The world has seen a lot of innovation when it comes to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies over the past couple of months not only in regards to the financial field but in the sports field as well.
According to a post on the Union of European Football Association’s (UEFA) official website, the European football institution has announced that it has successfully tested a blockchain-based ticketing system for last week’s Super Cup match between Madrid’s two leading football forces, Real and Atletico.
The post details how, thanks to blockchain tech and Android and iOS apps, fans were able to receive their tickets directly on their mobile phones. UEFA has been more or less publicly battling ticket counterfeiting for a couple of years now, especially after the 2007 UEFA Champions League final between Liverpool and AC Milan that took place in Athens, an event that almost caused a management disaster.
UEFA’s new blockchain systems will make stadiums a lot safer
The main issue worth discussing here is the potentially dangerous situations that ticket counterfeiting can cause. For example, these types of tickets might allow the admission of various extra supporters on the stadiums, thus breaching various safety regulations that all stadiums have.
As most sports fan know, there are various people who like to take advantage by buying multiple tickets online on the day they are released, only to resell them later outside the stadium at several times their initial value. As expected, this type of situation is to the detriment of a great number of fans who cannot access the tickets because of these illegal touts.
UEFA seems to have finally cracked down on the solution for this problem, as its new match ticketing system eliminates touts and counterfeiters, and help distribute 100% of available tickets only to registered fans thought the aforementioned blockchain-based mobile apps.
Of course, further development of the system is to be expected, which is nothing but good news for football fans.