SBJ Tech: New ticketing features boosting speed, revenue

Thanks to Gashaw Abeza of Towson University for the chance to connect with his Sports & Technology class this week.

I spent an hour virtually with his students, and the questions were so sharp. Talking and interacting with students is the best. If you want to feel energized and excited about the future of this industry, look no further than classes like Abeza’s KNES 472 cohort. Go Tigers!

Now, let’s dive into an innovative, ticketing-focused newsletter.

Earlier this year at Paciolan’s annual PACnet event, attendees were greeted by more than just the registration table. That entry point featured a Wicket pedestal so those interested could test out the facial authenticator’s tech for themselves.

“We did the check-in right at the registration booth,” said Paciolan President Brendan Lynch. “So, that was a little bit of fun we had.”

I’ve seen this setup before. When Golfweek Tech Lab visited Charlotte last year, Wicket had a similar welcoming role. It’s an effective demonstration that quickly shows just how much the startup can boost ingress.

We may start seeing that quickness spread through college sports with the latest integration between Wicket, a 2024 honoree of SBJ’s 10 Most Innovative Sports Tech Companies, and college ticketer Paciolan.

Wicket has seen serious potential in colleges over the last couple of years. Through its Ticketmaster integration, Wicket built relationships through deployments at Florida, Ohio State and Boise State. Ohio State, Wicket COO Jeff Boehm mentioned, has been particularly creative in using Wicket not only for events but also for access to an athlete-only cafeteria (which is similar to its league-wide deployment for the NFL credentialing system at venues). While Wicket doesn’t share pricing, it varies based on the number of pedestals a school wants to use.

There’s a wider potential now with Paciolan, which works with more than 170 schools. The collaboration means Wicket’s technology can integrate with Paciolan’s entry platform. Lynch sees Wicket as a product that can offer quicker entry for students (which is a population that often floods gates close to game time, no matter the school) and provide an upscale-feeling experience (due to the name recognition shown on the screen) for even the donor class.

While it’s too early to cite a number of colleges interested in working with Wicket — pilots will begin taking place in the spring and summer — Lynch shared the outreach has been massive.

“Our conversation before PACnet was, ‘OK, what if a hundred people want it tomorrow?’” Lynch said. “And there’s been more demand there than even the schools themselves are ready for. And so it’s been more about managing their processes, making sure they’re ready for it.”

Lynch said his hope is that schools will pilot with situations requiring lesser demand — spring sports don’t approach the foot traffic of a football game day— to ramp up and get more comfortable with Wicket as a new addition to the fan experience toolbox.

These recent developments with Paciolan-affiliated schools have also opened another sector for Wicket: Boehm mentioned that some schools are already using it for performance art centers. That’s been especially useful for returning visitors, like those with a season pass for shows. But 2026 sounds like many college sports fans around the country will be checking out the experience soon — similarly to those attendees at PACnet.

“The hope is that we’ll certainly be fully productional and ready to go well before football season this fall so that we can get some of these big football programs up and running,” Boehm said. “The college space is definitely a big opportunity for us.”

Jump CEO Jordy Leiser teased a few new capabilities for the platform during a recent check-in chat about the company’s latest team additions. The fan experience platform and ticketer is up to nine clients with the recent pickups of the Seattle Sounders and Reign, which join a clientele that includes the Timberwolves, Lynx, North Carolina Courage and Denver Summit FC.

Jump can now offer merchandise upsells, so fans in the ticket checkout process receive offers for a shirt, hat or other items. This is an example of that all-encompassing approach that Leiser and Jump have pitched and sought to provide: removing the bounce-out from the team app to the ticketing provider allows for the combination of multiple revenue channels (and the clear fan-data picture that comes with it).

Side note: As a consumer, I feel for anyone like myself who just can’t help themselves with merch. I have a hat problem. I have too many hats. My wife brings it up often. “You don’t need another hat.” I know, I know. But then I still buy a hat if it sparks joy in my heart.

Secondly, an integration with commerce platform VenueNext is unlocking more targeted promotions for fans to redeem as free F&B options or discounts toward other purchases around the venue. Leiser pointed to these as ways to boost the average purchase prices and fan lifetime values.

“We already have upgraded your seat during the game, but then it’s buy a jersey, get food and drink as a discount,” Leiser said. “Whether it’s a group, an individual ticket buyer or it’s a season[-ticket] member -- show the right offer, the right kind of promotion with the right kind of inventory to the right fan at the right time.”

Finally, Jump has also built an offer-splitting functionality. This will help franchise sales teams establish private offers for bulk ticketing purchases for community members (think an education day for students, a gathering for local groups, and so on). Typically, something like that lived on the ticketing ops side, but eventually, this will become a quick action handled by sales.

These combine with the early AI enhancements the Jump team has made to automate pricing and inventory management. Added Chief Product Officer Joel Resnicow on these fan-facing and internal tools: “We want to have a win-win relationship with our clients. We want them to be happy with Jump. We want them to better serve their fans with Jump, and we want them to run their business as well as possible. So when they drive incremental revenue, we’re happy.”

• My SBJ Tech teammates Joe Lemire and Rob Schaefer and our colleague Chris Smith collaborated on a set of stories on youth sports technology. Read about the success of streaming, the enhancements to youth management platforms, the expansion of Unrivaled Sports and four dealmakers to watch.
• Schaefer also highlights the $2 million raise from AI content platform PressBox.
• U.S. Soccer signed Oura as its official wearable and a founding sponsor of the forthcoming Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center, reports SBJ’s Alex Silverman.
• My SBJ colleague Austin Karp writes about the enhancements to the WNBA’s league app, which include the debut of the global fan ID program called WNBA ID.
• SeatGeek reached a deal to be the ticketer and a founding sponsor for Chicago Fire FC’s upcoming home venue, which is set to open in 2028.
• PayPal remains active in sports sponsorship, with my SBJ colleague Terry Lefton reporting it’s now the NFL’s peer-to-peer payments sponsor.
• VisioLab, a provider of self-checkout technology, announced an $11 million Series A funding round that will mostly go toward the startup’s U.S. efforts.