March 1, 2016 - On Yapsody Ticketing, approximately half of the visitors come from mobile devices. Even visitors for events that target the 65+ age group places at almost 40%.

Despite these figures, a large percentage of casinos use ticketing systems that are poorly optimized for mobile viewing, resulting in reduced sales. Perhaps casinos are averse to switching from a product with which they are already familiar. Perhaps they have a good relationship with the ticketing provider’s sales rep. Whatever the case may be, if selling out shows is a major objective, then here are some things to consider.

What It All Boils Down To

Mobile optimization is a vast topic. However, in a nutshell, a mobile optimized site should essentially provide the same user experience on a mobile device as on a desktop computer. That boils down to having the same (i) core functionality and (ii) ease of navigation.

Same Core Functionality

This may surprise you… The following are mobile screenshots of two ticketing systems used by many casinos, Ticketmaster and StarTickets. Both allow users to select seats on a computer – a basic function of any modern ticketing system. However, when accessed on a smartphone, seat selection is NOT available.

In Contrast, here is also a screenshot of a mobile interface that does provides Seat Selection.

Buying tickets to a concert should be a personal decision; each seat is unique and provides a different experience, which is why people generally prefer to choose their own seats. And by not providing this basic feature, the effectiveness of these mobile sites is greatly diminished and sales are adversely affected.

Ease of Navigation

Here is an example of a casino event on Tickets.com, whose mobile interface is identical to its web interface with no accommodation for screen size. Navigation is difficult, undoubtedly resulting in customer abandonment. For example,

• You need to zoom to read the text, but then you cannot see the entire screen
• The process to buy tickets is ambiguous since the customer is confused whether to click on the seating chart or the radio buttons.

In fairness, optimizing for mobile is not a simple task. However, given the thousands of dollars in fees that ticketing providers earn off patrons per show and the proven benefits of a mobile experience, a small investment in mobile optimization certainly isn’t too much to ask.