An Edinburgh sports ticketing tech startup is preparing to take its platform to the next level following the completion of a £1m investment round.
Fanbase, which delivers mobile ticketing and a ‘better fan experience for sports clubs via mobile and web’, has been backed by payment services specialist Saltpay.
Alasdair Crawley, CEO and co-founder of Fanbase, said: “Our vision is for Fanbase to unlock a huge amount of revenue for sports teams by making it easy to buy and engage with sports organisations from one platform.
“Once you turn the key and start using Fanbase, the possibilities are endless, from setting up your branded ticketing, utilising the data, and communicating with your fans.”
Fanbase recently launched a new portal for back office teams to collaborate, incorporating allocated stadium mapping, automated subscription and renewals, underpinned by the startup’s Fanbase API.
The company’s innovative technology is now being utilised by multiple sports clubs across football, rugby, netball, ice hockey, and handball, primarily in the UK, with customers including Hibernian football club, Dulwich Hamlet FC, Netball Superleague side Strathclyde Sirens, Super 6 rugby team Southern Knights, and Esher RFC.
Fanbase also recently won its first US customer, soccer outfit DeKalb County United (DKCU) in Illinois, and has already secured five additional teams in two weeks. Fanbase plans to expand its operations and marketing in North America following interest in the platform after the DKCU launch.
Crawley added: “We are enabling sports organisations to launch a team branded mobile optimised, sports-focused digital ticketing service in minutes, while increasing hospitality revenue and saving hours per week for staff and volunteers responsible for bookings and operations. We are now a fully integrated sports ticketing tech stack that can handle online, ticket office and ‘pay at the gate’, so right through from ticket office order, payment, and fulfilment.”
“Clubs using Fanbase can use our data layer to track fan data, identify audiences, and optimise sales. They can communicate directly with their fans from the platform via push notifications, and we’re also working on unlocking more channels.”
The company was recently accepted onto Microsoft’s startup accelerator programme, supported by the managing director of Microsoft Sports, Jon Flynn, with Fanbase being the first UK sports tech startup to join the programme which comes with over £250,000 of additional support.
Crawley, chief product officer Michael Crawley, and CTO Carl Barton secured pre-seed funding in 2021. Headcount is now at ten, with plans to further scale the team over the next twelve months.
Source: Futurescot
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