Austria-based software developer Keyper claims to have the leading cross-platform solution for the sale and distribution of tickets for sports, entertainment and arts. The solution is agnostic to primary platforms – it can integrate with any – and provides rights-holders with further control over secondary marketing whilst also improving the ticket-buying experience.
TheTicketingBusiness.com caught up with Keyper chief executive Andreas Kienbink for a quick-fire Q&A about all things ticketing…
Q: Sum up today’s ticketing industry in three words…
A: “Winter is coming,” or, if you are not familiar with ‘Game of Thrones’, “Change will come”!
Q: What’s the best thing about the ticketing industry?
A: The people in this area – at least most of them ;-). If you get a taste of working in the industry, you never want to leave.
Q: And what’s your biggest bugbear?
A: The power, arrogance and pride of some big players. I guess there is no other industry where companies are telling their clients what they are allowed to do or not do, or with whom to partner up. The result is lack of innovation and the current state.”
Q: Five years from now, will ticketing have gone completely paperless?
A: Probably yes, at least for bigger events. It will be the result of new behaviour regarding how to access events – not with a single identifier like a QR code, but with one- to multi-factor authentication using face recognition and other biometric measures.
Q: What are the most important issues for the ticketing industry over the next five years?
A: Ticketing has to become invisible for end users. It will integrate with different platforms, like Amazon. Selling and transferring tickets will become a natural behaviour and controlled by assistants using voice commands.
Q: How do you expect the live experience for fans to change in the coming years?
A: Fans attending live events will get digital extras like live streams to their smartphones. Live events – and especially live sports events – are competing in the field of free time, but especially against the offerings of broadcasters and platforms like DAZN.
Q: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the ticketing business sector?
A: Getting rid of the secondary market and ticket touting. The problem often starts at the clubs and organisers.
Q: What do you think will be the most important technological change in the industry over the next five years?
A: It will be the shift from owner-based tickets to identity and permission-based ticketing.
Q: Prediction time – for the ticketing industry, 2019 will be the year of…?
A: Great announcements and promises from the industry leaders, but not becoming effective. The rise of the API economy will continue in other industries.
Q: If you could travel back in time and buy a ticket for any historic event in the sports and entertainment industry, what would it be?
A: Woodstock 🙂
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