Things are talking 'Mobile Ticketing at soccer club'
Mobile phone becomes season ticket for Roda JC
Supporters of Dutch soccer club Roda JC will be the first in the Netherlands in the new 2005-2006 season to participate in a trial that will see a mobile phone take over the functions of the Club Card season ticket. Fifty supporters are going to use their mobile handsets for admittance to the Parkstad Limburg Stadium and for purchasing goods at the stadium’s catering outlets and supporters shop. The trial is based on Near Field Communication (NFC), a new technology for wireless communication.
Roda JC, KPN, Philips, Bell ID, SmartPoint and KNVB ClubSupport joined forces to set up the trial. The project will examine the advantages of mobile ticketing using NFC technology compared with traditional forms of ticketing, like issuing and managing physical tickets and cards. The ultimate objective is greater convenience for supporters.
The NFC technology, developed by Philips and Sony, allows two-way wireless transmission of information over short distances. This eliminates the need for physical contact between an information carrier and reader. It is not necessary to swipe a card through a reader. At the turnstiles of the Parkstad Limburg Stadium , the participants in the trial simply hold their mobile phones in front of the reader. The data stored on the NFC chip in the handset is quickly verified before the supporter is allowed through into the stadium.
At a later stage of the trial, it will also be possible to use a mobile phone to buy tickets for a game, anytime, anywhere. Participants will additionally be able to top up their phone credit remotely via mobile network, thus making it unnecessary repeatedly to go to a top-up machine.
During the trial, Roda JC and KPN will examine whether there are other attractive mobile handset services for the club’s supporters. Examples include personalised special offers for supporters via SMS or mobile Internet.
More information?
If you want to know more about this pilot project or about RFID and Near Field Communication, you can phone Peter op den Kamp, sr. projectmanager RFID, on (020) 484 14 28 or send an email to businessmarket
