Summary: All major live events, including the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics, are preparing a shift to NFT tickets to increase security, prevent fraud, fight black market scalpers, and increase revenue streams. The National Basketball Association (NBA) has already made over USD 1 billion through their NBA Top Shot NFT collectible line, and Kings of Leon has minted NFT “golden tickets” that unlock front-row concert tickets for life. NFT ticketing is still an emerging technology but with a projected market volume of USD 94.27 billion by 2026.
Do you remember the terrifying pictures from the UEFA Champions League final in Paris?
In May 2022 about 35,000 people arrived at Stade de France with fake (or without) tickets in addition to the 75,000 fans that had legitimate tickets for the final between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid.
To restore order the French police had to use tear gas against big crowds of football fans. Many innocent families with kids were caught as victims in the chaos. When order was restored, it was too late, the planned celebration of the World’s most prestigious football final was ruined for many fans.
Scenes like these can be prevented with new intelligent technologies such as NFT tickets with build-in smart features.
The French Response
As a direct response to the chaotic scenes in Paris, the French authorities submitted a 30-page report to the Prime Minister’s office. The French response suggests the following steps to be taken for the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Olympics in Paris:
Mint all tickets as NFT smart contracts to improve security protocols
Distribute all NFT tickets directly to the registered attendees via SMS or QR codes just a few days before the event begins
Activate the NFT tickets only within a certain perimeter of the events location
The French response highlights the big draws for NFT ticketing:
By providing immutable proof of authenticity for every ticket, NFTs can increase security at events, they can be coded to be updated regularly or only work within a certain specific geolocation.
Measures like these prevent forging or replicating paper tickets with modern hardware. And most importantly: Every person can check online in advance whether the ticket is fake or not.
But there is much more to NFT tickets than increasing security and preventing fraud. NFTs can also be programmed as smart contracts to increase revenue streams and fight black market scalpers.
How to 10x Revenue Streams with NFTs
Today the challenge is the following:
All tickets are launched at the primary market by the ultimate right holder (the artists, event organisers etc.). What happens next is the following:
The most attractive tickets are bought in bulk by illegal scalpers. The scalpers immediately re-distribute the tickets to much higher prices on the secondary market (the black market). Every time a ticket is sold, the price (most likely) goes up, and the scalpers pocket the profit without giving anything back to the ultimate right holders (the artists, event organisers etc.). NFTs can change this dynamic and bring back control of the tickets to the ultimate right holders.
The tool is the NFT metadata and its record of ownership. A smart solution is to code the NFT to:
only accept a change of ownership, if the ownership is registered and paid on a pre-approved platform, and
secure, that a percentage of the secondary market sales is always delivered back to the ultimate right holders, i.e., the scalpers can’t just pocket the profit themselves.
With such a solution the right holders can not only launch the ticket on the primary market, but they can also be part of any price increase every time the tickets are re-sold. Very often, the most popular tickets are sold various times with a 10x price increase.
It’s like farming a goose with golden eggs (but without giving away all the eggs to the scalpers).
NFT tickets can also protect the pricing, i.e., guarantee, that the maximum price for a ticket is set at a certain level to make tickets affordable for everyone. This governance can be coded into the NFTs metadata and is often the case, when artists and event organisers want to make sure, that certain tickets can be bought by everyone (or specific groups) at a fair fixed price.
Store your Live Moments
Another way of increasing revenue streams with NFT tickets is to facilitate add-ons to the ticket, so the users can store their live moments together with their ticket.
It can be digital merchandise like a goodie bag with all sorts of perks, such as autographed physical/digital memorabilia, animated digital avatars, video scenes, digital posers and images, one-of-a-kind digital collections from the event etc.
Why not use your NFT ticket from a live event as a skin to your digital memorabilia, or why not add certain digital assets like autographs, artwork, posters, and pictures from a concert to your NFT ticket?
When the Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson held a concert on Roblox, she earned seven figures from digital sales of in-game items like hats, backpacks, and sunglasses. In October 2021, Ariana Grande held a concert in Fortnite. Around 78 million Fortnite users attended Grande’s show. Travis Scott did the same in 2020 and earned around USD 20 million for that performance and its associated sale of digital assets.
If you are a dedicated fan, why not collect unique moments from different venues with your favourite artist or team? Why not add the goals from a match to your NFT ticket, so you always remember the unique highlights?
While paper autographs can fade over time, leaving you with nothing, your NFT will never fade, and this is something you can pass on to your children and share your favourite live event moments and experiences.
You can sell or store your NFT as you want. It’s your NFT collection, and the ownership is registered in all official records.
NFT Tickets is a Game Changer
All the above is happening, because NFT tickets are adding new opportunities for user engagement, interaction, and most importantly: New increased revenue streams for all parties involved, including the fans and the community.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has made over $1 billion through their NBA Top Shot NFT collectible line. NBA Top Shot supplies short video moments of NBA’s top basketball players as NFT collectibles.
The National Football League (NFL) is going in the same direction, and fans that attended the NFL’s latest Super Bowl were eligible for commemorative NFT tickets, featuring different animated visual elements, match discounts and token giveaways. That’s next level fan engagement, and it doesn’t stop there.
NFT tickets can also be programmed to unlock access to VIP spaces, clubs, and channel hosted by event organizers in the metaverse. They can be a digital tool for membership, rewards, and access.
Kings of Leon has minted NFT “golden tickets” that unlock actual front-row concert tickets at every Kings of Leon tour for life as part of the NFT release.
Such measures are crucial if you want to engage and interact with your fan base, and such collectibles can be turned to a profit by fans like good old football-cards etc., if they are sold to collectors on secondary marketplaces.
NFT ticketing is still an emerging technology but with a projected market volume of USD 94 billion by 2026.
That’s why NFT tickets is a game changer for the entertainment industry and an area to follow closely.