World Cup opens up to on-line ticketing

Now you do not have to bat an eye-lid to buy the tickets for your favourite cricket match in the forthcoming ICC Cricket World Cup, arrange for transportation or collect the merchandise.

You can arrange for all these and more, like having a cup of coffee and snacks to warm you up before the match, without having to stir out of your home.

India's on-line ticketing marketers are going all out to attract cricket enthusiasts to the event by offering add-ons and, in the process, netting handsome returns. The estimated Rs 300-crore on-line ticketing market in India has clearly moved beyond the realms of cinema theatres to get into concert halls and sports stadia.

For example, >Bookmyticket.com, owned by Bigtree Entertainment, is at present pitching for the World Cup, offering all kinds of goodies to attract cricket lovers. It is offering packages ranging from Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 each, which includes the ticket to the event, transportation first to a designated hotel, a welcome high-tea and snacks, transportation to the stadium, ushering to the seat and transportation back to the hotel after the game.

“We have launched the scheme about 10 days ago and the response so far has been very encouraging. We have got the maximum response for the India-South Africa match and the April 2 Mumbai finals,” says Mr Ashish Hemrajani, CEO of Bigtree Entertainment.

Movies, however, still form the back-bone for the on-line ticketing market. “We are clocking annual revenues of about Rs 200 crore, out of which movies account for a share of about 75 per cent — it was almost 95 per cent four years ago,” says Mr Hemrajani.

Players in this segment are adding options for booking of food and beverages and facility to book tickets through mobile applications. “We are in the process of launching a new platform for booking, the Android Apps. Also, in certain theatres, customers can take a printed ticket directly to the theatre without having to collect it from the box-office,” he said.

An indication of the growing concept of on-line ticketing can be had from the fact that BigTree had notched up revenues of Rs 9 crore and Rs 6 crore by selling tickets for Amir Khan's Three Idiots and James Cameron's Avatar — it charges between Rs 10-Rs 20 as convenience charges on each ticket sold.