Faster and Fraud-Proof Ticket Purchase for Football Fans
#1
Football ticketing in Iraq
The first digital solution of its kind in the market.
2
Months to an MVP
Shipped for the start of the 2023 autumn sales, ahead of the 23/24 season.
100%
From UX to release
Design, development, QA and DevOps all in one engagement.
The client
Digital Zone is an online marketplace for top-up cards — telecom operators, Xbox and PlayStation, Google Play, iTunes and Netflix.
It is owned by International Smart Card, a pioneering fintech and a leader in Iraqi payments, and exists to move consumer products and services in Iraq toward a mobile- and digital-first footing.
The challengeWhat the teams actually needed
Iraqi football fills stadiums to capacity, and buying a ticket meant queueing — with fraud a standing risk. Ticket Zone set out to digitise that for the Iraqi Premier League.
Challenge 01Easy enough for everyone
The end product had to be intuitive even for people who are not especially tech-savvy, and responsive, because most Iraqi users are on a phone.
Challenge 02Fraud designed out
High system security mattered more than almost anything: the old process was slow and open to forged tickets.
Challenge 03Ready for a full stadium
The solution had to stay reliable and scale under heavy traffic, delivered fast and against a scope that kept moving.
-1.png?width=2000&height=1400&name=2%20(2)-1.png)
What we did
A web app for fans, a scanner for the turnstile
Two phases: design, prototyping the web solution; then development, building on that prototype through to release of the web and mobile apps. Agile sprints throughout, with QA running end-to-end tests including the integrations.
Tickets bought in a few taps
A responsive web application handles online ticket sales, integrated with the Digital Zone backend and the Qi payments gateway, with seats.io behind seat selection.
QR codes that cannot be copied
Tickets are generated with custom QR codes, which is what takes fraud out of the equation.
A scanner for the stewards
A mobile application lets security staff scan tickets at the stadium entrance, delivered for both iOS and Android.
Scaling on demand
DevOps support covers on-demand scaling, with close coordination with the Digital Zone team on a shared backend and performance testing against heavy traffic.
Client testimonial
The Ticket Zone platform's user-friendly design and robust functionality not only met but exceeded our expectations. The positive feedback from event attendees and users highlighted its significant impact on enhancing the ticket purchasing experience for Iraqi football fans.
Tech stackThe tools that made it possible
01
React
The web application frontend.
02
React Native
The scanning app, launched on iOS and Android at once.
03
Node.js
The backend behind the ticketing system.
04
AWS
The infrastructure the whole system runs on.
05
seats.io & Qi payments
Third-party seat selection and the local payment gateway.
More like thisOther places we scaled product teams for growth.
What’s next