Welsh Rugby Union extends partnership with Ticketmaster Sport

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) has renewed its partnership with Ticketmaster Sport, following 15 years of utilising the platform’s ticketing technology. 

Ticketing and the associated income represents 60% of the WRU’s turnover, with the rugby body able to utilise Ticketmaster’s technology to maximise revenue. The WRU was the first organisation to pilot a new analytics project last year, which included adopting tools using custom-AI models to better forecast ticketing and pricing strategies.

“We are delighted to extend our partnership with Ticketmaster. This is a partnership which will benefit all of Welsh rugby by supporting our future strategies with market leading technology underpinned by many years of operational integrity,” said Rhodri Lewis, WRU commercial and legal director.

“The fact that Ticketmaster is partner to all four of the professional sides in our domestic game, joining Cardiff RFC, the Dragons and the Scarlets as part of our long-standing partnership and already in situ at the Ospreys through their home ground, can only be beneficial to Welsh rugby as a whole.”

Ticketmaster Sport overlaid client ticket sales data with bespoke performance intelligence supplied by data and analytics provider, Prospect. Teams will be able to utilise this AI solution to analyse variables such as fixture details, team strength, game jeopardy, pricing, onsale window timing and more.

Discussing the analytics tool, the WRU’s head of ticketing Matthew Clark said: “It was fascinating to connect team performance and other external factors such as kick-off times into our existing data sets and understand how this influences ticket purchasing trends. This will certainly help us make data-led decisions moving forwards.”

Lewis added: “Overlaying statistics with supporter purchase habits into our existing data sets helps us to understand how ticket purchasing trends are influenced. It has helped us to accurately show how supporters purchase tickets across all of our rugby internationals matches and we’ve been able to support this by diversifying our ticket product offering.”