New for the 2023/24 Premier League season, Wolves’ official ticket sale system, providing purchasing services online and at the Molineux Ticket Office, will be powered by Ticketmaster Sport.
Replacing SeatGeek, who have provided Wolves’ ticketing service in recent years, Ticketmaster Sport will now offer the software to sell all forms of tickets, exclusively to Wolves supporters, and improve the service provided by the club both in the short and long-term [FAQs: click here].
The initial launch took place on Monday 3rd July and eticketing.co.uk/wolves is the new-look home of Wolves’ online ticket sales, while the in-person Molineux option remains unchanged, with both services ran by full-time Wolves members of staff.
On the change in software, James Davies, head of ticketing at Wolves, said: “We’d reached the end of our contract with our previous provider and had spent the previous 12 months looking at the options on the market and arrived at Ticketmaster Sport as our preferred provider.
“Ticketmaster is a name people will be very familiar with and offer us the benefits of a global infrastructure. Ticketmaster Sport is long standing sports ticketing software provider, and they offer a specific white label software product which is used for both online and in-person sales by multiple sports clubs, beyond just football.”
Wolves have signed a multi-year contract with Ticketmaster Sport, providing an exciting opportunity for Davies and the ticketing team, who will have more opportunities to mould the systems and provide the smoothest possible purchasing experience for supporters.
The initial roll out period, however, is intended to be seamless. Staggered sale dates for memberships, away season tickets, the club’s Molineux friendly with Stade Rennais and the start of the Premier League campaign will, he believes, provide few obstacles for fans.
He said: “Supporters will still go to the Wolves website and from there access eticketing.co.uk/wolves, which is powered by Ticketmaster Sport software, but isn’t the general Ticketmaster website which people would use to buy theatre or concert tickets, for example. What SeatGeek previously provided us with was effectively the same arrangement – a SeatGeek-powered website and back office ticketing product, and now we’ve moved to Ticketmaster Sport.
“The back office won’t change – the ticket office will remain as it is. The staff will remain as they are, they’re not being replaced by Ticketmaster staff, so anybody who calls up won’t go to a call centre, they’ll still come to the Wolves Ticket Office. We simply use Ticketmaster software to do our job on a day-to-day basis, as opposed to using SeatGeek software.
“From a fan point of view, there should be little noticeable differences. We still don’t charge booking or admin fees on home tickets or season tickets. Fees will apply on away match tickets because the revenue isn’t ours – we incur charges through selling and posting – but they will remain unchanged. Fans will still buy from a dedicated Wolves site – it will sell tickets to Wolves fans only.”
Last season Ticketmaster Sport provided their services to four Premier League clubs, including Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, and Wolves are one of a number of new partners, which will see the ticket service work with nine top flight clubs across the 2023/24 season.
Improvements to the Wolves system will be made over time, with Ticketmaster Sport providing new tools and software to offer a safer, easier and more comprehensive ticket purchasing experience, and Davies believes it’s a change which will benefit the club moving forward.
“We’d be keen to allay any fears supporters may have. This website will be more straightforward for supporters, the journey is smooth from selecting a ticket and the checkout process is one page, rather than different pages as part of the process. Managing your account is easier and we’ll offer season ticket holders the chance to resell their seat.
“Further down the line, supporters who are buying tickets for Molineux will see a 3D plan which they will select from. We’ll have options to introduce digital tickets, so supporters can have tickets sent via email and they can be downloaded to Apple of Google wallets. We’re planning to implement Apple Pay – another feature we didn’t have before, so the service will improve massively.”
The journey from SeatGeek to Ticketmaster Sport was done with the security of supporter information a priority, meaning certain saved data and information wasn’t carried over.
As a result, supporters making their next purchases from eticketing.co.uk/wolves will have to manually enter certain details, before opting to save information once more, should they wish.
He said: “For security reasons, saved payment card numbers from the old site haven’t been exported from SeatGeek. So, the first time supporters make a purchase on the new site, they’ll need to fill in their card details and save them once again.
“Similarly, we haven’t been able to move across links from the friends and family option, where you could link accounts and buy tickets for each other, so when supporters first use the new site, they will need to add friends and family back to their account. They do that by having the supporter number and surname, and it’s a one-time thing to increase security.”
For information on the friends and family option, click here.
Away season ticket renewals and membership plus invites were launched on Wednesday 5th July, which saw near 5,000 supporters accessing eticketing.co.uk/wolves, and a positive first selling experience was provided to supporters, with few issues reported. That provided the latest step on the journey for Davies.
“We’ll go live with Stade Rennais tickets next week, Manchester United away tickets the week after, and Brighton at home after that. That’s when supporters will really start noticing, when they’ve got a reason to go to the site. Then, once the initial roll out is complete, we can then work on implement further improvements to the service we provide.”
Tickets are available at eticketing.co.uk/wolves and at the Molineux Ticket Office. For FAQs, click here.
