Football stadium ticketing
Football stadium ticketing built for derby day
A sold-out derby tests everything at once: the on-sale, the away end, the gates and the fifteen minutes of half-time. Bigger Picture runs football stadium ticketing and the whole match day around it on one system.
9:415G
On sale now · DerbyPick your seat
Your seatsHome, soldAwayBuffer
South A · Row 82 tickets
Price per ticket$ 48
Season-ticket priority9:415G
Derby · Sat 19:00City Stadium
Named ticket
HolderSam Carter
Gate2
SeatSouth A · 8 · 14
One derby, one system
A high-demand match rarely fails in one place. It fails at the seams: the website that oversells because it cannot see the box office, the away allocation kept in a separate spreadsheet, the gate that stops when the network drops, the kiosk that runs out of beer ten minutes into half-time. Every separate system adds another seam.
Bigger Picture brings ticketing, access, food and beverage, season tickets and reporting into one cloud platform. One inventory, one fan record and one till: whatever is sold in the app, at the box office or through the visiting club’s channel comes off the same seat map.
The on-sale: virtual queue and member priority
When derby tickets go on sale, thousands of fans arrive in the same minute. A virtual queue absorbs the spike: every fan gets a place in line and buys when their turn comes, and no seat is ever sold twice.
- Sale windows by segment: season-ticket holders first, then members, then the general public.
- Ticket limits per person and per account, enforced on every channel.
- Prices by match, opponent, zone and channel, on rules you set.
9:415G
Virtual queue · DerbyAlmost your turn
Your place in the queue
1,284Estimated wait6 min
Your accessSeason ticket
Priority until12:00
Limit: 4 ticketsYour place is kept even if you close the app. We will notify you when it is your turn.
The away end, separated from start to finish
The away section is its own operation inside the same stadium. In Bigger Picture it has its own allocation, its own sales channel and its own gate, and it sits on the seat map behind buffer zones that nobody can buy.
- A separate allocation for the visiting club, sold through its own channel or assigned directly to the club.
- Buffer zones blocked on the map: those seats never appear on any channel.
- The gate is printed on the ticket: a home turnstile rejects an away ticket, and the other way round.
Derby day from the away club’s side
This is how the travelling club experiences the match when its allocation, tickets and gate run on the same platform as the rest of the stadium.
21 days out
The visiting club gets its allocation
The operator assigns the away section with its allocation and blocks the buffer zones. The visiting club receives its own sales channel.
14 days out
It sells to its members, by name
The club sells to its members through its channel. Every ticket is issued to a named person, and nobody from the general public can buy a seat in that section.
3 days out
The list is locked
Names are checked against the relevant banning and admission lists. If someone cannot travel, the transfer stays inside the section and is logged.
2 hours before
Fans enter through their own gate
The away gate’s turnstiles accept only tickets for that section, and keep validating even if the network drops.
Half-time
They eat without crossing into the home end
Away fans order from their seats and collect at the kiosk in their own concourse. That kiosk’s stock updates live.
Full time
Exit and a report for the section
The next morning the visiting club gets its report: tickets sold, entries recorded and entries refused.
Named tickets and controlled transfers
At a high-risk fixture, knowing who is in each seat matters as much as selling the seat. Every ticket is issued to a named person and checked at the point of sale and again at the gate, against the admission lists set by the authorities.
If a fan cannot go, they transfer the ticket in the app to another identified person, under the rules you set: how many times, until when, and whether the away section allows it at all. Every change goes into the audit log.
Gates: turnstile integration and offline validation
The platform integrates with turnstiles and access readers. Each reader checks the ticket, the gate and the section, and if the network fails it keeps validating offline and syncs when the connection returns. The control room sees entry by gate and by section as it happens.
Derby · Live ingress18:42 · Sample data
Fans inside31,460Of 38,200 tickets issued
Offline validations214Synced when the network returned
Occupancy by section
Home north92%
Home south86%
Main stand71%
Away95%
Entry by gate, last 15 minutes
G1G2G3G4G5Away
Entries refused23Ticket used or wrong gate
Longest waitG2Suggested: open 2 more lanes
Half-time: fifteen minutes to sell
At half-time in a derby, the whole stadium wants to eat at once. With in-seat ordering, fans scan the QR code on their seat, order and pay on their phone, and collect when the order is ready.
- One POS for tickets, food and merchandise.
- Live stock per kiosk: what sells out stops being offered.
- Self-service kiosks for fans who would rather not use their phone.
- Cash control per shift at every point of sale.
9:415G
Half-time · South AYour order, no queue
Hot dogIn 5 min$ 7
BeerKiosk 9$ 6
WaterKiosk 9$ 3
Collect at kiosk 9, next to your section.
Season tickets and hospitality
The season-ticket holder is the club’s most valuable fan and the first one who should get into the derby. The season ticket comes with a fixed seat and renews online with priority, before anyone else can buy. For the big match, the ticket is already issued in the holder’s name, with no virtual queue to fight.
Boxes and corporate hospitality are sold from the same system, by season or by match, with guest lists and included food and drink. Memberships, benefits and vouchers run on the same fan record.
Before and with Bigger Picture
What changes on derby day when one platform runs the operation.
| Moment | Before | With Bigger Picture |
|---|---|---|
| On-sale | The site buckles and seats are oversold | Virtual queue and a single inventory |
| Season-ticket holders | Compete with the general public | Priority window and a fixed seat |
| Away section | Allocation in a separate spreadsheet | Own allocation, channel and gate on the same map |
| Ticket | Anonymous, resold on the street | Named, with controlled transfers |
| Gates | Network down, entry stops | Offline validation and live occupancy |
| Half-time | Long queues and sold-out items | In-seat ordering and live stock |
| Next morning | One spreadsheet per department | One report for the city and the club |
Ask the derby
The AI data assistant is part of the analytics module. It answers plain-language questions about sales, attendance and capacity, before, during and after the match.
- “How many away tickets still have no name on them?”
- “Which gate had the most refusals in the last hour?”
- “How much food did we sell at half-time?”
✦Data assistantBigger Picture AI
How are derby sales tracking against the last one?
AnswerWe are 18% ahead at the same point in the sale. Season-ticket holders have already activated 91% of their tickets.
This derby$730K
Last derby$620K
Which gate will need more lanes?
RecommendationGate 2 holds 27% of the south stand’s tickets. I suggest opening two extra lanes from two hours before kick-off.
View gate plan
View gate plan
Ask about sales, attendance or capacity…↑
Conversation with sample data
Reports for the city and the club
The morning after the derby, everyone gets their own report. The city sees attendance, revenue by source and use of the venue. The club sees sales by section and channel, which season-ticket holders came, and spend per fan. Security sees entry by gate, refused entries and offline validations.
- Data separation by organisation and role permissions: the visiting club sees its own data and nothing else.
- Open REST API and webhooks to connect each partner’s systems.
- An audit log of every sale, change and entry.
Identified access is becoming the norm
In several countries, entry to professional football is already tied to the fan’s identity. In Mexico, Liga MX has required a Fan ID to enter its first-division stadiums since the Clausura 2023 season: fans register an ID document and a selfie and receive a QR code. In Argentina, the Tribuna Segura programme checks each fan’s national ID at entry against official databases. In Chile, the Registro Nacional de Hinchas links stadium entry to each person’s identity.
Bigger Picture does not replace those programmes: it connects to them. The platform sells named tickets and validates entry; the integration with each official system is defined per project, together with the authority and the club.
A platform already running at scale
~70venues live
500screens and spaces
8countries
20M+tickets sold
The platform runs cinemas, attractions, live venues and basketball and handball clubs, with offices in Israel, Bulgaria, Mexico and Argentina. It is cloud-native, with no servers to maintain at the stadium.
Explore related use cases
Frequently asked questions
What does Bigger Picture’s football stadium ticketing include?
Web, app and box-office sales with a virtual queue, a seat map with an away section and buffer zones, named tickets, gate validation, season tickets, hospitality, food and beverage and reporting, all on one cloud platform.
How is the away section handled?
With a separate allocation, a dedicated sales channel for the visiting club, buffer zones blocked on the map and a gate assigned on the ticket. Each turnstile accepts only the tickets for its own gate.
Do season-ticket holders get priority for high-demand matches?
Yes. You can open sale windows by segment, with season-ticket holders and members first and the general public after. Season tickets with a fixed seat already have the match ticket issued in the holder’s name.
What happens if the network goes down during ingress?
Readers validate tickets offline and sync when the network returns, so the gates keep moving.
Can it connect to Fan ID or other government access programmes?
Yes, as part of the project. The platform sells named tickets and validates entry; the connection to each official programme is defined with the authority and the club in each country.
Does it work with our existing turnstiles?
The platform integrates with turnstiles and access readers. The scope of the integration is reviewed against each stadium’s hardware.
Get ready for your next derby
We will walk through how you sell a high-demand match today, how you run the away section and how fans get in, and show you how it would look on one platform.
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