Vivaticket, a ticketing and access control solution provider, specialises in advanced solutions for selling and distributing event and attraction tickets, including concerts, sports, theatre shows, cultural festivals, museums, exhibitions, theme parks, and more. The company works across numerous industries, offering customised services for event organisers, including ticketing systems, event planning, marketing support, and access control.
Having celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024, Vivaticket has evolved from a local Italian company to a global industry leader. With headquarters in Bologna and branches in France, the United States, England, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Mexico, Australia, and Spain, it serves millions of customers and thousands of event organisers across sports, culture, entertainment, and tourism.
Now, as the firm continues to grow and innovate, we speak to Vivaticket chairman Luca Montebugnoli about its latest innovations and what the next 25 years might hold.
Vivaticket’s mission
Since its founding in 1997, Vivaticket has grown into one of the largest ticketing platforms in the world. It now has a footprint across Europe, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East, serving high-profile clients and managing ticketing for world-class events. The company operates in over 50 countries, handling over 850 million tickets annually and managing ticketing for iconic venues and major events like Expo 2020 Dubai, Top Teams of La Liga and Italian Seria A football matches, and Gardaland theme park.
“Vivaticket has gone from being solely an Italian player to one of the very few players present on all five continents,” says Montebugnoli. “Over that time, we have remained true to our founding principles: innovation and respect for our customers.”
From its inception, Vivaticket has been driven by a commitment to innovation, customer experience, and providing comprehensive solutions for the ticketing and event management industry. These core principles have been instrumental in the company’s growth and success, guiding its evolution and shaping its competitive edge.
In terms of the company’s vision, he adds:
“Vivaticket’s mission is to provide a complete ticketing and access control system with a state-of-the-art database organisation to create the best possible visitor experience.
Essentially, Vivaticket aims to provide cutting-edge ticketing solutions beyond traditional ticket sales. Its founders wanted to use the latest technology to create a versatile platform to modernise how tickets were distributed, sold, and managed. From online ticket sales to omnichannel platforms, the company has been dedicated to continuously improving its digital infrastructure and user interfaces ever since.
A commitment to innovation
One of the company’s core strengths is its commitment to technological innovation. Over the years, Vivaticket has introduced several key innovations that have driven its success as a ticketing and event management leader. These innovations focus on improving the customer experience, optimising event management for organisers, and leveraging modern technology to streamline ticketing processes.
For example, Vivaticket has developed a versatile, omnichannel ticketing platform that allows customers to purchase tickets across multiple platforms, including online websites, mobile apps, call centres, and physical points of sale. It has also embraced the development of mobile ticketing solutions.
This forward-thinking approach enables Vivaticket to stay competitive and meet the evolving needs of event organisers and customers. Vivaticket also monitors emerging trends to ensure it stays ahead of the curve. Exploring some of the new technologies that have transformed the guest experience, Montebugnoli says that face recognition is a key trend:
“This was in use at Expo 2020 Dubai and in many installations in Abu Dhabi. Other trends include dynamic pricing to reward those who buy first, dynamic QR codes to fight secondary ticketing, and contactless to provide an unparalleled mobile and non-mobile experience.”
Vivaticket has introduced dynamic pricing models to optimise ticket sales and revenue generation for event organisers, helping them to maximise ticket sales during high-demand periods. This especially benefits high-profile events, where pricing flexibility can significantly impact revenue. It has also integrated AI-powered customer support systems, including chatbots and virtual assistants, to enhance the customer experience.
These trends all have one thing in common: they make the guest experience easier, meeting the demand for seamless transactions in the modern visitor attraction landscape.
“In the world of attractions, people are increasingly looking for a customised visit: a unique and smooth experience,” says Montebugnoli.
Happy Vivaticket clients
Vivaticket serves clients across different sectors, including sports, entertainment, cultural institutions, and theme parks. Some of its most notable clients are high-profile organisations and venues, reflecting its ability to handle large-scale events and provide customised solutions for different industries.
One recent example is that Vivaticket managed the ticketing for Expo 2020 Dubai, a huge global event that attracted millions of visitors. The expo, initially scheduled for 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic, finally took place in 2021-2022.
Vivaticket handled the vast volume of ticket sales and ensured seamless entry for visitors through its sophisticated ticketing and access control systems. In the wake of the pandemic, its work in Dubai also included providing facial recognition solutions for events, helping to keep audiences safe and leading to a more efficient customer experience.
Meanwhile, in the world of theme parks, it counts Gardaland, one of Italy’s most popular theme parks and part of the Merlin Entertainments portfolio, as a client. Vivaticket manages the park’s ticketing system, enabling visitors to buy tickets online, reserve spots for attractions, and purchase seasonal passes. The system helps streamline visitor flow and improve the customer experience at the park.
Vivaticket also provides ticketing solutions for cultural institutions, including iconic museums like the Louvre Museum. The Louvre, which houses some of the most important artworks in the world, relies on Vivaticket’s platform to manage ticket sales for exhibitions and tours, offering both online and on-site ticketing options. This partnership allows the museum to manage large crowds efficiently while providing a seamless visitor experience.
Sports events are another big market for the firm, with clients including FC Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, AC Milan, FC Internazionale and 15 Italian Serie A football league clubs.
A customer-centric approach
One of Vivaticket’s fundamental principles is a strong focus on enhancing the customer experience, both for event organisers and ticket buyers. This approach includes simplifying the ticket-purchasing process for users while providing robust, scalable solutions for event organisers to manage their operations effectively. This balance between customer satisfaction and organiser efficiency has been central to Vivaticket’s service offering.
Speaking about the benefits of choosing Vivaticket, Montebugnoli says:
“Our clients in the world of attractions can take visitors from home to inside the park and beyond.”
For example: “In Abu Dhabi, with the app we developed, you can pay for anything, from the hotel to the restaurant, using your face. You can do the same with any media issued by our corporate systems anywhere in the world.”
He also teases another major amusement park client coming on board:
“The agreement with Parque Reunidos for European parks will bring this important group to the forefront of management and centralise the customer experience.”
New acquisitions for Vivaticket
Earlier this year, Vivaticket acquired Tecteltic On-line SL, a Spanish ticketing operator with an innovative cashless payment solution.
Tecteltic, founded in 2013, owns Entradas a tu Alcance and Safety Global. Entradas a tu Alcance is the third-largest ticketing portal in Spain, with over 3.5 million tickets sold in 2023. Safety Global is the country’s leading company in access control solutions, cashless solutions for festivals, and Order & Pay with smart terminals for concert bars.
In 2023, the company began utilising artificial intelligence to enhance predictions based on data from large events, administering over 1,800 large-scale ticketing events. This tool provides promoters a valuable resource for making decisions and optimising results.
The acquisition will expand Vivaticket’s network and strategy in Spain and enable it to extend its reach abroad. Discussing the motivation behind the deal, Montebugnoli says:
“After the acquisition of Impronta Soluciones in 2023, which for Vivaticket meant both a consolidation of its presence in the Iberian and South American markets and a significant technological upgrade thanks to the integration in its product portfolio of a scalable SAAS ticketing and payment solution for any distribution channel or sector, the ideal continuation of this technological and geographic expansion strategy was identified precisely in Tecteltic-online.
“A company with an already established market in the Spanish territory, with a great deal of experience in live events and festivals and an extremely advanced product, which we are already integrating into all our systems worldwide.
“Vivaticket’s goals include avant-garde, value-for-money product and service offerings. Tecteltic’s cashless is all of this: a simple and affordable system for all organisers that leads to an average increase in on-site consumption of 15 to 30 percent, ensures smooth and queue-free management, eliminates cash handling, and allows for real-time billing and sales consultation thanks to integrated business intelligence systems.”
Looking to the future
Exploring some new technologies that we might see from Vivaticket soon, Montebugnoli says three major innovations are on the company’s roadmap:
“AI will be natively integrated into all our systems for training, implementation and development. There is also Paybylink, a payfac system that allows payment in a straightforward and immediate way. Finally, we have an AWS agreement: all our SaaS and online systems will be applied in a global partnership with AWS. This means more scalability, more security, and even more support.”
Despite the rapid growth of the past few years, the company’s leadership team has no plans to slow down, he adds:
“Vivaticket has made 13 acquisitions worldwide in 16 years, including the two years of the Covid pandemic. We will not stop there: we are waiting for the right targets to be integrated into our vision. Live entertainment and BtC are two of our goals in the geographic markets where we are already present.”
In terms of the role that Vivaticket will play in the future of the global attractions industry, he says:
“All the studies of the big analyst groups point to three things that no one wants to give up: food, health and entertainment. We are in this third segment, and I think that after reaching $100 mil in revenue, we are ready to rise to $200 mil thanks to the people and technology we have in our group as well as those who will join us in the coming months.
“We are always building on the trust of the 3400 customers we are honoured to work with and who renew their trust with us over time, with the redemption of 97 percent.”
Finally, looking ahead to the next 25 years, Montebunoli says:
“Vivaticket’s legacy is respect, professionalism and listening, both to the market and people.”
