The 2022 Champions League final will have a prominent place in the competition’s history book. Real Madrid beat Liverpool at the Stade de France, but the pandemonium that broke out outside the stadium before kick-off highlights the need for innovative event ticketing solutions.
Counterfeit tickets played a major role in the chaotic scenes in the French capital in June 2022, as fans stormed the stadium grounds as many were turned away by authorities. French authorities estimated that 35,000 people had arrived at France’s national stadium with or without fake tickets, in addition to the 75,000 fans who had legitimate tickets for the grand final.
Black market ticketing and street vending have been a part of the world of sports and events for decades, but the advent of blockchain-based ticketing appears to be a promising solution. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are multifaceted, ensuring the credibility of tickets and enabling Internet of Things (IoT) functionality, while also serving as a unique digital collectible to commemorate an event.
The NFL has already tested the waters with NFT ticket sales, having distributed around 250,000 NFT tickets following its launch in November 2021.. Fans who attended the NFL Super Bowl LVI were also eligible for commemorative NFT tickets, all free of charge. What that NFT entry looks like and what it incorporates is up to the creators. NFL NFT tickets are minted on the Polygon blockchain and feature different animated visuals.
The French envoy for the Paris 2024 Olympics has also suggested the use of NFT ticketing solutions to manage attendance at the events, as well as a trial at the 2024 Rugby World Cup, which will also be held in the country. .
NFTs are multifaceted, ensuring ticket credibility and enabling IoT functionality, while also serving as a unique digital collectible to commemorate an event. What that NFT entry looks like and what it incorporates is up to the creators. NFL NFT tickets are minted on the Polygon blockchain and feature different animated visuals.
Cointelegraph reached out to a handful of industry players already making use of blockchain-based NFT ticketing to gauge the impact of the technology.
Amsterdam-based event technology company GET Protocol issues tickets that are minted as NFTs on the Polygon blockchain when a user purchases a ticket on its mobile app. Tickets are tied to mobile numbers, which is a critical part of eliminating ticket sales.
Users can claim the actual NFT when they scan the ticket’s QR code at the event in question, which is linked to their GET Protocol wallet. This is where users can get digital collectibles and other exclusive benefits.
Colby Mort, who leads NFT strategy at the firm, told Cointelegraph that NFT entries help add transparency to what is traditionally a “black box” industry. All banknotes can be viewed transparently in real time, helping to prove authenticity given the immutability of the underlying system
The secondary sales market is also formalized. Tickets can only be resold within the system, which allows organizers to control tickets, income, data and direct contact with holders. Ticket lifecycles are also extended, both before and after events, and GET Protocol explores decentralized event financing for an upcoming Lewis Capaldi art exhibition in Iceland. This explores tech-enabled fundraising initiatives that could benefit smaller artists and creatives.
Digital collectability is one of the main features of NFTs post-event utility, but Mort also noted their potential as a community-building tool for artists and event hosts.
“Selling NFT tickets to a large general public is key to understanding the underlying utility of an NFT combined with the familiarity of the collectible side of NFTs, as all NFT tickets can include a digital collectible.”
Josh Katz, CEO of the YellowHeart NFT marketplace, told Cointelegraph that the ticket industry is plagued with issues around authenticity and resale, which are primarily due to the ease of counterfeiting or replicating paper tickets with modern hardware.
The finite element and exclusivity of tickets also leads to massive resale at inflated prices. Katz noted that the online ticketing market is expected to be valued at $68 billion by 2025, while secondary sales could generate $15 billion in sales of which organizers and artists give up their rightful share:
“NFTs, on the other hand, can help solve most – if not all – of these problems. On the one hand, the open and transparent nature of blockchains makes it extremely easy to verify the provenance and authenticity of banknotes. of NFTs, so it’s substantially harder for scammers to fool people.”
Kats also highlighted the freely programmable nature of smart contracts that power NFTs, bringing dynamic benefits to holders and issuers. This also refers to sales on the secondary market, where NFTs can be programmed to give a percentage of sales to the artist or event organizer.
Mort insists that the focus on form and function has been important to the success of his ticketing solution to date. Ticket buyers use fiat currency to purchase tickets linked to bank accounts or cards and access and interact with their NFTs through an app.
“Since our inception in 2016, we have prioritized abstracting the complexity of blockchain and NFT technology, but in the last year we have seen a huge demand from ticketing companies and event organizers to explore the Web3 side of their sale. of tickets with the post-event NFT claim.”
The GET Protocol was built to be blockchain agnostic, as clients will use the event and ticket marketplace without having to understand the underlying technology.
Striking a balance that ensures ease of access for new users while leveraging the programmability, utility, and immutability of blockchain technology is a key theme highlighted by both Mort and Katz in ticketing adoption. NFT.
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