Industry News

Proximity tech inspires US sports tickets surge

 

Sports venue and major league franchise owners in North America are seeing a return on investment of up to 4,000% by using proximity technologies to boost ticket and merchandise sales.

A report by Proxbook, a major directory of proximity companies, found that NBA basketball teams such as the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers have opened up “entirely new revenue streams by monetising proximity solutions” as beacons and proximity sensors push notifications to smartphones in specific locations.

Proxbook, whose members have deployed more than 8 million proximity sensors globally, said 47% of NFL stadiums, 93% of MLB stadiums, 53% of NBA stadiums, and 47% of NHL stadiums are already benefiting from the technology.

Proxbook said unsold tickets for professional sports games accounted for $1bn in lost revenue for the major leagues in 2015. However, its report said the Orlando Magic saw over $1m in increased ticket sales, 30% app adoption compared to industry standard of 5%, and a 233% increase in Fast Break Pass sales from last season. The team added that more than 80% of season ticket-holders have accessed and used the app.

“Proximity technologies and beacons in particular are not only helping to sell more tickets, they are redefining how sports teams communicate with fans, increasing revenue from merchant sales as well as seat upgrades,” said Thomas Walle, co-founder and chief executive of Unacast, a major proximity network.

“Proximity technology also opens up brand new revenue streams by enabling sponsors to interact with fans and monetise hyper-accurate visitor segments through advertising. We also expect that a number of NBA teams will be leveraging retargeting as an additional solution in the 2016-2017 season.”

Alex Martins, chief executive of Orlando Magic, said: “We attribute the use of proximity technologies to our dramatic increase in fan engagement, ticket sales and season ticket-holder renewal rates.”

Posted in Industry News