Fan engagement platform from Fortress trusted by world-leading teams 

Liam Watson
Within the sports and entertainment industry, Fortress GB have built themselves into a trusted partner for over 130 teams around the world. 

Within the sports and entertainment industry, Fortress GB have built themselves into a trusted partner for over 130 teams around the world. 

The interactive data platform Fortress One has been developed to give teams a better understanding about who their fans are, leading to an improved fan engagement and maximises the value of this experience. 

Over 130 the world’s leading sports teams have already chosen Fortress, who transform the way stadiums and venues operate. Their highly regarded reputation has seen them link up with 16 of the 20 current English Premier League teams. By providing better access to data, Fortress can uncover new revenue streams for game day and any commercial activities. 

Fortress were found in 2001 with their technology encapsulating both radio-frequency identification (RFID) and near-field communication (NFC), to power digital ticketing implementation. 

They are committed to bringing the best to any organisation, backed by their 20 years of industry experience. Fortress can be on the front foot during events, catering for the ever-changing needs of fans and customers. Their platform ranges across four different categories. 

Loyalty: Personalise the in-venue and online experience to maximise the value to each fan. 

  • Fans can earn rewards for their participation with particular content. Each point of customer engagement is turned into a potential source of rich value. Rewards can include experiences, live campaigns, upgrades, discounts, and rich media content. 
  • 30 days of sport can grow into 365 days of engagement – hook in ticketing, attendance, concessions, merchandise, digital, interactive games, social and even sponsors and commercial partners are areas of note. 
  • Fans can access rewards anytime anywhere through a powerful mobile optimised portal, built to catch the eye.

Payment: Drive revenues from in-stadium spend, across sponsors and commercial partners. 

  • Stored value, loaded tickets, cash-back incentives and variable discounts can all be delivered in real time, through a powerful payment platform. 
  • Proven to drive spend and satisfaction as part of an overall loyalty and rewards strategy. 
  • The range of the payment program can be extended via the new Merchant Connect facility – a powerful platform add on that hooks in commercial sponsors, partners and local merchants. Fans can benefit from their day-to-day spend and taps into a rich new source of data and revenues. 

Access: Deliver the best game-day experience with real-time stadium access information 

  • Knowing who is in the stadium and understanding the complete chain of custody of any ticket is key to building a valuable database of fans and providing the best game day experience. 
  • Fortress Access components is a highly proven and robust access solution used by many of the world’s leading venues – with specific solutions for general admission, secondary, VIP and suite access. 
  • Regarded as the leading innovator in contactless RFID and mobile ticketing, Fortress is pushing the boundaries of digital identify even further as the world moves to NFC and biometric technology. 

Analytics: Generate personalised and actionable insights by unifying data across multiple sources. 

  • Understand and target fans with personalised content, rewards, incentives and services. 
  • Data is valuable if it can be applied to business questions. Access’ platform is designed for Sports Teams – focusing on delivering precise insight that can support business growth across all customer touchpoints. 
  • There’s potential to engage with fans not seen before by capturing their attention and tailoring to their interests and preferences. 

In the overall scheme of things, Fortress understands what different teams want to achieve and can then develop a strategy that brings long-term results. Among their success stories, Fortress have seen increases of 30% and 50% for first season attendance and retention rates through their loyalty program respectively, while redemption rates of in-stadium partner campaigns went up 20% and concourse spend up 25%. 

Innovation is part of Fortress’ DNA, so they are always on the lookout for new technology solutions for the world of sports and entertainment, endeavouring to match an organisation’s goals. 

To see more of Fortress in action and get an insight into their extensive clients list, you can find it here. 

LEDiL: Producing more effective football stadium lighting

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Image credit: LEDiL website

LEDiL was first founded in 2002 by Tomi Kuntze and Hannu Hukkanen who designed LED lighting solutions for the automotive industry.

In their 22 years of existence, the company have released 15 specialist products, nine of them indoors and the other six outdoors.

The company have released a blueprint for both their ‘Sports Indoor Lighting’ and ‘Sports Outdoor Lighting’ products which cover multiple different sports and the dimensions of their usual playing ground, with a solution on how to create competitive lighting best effectively.

However focusing on football, LEDiL’s S Beam lighting systems are the solution to clubs wanting effective and compliant stadium floodlighting with the needs and requirements of the leagues they play in.

The technology is complex and has been a project that the company have worked on for a while before being first utilised by FK Mačva, the club on top of the Serbian first division.

How does S beam lighting work?

S-beam is a semi-symmetrical beam intended for stadium lighting with special shape of light distribution consisting of two cut-off zones and effective uniformity zone.

With traditional symmetrical beam lighting, it creates an oval-shaped area of light meaning that the light must be titled upwards in order to cover enough space for the clubs to reach the necessary lighting requirements.

This compromise leads to a worse viewing experience for fans at the ground, broadcasters who film the matches on worse lighting, effects the players performance during the match and increases light pollution in the nearby areas of the neighbourhood.

The lens directs the beam from the LEDs more efficiently by controlling the spill light vertically and providing more light to all areas of the ground.

Benefits of LEDiL LED system

– The use of LEDs has resulted in an energy saving of more than 55% reduction in energy costs.

– Reduced energy consumption leading to vastly reduced electrical installation costs and a faster payback.

– The calculated lifetime of the installation is up to 20 times longer than a conventional halogen solution, leading to a considerable saving in maintenance costs for clubs. This is a massive benefit with costs being a main reason why clubs stay away from starting upgrades.

– Improved lighting conditions for players (Training, ability to host night matches).

– Better viewing experience for the fans at the ground.

Optics

Optics distribute the power of LEDs efficiently, something that is especially important in larger sporting arenas and stadiums.

LEDiL utilise their optics to also reduce power consumption and the number of other components such as LEDs and further reducing the investment needed.

Optics play an essential role in ensuring lighting meets the strict league and competition requirements of different sporting codes, especially football.

Similarly to LEDs, Optics save cost and reduce time of instalment which increases efficiency.

How Australian football can use LEDiL

LEDiL currently doesn’t have a presence in Australia and their simple but effective LED and Optics system is perfect for NPL and State League clubs.

The company’s experience in urban and local areas would improve many parks and grounds that require a better lighting standard.

For a country that is rather tight on its football budget, saving money and being more sustainable is important and the values coincide with LEDiL’s business model, making it a really good fit.

Conclusion

The LED lighting future is one that mirrors the company’s vision which is to enhance wellbeing and safety with a goal for a more sustainable future and improved quality of life.

LEDiL are the future of sports stadium lighting, and the efficiency of the product will be a hot commodity in the industry.

Ticketchainer: A new look into sports ticketing management

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Image credit: IOIO IMAGES / Shutterstock.com

Ticketchainer is a Paris-based tech company that is focusing on transforming the sports ticketing industry from a simple sales tool to a comprehensive e-commerce platform that is suited to the needs of its clients.

Founded in 2019, Ticketchainer has now worked with many sports clubs and organisations across France, including Ligue 2 side AC Ajaccio, offering a product that provides:

  • A personalised purchase journey with a customised user experience and interface, integrating the best e-commerce practices with a responsive design adapted to computers, tablets and smartphones.
  • A back office for ticketing management which configures events and subscriptions, while displaying real-time tracking of ticket sales and combined offers.
  • A fixed and mobile access control management through a dedicated mobile application, personal digital assistants (PDAs) with the Ticketchainer Application Programming Interface (API), or interfacing with existing fixed access control systems.

Co-founder and CEO of Ticketchainer, Sami Bouden, explains how the idea of Ticketchainer all came about in an article with ENSTA Paris:

“Sport, and football in particular, is the events sector where ticketing is the most complex to manage: numbered seats, annual or half-season subscriptions, security, there are many parameters to take into account,” he said.

“It seemed to me to be a challenge that was both captivating and within my reach. That’s how the idea of ​​Ticketchainer was born.”

In addition, Ticketchainer decided to branch out internationally becoming the ticketing platform for the 2023 African Cup of Nations, which was a massive achievement for the tech company.

“It was a huge satisfaction for the team because we won this competition ahead of all the big names in the sector, which is a strong signal for the future,” Bouden added via the article with ENSTA Paris.

During the build-up, Ticketchainer launched their online ticketing platform that covered the six stadiums used for the tournament which had a capacity ranging from 25,000 to 60,000 seats.

In addition, they also deployed 70 box offices across the Ivory Coast to sell physical tickets utilising their technology for digital payments.

In approximately three months, Ticketchainer sold over a million tickets for the 2023 African Cup of Nations. They also had to manage more than 350,000 connections per day, selling 25,000 tickets daily for several weeks.

However, the French tech company did come across some technical challenges along the way.

“Security was of course a crucial aspect, but we had anticipated the issue very well and all attempts at fraud were foiled. We worked enormously to adapt our technology to the scale of the event and make it safe and robust. And it worked perfectly,” Bouden said in an article with ENSTA Paris.

Although still relatively new in the sports ticketing industry already working with various sporting organisations in France, Ticketchainer is looking to continue to expand in Europe after the success of the African Cup of Nations.

“Our main objective remains to consolidate our expansion on the French and European market and to become the reference solution for the most prestigious competitions,” Bouden said in an article with ENSTA Paris.

“At the same time, the success of our performance at the African Cup of Nations naturally allows us to nurture ambitions on new markets, particularly in the Gulf countries, and emerging markets where the event industry is exploding. We have just proven that we have all the assets to achieve this.”

Ticketchainer could prove beneficial to most sports clubs and organisations to help them get a better grasp on handling and organising ticket purchases.

Although it may be a while to see this type of technology implemented in Australia, if Ticketchainer’s success in the sports ticketing scene continues we may see them expand into other continents as well as other big future sporting competitions.

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