Irish company joins Fulham in online ticket purchase venture

AN Irish company has joined forces with Fulham to provide a state-of-the-art ticketing service for Premier League fans.

Ticket Text, a Dublin-based firm, will sell tickets to top flight games online and transmit them as a barcoded text message to mobile phones which can be scanned in at designated turnstiles at Craven Cottage. Fulham becomes the first side in England to use the technology on a full-time basis when the system becomes operational against Derby on Saturday.

Similar technology was used by the GAA for a number of high profile games at Croke Park this year.

The customer will also have a ‘print at home’ version e-mailed to them which can also be scanned at the venue. If they lose their phone or accidentally delete the bar code, they can receive another SMS ticket through their account.

Ticket Text’s CEO Mark McLaughlin said: “We are the only people doing this in the Premier League. I believe Manchester City undertook a small trial last year, but didn’t continue with it.”

Mr McLaughlin explained how the deal with Fulham was made: “I sent them an e-mail outlining what we could do. They replied, we met, and went through a rigorous process to prove that the system could work. We did a live test at the Portsmouth game a few weeks ago and all went well. The first official game is this Saturday’s again Derby.

“This is the way of the future. If you look at what techonology has done for the music industry — with low cost and more convenient ways of downloading — it makes perfect sense to do things like this.

“Take the markets in Japan, Hong Kong: phone technology is used more and more for non-communication purposes.”

And what of the Irish sports market: “We’ve met with a few people with regards doing stuff here. It a case of watch this space.”

www.ticket-text.com