UEFA to issue over one million EURO 2020 tickets using blockchain app

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) today announced that it will use a blockchain-powered mobile app to distribute over one million tickets to soccer fans’ mobile phones. 

The system will prevent the replication and duplication of tickets, as the mobile tickets’ QR codes are only activated via Bluetooth once fans are near to the stadium. Fans can also use the system to transfer tickets to guests, and will no longer have to visit ticket collection points.

UEFA will distribute the tickets for its UEFA EURO 2020 competition, which will conclude in July. All tickets bought from December 2019 onward will be logged on the blockchain. These tickets will be eligible from May 2020, when the new UEFA EURO 2020 mobile tickets app launches on Android and iOS. 

In total, the tickets will be eligible for 51 football matches. A total of 2.5 million tickets were sold for the whole competition, to fans in over 200 countries.

UEFA uses AlphaWallet for blockchain tickets

UEFA has already partnered with AlphaWallet to tokenize 20,000 VIP tickets on the blockchain, also for use in the UEFA EURO 2020 tournament, it announced in late December. 

CEO of AlphaWallet, Victor Zhang told Digital Journal at the time that VIPs could use the tickets to access discounts on, among other things, accommodation, transport, and shopping, “without signing up for an account with each service and go through the long process to verify you really have a real ticket.”

It also means fewer scalpers: “It means no more primary or secondary market, there will be only one free, open and regulated market. Free means [fewer] fractions; [open means] open to anyone who wants to participate; Regulated means rules are defined using smart contracts,” he said. 

In today’s announcement, UEFA did not mention whether the one million tickets used AlphaWallet’s technology. Decrypt has reached out to AlphaWallet, and will update this story accordingly.