures at BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Principality Stadium, Cardiff, and Twickenham Stadium, London. Multiple white label digital event ticketing apps were used across the stadiums to power digital matchday tickets, digital hospitality tickets and digital car parking passes.

Across the three UK rugby unions, their sponsors and key stakeholders used the digital ticket distribution platform to manage and digitally distribute their ticket allocations to customers and guests. Visiting international rugby teams - Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Argentina, Japan, Georgia and South Africa - also used the ticket distribution platform to securely and efficiently distribute their away ticket allocations to their fans.

Outcomes

Digital transformation at Scottish Rugby

Scottish Rugby introduced their all-new Scottish Rugby Ticketing App to fans and instantly scaled to 100% digital ticketing from the first game of the series. The digital event tickets were scanned at BT Murrayfield's turnstiles which provided safe and efficient sole and group entry into the stadium.

For each fixture, Scottish Rugby made extensive use of the flexible digital ticket canvas. The embedded ticket 'feed' included engaging matchday content and event-related information for fans, along with news articles, videos and links to Scottish Rugby's official merchandise store. This engaged fans leading up to and during matchdays whilst enabling them to conveniently purchase merchandise directly via the digital tickets app. The mobile commerce functionality meant that Scottish Rugby could generate incremental revenues and transform the event ticketing app into an active profit centre.

Each weekend, matchday information such as team bus arrival times, travel options, bag regulations and team selections were updated on the digital tickets, bringing exclusivity for the attendees.

Matchday and hospitality digital tickets at Principality Stadium

Principality Stadium used two individual digital ticketing apps for their matchday tickets and digital hospitality passes to provide a unique and premium experience for their spectators and guests.

The Tixserve-powered digital ticket apps engaged ticket holders at Principality Stadium with fan guides, click-and-collect merchandise services and post-matchday surveys - to generate feedback from attendees and assist with WRU's future business decisions.

Locating the event surveys within the stadium's digital tickets app meant that the event organisers could reach every ticket holder for event feedback, as opposed to traditionally depending on emails to lead ticket purchasers that would result in a lower reach and return.

Know every ticket holder on event days

Tixserve's digital ticket fulfilment solution enabled RFU, WRU and Scottish Rugby to know every local and international ticket holder at their stadiums. The ticket app's secure registration process meant that every distributed and transferred ticket had a verified owner; and on matchdays, the rugby unions knew where these spectators were seated in their stadiums.

Enhanced event operations and ticket holder communication

The digital ticket app's push notifications enabled each of the rugby unions to directly communicate with their ticket holders leading up to and on matchdays. Operational messages were sent directly to every ticket holders' smartphones on an event-by-event, contextual basis which eliminated relying on wider communication channels. This facilitated safe crowd control and queue management during stadium entry, kept fans informed of event updates and overall, enhanced the stadiums' event operations.

Convenient ticket delivery

Utilising the digital tickets, ticket holders experienced convenient ticket delivery and stadium entry on matchdays. As the digital tickets were delivered efficiently to fans and stored securely in their smartphones, this meant that tickets were no longer lost during the ticket delivery process, misplaced by fans or forgotten on event day.

Productivity for box office staff

At the stadiums, the digital fulfilment tickets eliminated queues at box offices on matchdays. With tickets no longer being lost or misplaced, this removed staffs' workload of reprinting tickets for attendees before kick-off, and as a result, staff could merely focus on their important event-related tasks.

Throughout the rugby series, the digital ticket fulfilment solution significantly reduced each rugby union's workload by removing their process of manually printing, packaging and distributing tickets nationally and internationally to fans. The Tixserve platform enabled them to digital deliver tickets in just a few clicks to all ticket holders, clubs, sponsors, competing teams and other key stakeholders.

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The upcoming 2023 Six Nations, commencing in February, will also see a fully digital-ticketed rugby series across the United Kingdom. Tixserve, once again, looks forward to powering its digital ticket fulfilment solution at scale and facilitating value and new opportunities for its rugby clients.