FanBase – The ticket to modernisation

By Jack Cranmer

Scottish football is modernising across the board at the top level with the introduction of VAR across the Premiership and in the nation’s premier cup competitions. However, the lower levels of the game in this county remain as they have done for decades, at least on the park. 

Ticketing and fan engagement company FanBase are making an impact at this level off the park with both supporters and with clubs themselves, offering a digital ticketing service for lower league clubs. 

Fanbase’s customer success manager Ruaridh Allen explained the company’s aim, he said: “it is to give the 99% access to the same technology as the 1%” by providing this new online service via their app.

FanBase works with clubs to offer their supporters the chance to pre-purchase tickets for their matches through their app. This allows them to keep the ticket saved on their phones nullifying the need for a physical, traditional paper ticket. For Ruaridh the biggest benefit of this to the clubs is the time saving aspect this provides.

The use of the app allows fans to quickly scan their tickets QR code at the turnstile and quickly enter the ground. 

Further positives are mentioned by Ruaridh, he said: “it does give you a certain coverage if, for example, a game's postponed if you've lost your physical ticket, your game is postponed, how are you going to get a refund? 

“Whereas you've got proof in the pudding right there, you have paid for your ticket, the whole transaction is there, you can get your refund easily enough” offering peace of mind to supporters at a country where the game is at the mercy of the elements for a lot of the season, increasingly so at the lower reaches.

As expected, however, this has been met with some negativity and fightback from supporters at this level with many in the lower reaches of the game in Scotland being more traditionalist and older in terms of demographic.

There are complaints from some supporters, Ruaridh said: “A lot of them are just people not being confident with tech, really. That is a lot of it. People think that we're charging a fortune to clubs, which isn't true, but people seem to think that. It's mainly technophobes. 

“We have had the odd person say that they don't like their details being in the system and stuff. We have had some people say that they just prefer collecting tickets and don't like having it on their phone and then it disappears afterwards.”

However, Ruaridh maintains that the reception overall has been positive in the majority. 

The reception from clubs has also been positive, with the company beginning operations in 2019 they were one of the few to benefit from the covid-19 pandemic with lots of clubs needing to transition to digital ticketing in order to keep an income flow. 

Ruaridh did state that there have still been some growing pains with clubs, he said: ”one of the biggest things that people in lower league football get caught up in is cost and nostalgia, for example people wanting physical tickets constantly despite it being less cost effective.”

Being a start-up company, they had to be cost efficient in terms of advertising, with higher end marketing strategies unaffordable. FanBase chose to go down a modern route, creating partnerships and sponsorships with football content creators on video sharing site YouTube. 

Ruaridh was very complimentary in particular with the company’s partnership with Sam North otherwise known as Footy Adventures on the site, of whom he said: “I couldn't tell you from a commercial standpoint, but I definitely think from a brand awareness point, [and] people trusting us more as a company, it was more beneficial through Sam.”

Ruaridh added that these content creators are now getting to a level of recognition matching those in the mainstream Scottish football media circuit “I've seen first-hand when I've been at games and I've run into Sam, how many people approach him for photos and to talk to him, that sort of thing. 

“I've arrived at the same time as James McFadden for BBC, you get the odd person maybe coming up, but it's not the same and if you think about their stature in the game, McFadden scored that goal against France, but Sam North gets the reception, so I definitely think it's shifting towards people on YouTube and Twitter and stuff.”

The company has also received backing in terms of investment to show its success with UKTN stating that they had received investments of over £1m including £250k through the Microsoft startup accelerator programme.

Scottish football is a stickler for tradition but the impact of FanBase in the lower reaches cannot be understated and they are showing that there is a place for the modern digital world in the land of terracing, grass and mud, the future is here and integrating itself quickly into the fabric of our game- at all levels.