In 2015, electronic ticketing (or e-ticketing) for sporting events was unheard of in Uganda, particularly when it came to soccer. Ticketing handled at club level, as well as national level, was marred by allegations of ticket scalping and fraud. On top of that, the system was tedious and inefficient, especially when it came to popular club derbies and international fixtures.
Instances ranging from over-printing tickets for the Ugandan national soccer games to ineffective validation at the stadia themselves left fans feeling clueless as to whether the tickets they bought were valid or if they would lead to anything but disappointment come match day.
As a means to counter this degree of fraud and ensure more revenue comes in from such events, KCCA FC, a top Ugandan soccer club, embraced electronic ticketing for all of its home matches. Electronic ticketing enabled the club management to understand its loyal fan base and attendance analytics, helping them to plan a better experience for their fans season after season.
Embracing online ticketing
The club is slowly beginning to embrace further online ticketing processes as a growing percentage of its fans now own smartphones, have access to internet connectivity and mobile financial solutions.
A few of the wins from the event included:
- Enabling a record attendance, partially made viable by the fact that the club could sell tickets two weeks before matchday thanks to Quicket’s thermal ticketing (which is completely unique & system-generated with a secure barcode, UV embedded logo and a colour-chromatic film).
- As much as 30% of the match-day tickets were successfully sold in advance through forecourts which were e-ticket enabled.
- For one of the first times in decades, the club was assured that the match day tickets distributed ahead of matchday for this international event were legitimate
- Any chance of fraudulent ticketing activities were dramatically reduced as an experienced ticket validation team would be at the gates to capture any counterfeit attempts and quickly record guest attendance.
As a result of this e-ticketing initiative, KCCA FC became the first Ugandan club to successfully supply secure and efficient ticketing, executing it without a hitch during the massive CAF Champions League home game against a South African PSL juggernaut, Mamelodi Sundowns. The world-class football match came gift-wrapped in a world-class ticketing system.
Looking forward, Quicket is proud to have inked its name into the history books as pioneers in the electronic ticketing industry in Uganda, but we know that so much more can be achieved in helping event-goers and organisers to have the best experience possible for any and all events that should arise in this burgeoning market.
John is the co-founder/director at Easyticket Limited, a Quicket SA franchise based in Uganda and running the East African operations. John is passionate about cashless payments and anything else that the internet can do to make life easier! Besides ensuring that every event owner is a happy one after event day, John loves music and deejays in his free time.