How SeatGeek can manage socially distanced ticketing

Liam Watson

SeatGeek offers a platform that can help with ticket allocations, where socially distanced seating would be the first step towards welcoming fans back – for competitions such as the A-League.

Founded in 2009, SeatGeek is a mobile-focused ticket platform based in New York and provides assess to tickets for live events, whether it be buying or selling.

With a wide range of sports covered, SeatGeek is trusted by clients around the world and has already been working with UK-based Premier League and EFL Championship clubs about how to navigate through this tricky time.

SeatGeek engaged with their UK clients and created a series of tools that enable football clubs to reintroduce fans to stadiums safely and effectively – social distancing seating plans, demand-based algorithms and online sales tools just some of the products and services.

“There were two key areas to our response to dealing with our clients’ needs across such an uncertain landscape,” Peter Joyce, Managing Director for SeatGeek Sport (EMEA), said.

“First of all we needed to engage in high levels of communication across our client group to enable all of us to stay well informed and share ideas. 

“Secondly we needed to quickly investigate how we could build enhancements to our software functionality that would assist a new way of staging football matches and sports events with more restrictions required around the sale and distribution of tickets, as well as the methods of entering stadiums on match-day.”

Clubs who are looking to drive their sales activity online have been benefited by the introduction of Pod sales functionality. Underpinned by SeatGeek’s rules-based enterprise software platform, SeatGeek clients have maximised their seat inventory by allowing fans to purchase in their approved social bubbles, with parameters included to allocation definitions, meaning that contiguous seats are sold together. 3D Digital Venue is a SeatGeek partner who have engaged with a range of clients to offer their visual seat mapping tool to further add to its functionality on offer.

In the summer pre-season leading up to UK football seasons getting underway, several SeatGeek clients were chosen to host events that would test the new features that are being planned to roll out.

Brighton & Hove Albion FC welcomed Chelsea in a pre-season friendly in front of 2,500 supporters at the Amex Stadium in August, while Middlesbrough FC were one of the first 9 EFL clubs to host a league fixture with fans during September. 1,000 supporters were allowed to be in attendance at The Riverside Stadium for their home game v AFC Bournemouth.

“The football community as a whole has been dealing with such an uncertain landscape when it comes to planning our matches leading into this season, but we were delighted to be selected by the EFL to stage one of the first round of games with fans coming back to stadiums in September and we were pleased with the handling of the game,” Lee Fryett, Head of Commercial & Ticketing at Middlesbrough FC, said.

“We were able to work closely with the team at SeatGeek who have provided excellent support as have other partners involved in helping us stage the game.”

In Australia, the A-League and W-League seasons have been confirmed to start on the same date of Sunday 27th December 2020.

In the two months leading up to the season start, there is the potential for more trials of socially distant seating measures that can be implemented, where restrictions are slowly being eased across the country.

“There has been a huge amount of work and planning covered in a short space of time to react to the challenges that have been presented and it has been encouraging to see a whole range of partners and clients come together to find solutions,” SeatGeek’s MD, Peter Joyce said.

“With the sharing of best practice and the launch of the Adapt tool kit, we’ve produced a range of functions and services that will provide real value to our partners as they look to leverage technology, with mobile ticket entry becoming a key component of the recently successful test events conducted at many of our SeatGeek supported venues.” 

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Netflix’s Women’s World Cup deal puts IMG’s technology in the spotlight

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Image Credit: Shutterstock

Netflix’s first exclusive football deal will see the next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup at the centre of it’s live-sport strategy. The US-streaming service company has appointed IMG as its production partner for all 64 matches in Brazil, as well as more than 100 hours of live studio programming. The deal includes English and Spanish coverage for viewers within the US, and English and French-language coverage for those in Canada. IMG will also support Netflix’s coverage of the tournament’s draw in December.

The 2027 Women’s World Cup runs from June 24 to July 25 across eight host cities, and will be the first edition to feature 32 teams. The scale of the tournament makes it an ambitious first foray into sports broadcasting for Netflix – which means IMG’s involvement will be of great significance.

IMG’s production engine

IMG has built its reputation on producing and distributing live sport at scale. It’s Stockley Park, London facility includes broadcast studios, production galleries, edit suites and facilities for radio, podcasting, dubbing and visual effects. The company has worked across major properties including the Premier League, Major League Soccer and other international sporting events.

For a World Cup, this infrastructure provides more than a place to make television; it creates a central point where production teams can manage feeds, graphics, replays, commentary, editing and distribution while events are taking place thousands of kilometres away.

Remote production is the key

The most important technology for a tournament spread across eight Brazilian cities is connectivity. IMG has invested in remote-production workflows that allow production teams to work across locations, rather than putting every specialist inside each stadium. Its wider production operation has used fibre, satellite, cloud and IP-based connectivity to move live signals between venues and production centres.

That model can reduce the amount of equipment and specialist staff required at every venue while allowing senior producers, directors, replay operators and graphics teams to work from centralised facilities. IMG has also demonstrated long-distance IP production, including a 20,000-kilometre link between Tokyo and London that carried uncompressed, low-latency video. For Netflix, those capabilities are particularly relevant. The platform is building a single viewing experience for audiences in two markets, but the raw ingredients will come from stadiums spread across Brazil. A resilient network becomes just as important as the cameras themselves.

From stadium to stream

The technology chain does not end when the pictures leave the venue. A modern sports production operation has to manage ingest, replay, media asset management, graphics, audio, quality control, archiving and transmission. IMG’s facilities have been built around those workflows, with master control and transmission capabilities alongside post-production and archive operations.

That infrastructure also gives IMG the ability to turn the live tournament into a wider stream of content. A goal can become a replay, a highlight, a social clip or part of a studio package without waiting for the match to finish. For Netflix, that fits a platform built around on-demand discovery as much as live viewing.

A new test for Netflix

Netflix has already made a significant investment in football through documentaries and other programming. The 2027 Women’s World Cup takes it up a level. FIFA describes the agreement as the first competition Netflix has acquired in full, making the tournament a major test of its live sports operation. IMG therefore has a job that goes beyond producing 64 matches; it must help Netflix build the technical backbone for a month-long, multi-venue broadcast, while maintaining consistent production standards across languages and locations.

The viewer may simply press play and see a World Cup match appear instantly. Behind that button will be a complex network of cameras, connectivity, control rooms, production systems, people and data. That is the real significance of Netflix’s IMG deal: the streamer is bringing the tournament to its platform, but IMG is providing much of the machinery that can make a global football event feel seamless.

The ball is no longer just being improved it is being connected

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The humble football is becoming one of the more technologically advanced objects on a football pitch.

Across the A-Leagues, Mitre’s new Ultimax Pro is focused on improving what happens when the ball is kicked, while LaLiga has taken the next step by turning the ball into a source of live match data.

The contrast shows how football technology is moving in two directions at once, improving the physical performance of equipment while increasingly connecting it to the digital systems surrounding the game.

Refining the Physical Object: Mitre’s Ultimax Pro

The Ultimax Pro, which will be used across the 2026/27 A-League Men and Ninja A-League Women seasons, incorporates Mitre’s HyperFlow, HyperFoam, HyperSeal and Delta Skin technologies.

Its debossed grooves are designed to reduce drag and improve stability in flight, while the cushioning, bonding and surface technologies are aimed at producing consistent rebound, durability and control. The ball carries FIFA Quality Pro certification, reflecting the testing standards required for professional match balls.

The technology is largely invisible to supporters. Its purpose is to make the ball behave more predictably for players, rather than fundamentally changing the football itself.

Connecting the Ball to the Digital Ecosystem: LaLiga’s Sensor-Driven Approach

LaLiga’s approach is different.

The Spanish competition has introduced a radio-frequency sensor developed by KINEXON into its PUMA match ball, with the technology being used across every LaLiga EA Sports fixture this season.

The sensor continuously transmits information about the ball’s position and the precise moment of contact. Around 12 antennas installed in each stadium capture the data and feed it into LaLiga’s wider technology infrastructure.

That gives the ball a role beyond simply being the object of play.

Knowing exactly when the ball is touched can help officials in a variety of situations. Offside, handballs, deflections and other decisions where a difference of milliseconds can affect the outcome could all benefit.

But the more interesting development may sit outside officiating.

LaLiga is using the connected ball to create xBALL, an official data layer that can feed broadcasts, digital products and future second-screen experiences. Data such as shot speed, ball spin and trajectory could all be incorporated into its media and digital products.

The ball is no longer just something that manufacturers compete to make faster, more durable or more responsive. It can also become a source of proprietary data that leagues can use to improve broadcasts, develop digital products and create new ways for supporters to understand the game.

The Ball as Part of Football’s Intelligence Layer

Mitre is refining the physical object. LaLiga is connecting that object to the digital ecosystem of the match.

Together, however, they point to the same direction of travel.

Football equipment is becoming increasingly intelligent.

The evolution is not necessarily about adding technology for its own sake. In the A-Leagues, the objective is consistency: predictable flight, touch and rebound. In LaLiga, the objective is precision and information: knowing exactly where the ball is and when it was touched.

The commercial opportunity comes from what can be built around those capabilities.

As stadiums become more connected, broadcasts become more data-rich and clubs and leagues collect increasingly detailed information about matches, the football itself can become another input into that infrastructure.

It also changes the relationship between equipment manufacturers and competitions.

A match ball used to be primarily a physical product supplied to a league. Connected technology creates the possibility of the ball becoming part of a broader technology stack involving officiating systems, broadcast platforms, analytics and fan-facing digital products.

The A-Leagues are starting with the physical performance of the ball. LaLiga is showing what can happen when that physical object becomes connected.

The next generation of football technology may not be something players wear or referees use.

It may be the ball itself.

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