Don't Forget Your Tickets

Mads Liabø and Carl-Erik Moberg (interviewed by Clare Kenny) on Balancing Tradition and Innovation in Today's Football - A Live Special from Emirates Stadium in London

• Carl-Erik Michalsen Moberg • Season 6 • Episode 9

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How Can Clubs and Tech Providers Shape the Future of Ticketing—Together?

The best innovations in football rarely happen in isolation—they thrive when clubs and technology providers work hand in hand. But what does that kind of partnership actually look like in practice?

At Don’t Forget Your Tickets at Emirates Stadium, Mads Liabø, Marketing Manager at SK Brann, and Carl-Erik Michalsen Moberg, CEO of TicketCo, sat down with Clare Kenny to discuss how Brann and TicketCo are working side by side to push the boundaries of ticketing and fan engagement.

In this episode, they explore:

  • How SK Brann became TicketCo’s innovation lab, helping develop next-generation ticketing solutions.
  • Why real-time feedback from clubs is crucial for building fan-first technology.
  • How data, automation, and AI will reshape the future ticketing experience.
  • The value of understanding fans—whether it’s driving season ticket demand or reducing matchday queues.

This is the story of a football club and a ticketing provider working shoulder to shoulder—and a look into how close collaboration can drive lasting change.

Sit back and enjoy the conversation.


This Live Special episode of Don't Forget Your Tickets was recorded at the Don't Forget Your Tickets conference at Emirates Stadium, January 23rd 2025, as the ninth out of 12 on-stage interviews that day. Mads Liabø and Carl-Erik Moberg was interviewed by Clare Kenny.


Don't Forget Your Tickets is powered by TicketCo and hosted by TicketCo’s CEO, Carl-Erik Michalsen Moberg. The podcast was originally named TicketingPodcast.com

Speaker 1:

Innovation in football doesn't happen in isolation. It thrives on partnerships. When clubs and technology providers work together, the results can reshape the fan experience and drive the industry forward. At the Don't Forget your Tickets at Emirates Stadium, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Claire Kenny, together with Mats Liebö, Marketing Manager at SK Brand, discussing how the close partnership between SK Brand and TicketCo is shaping the future of ticketing and fan engagement. In this episode, we explore how clubs and tech providers can collaborate closely to drive innovation, why real-time feedback from clubs is vital for product development, how brands' hands-on approach is helping TicketCo create the next generation of fan experiences. This is the story of how two organizations working side by side, shoulder to shoulder, are pushing boundaries and redefining what's possible in ticketing and event technology. Do not miss this one.

Speaker 2:

Thank you very much, everybody. Now we kick off this afternoon. This is quite a special session and it's really what this conference is about, which is actually about relationships and building relationships and community, and we've called this Shaping the Future Together. And I'm really delighted to have one of our longest standing partners all the way from Bergen in Norway, mads Lieber, away from Bergen in Norway, mads Lieber, and he's the marketing manager of SK Brand, which is one of the oldest and most famous clubs in Norway, and he'll tell us a little bit about that in a moment.

Speaker 2:

And best and best yeah, though we have to be neutral, I'm not saying it's best personally and also Carl-Erik Moberg, who you've all met earlier, who's our chief executive of TicketCo and a very inspiring individual, and I'm here to talk to you a little bit more about TicketCo and how we approach relationships. So, mads, I'm going to turn to you first Now. Obviously, sk Brand was founded in 1908. It's been around for a long time, one of the biggest clubs in the Norwegian Premier League. You finished second last year, congratulations, thank you.

Speaker 2:

But tell us a little bit more about the club and what makes it special.

Speaker 3:

Well, I can't tell you about all the 100 years we don't have the time for that but I can tell you a little bit about what's happened the last three, four years. In 2021, I started working in Bonn and we had a big scandal. You can Google it. I'm not going to go into the details. We also got relegated. We sacked our manager, we sacked our board, we sacked almost everybody, and the 1st of January in 2022, I was sitting there alone in my office thinking whoa, what did I do?

Speaker 3:

You weren't sacked, I was sitting there alone in my office thinking, whoa, what did I do? You weren't sacked. No, I was there. I was there. And so where do we start? And we started with our supporters actually, that's the people who's always been there, who's always supported Bon, who's going to be there after I stopped working there and we started with them and, for the first time ever in 2022 2022 we got our supporters to do a commercial campaign of campaigning, season ticket sales and from there on, everything just kind of clicked. So the last couple of years, we played in playoff to conference league, we won the cup and we ended up second in the league twice and hopefully, hopefully, we can achieve some Champions League or something like that this season.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to come back to the UEFA Conference League in a moment, but, carl-erik, what are your memories of how the relationship started with Escape Run?

Speaker 1:

It's actually a funny story, and I think I was really inspired by Girls on the Ball previously as well when they talked about having a startup right. And we founded this company back in 2012. And our dream would be to have Braun as a customer right. I was driving past the stadium and thinking that will never happen, right, how could we possibly get Braun as a client? But anyway, we were bold enough to book a meeting with one, and back then we didn't even have seating maps in our platform. This was back in 2013. And we had a great meeting. We met dog that you probably met. He was. The guy was, yeah, speaking loudly earlier and he was working inside of one and we were trying to sell ticket code to him and he asked us the questions well, do you have a seating map in your ticketing platform? And we said no, unfortunately not, and that was the end of that discussion. So that was when the relationship started.

Speaker 1:

But then we understood something vital in sports and I mean technology development altogether that what we actually need to do. We can't sit around in an office and try and think what the world wants. We don't know what the fan needs. There are so many different fans different ages, demographic, different ways they live their lives right and we have to speak and talk together with clubs to understand how we can build the best ticketing system for sports. So we completely turned around and we started working together with some of the clubs, brandt being one of them, and luckily, we are about, I think, a kilometer away from you. Yeah, maybe 10 minutes. Yeah, 10 minutes if you run very fast or if you drive or run slow, or run slow If you're a fast runner, mats, maybe you are. But that also means that we have access to one of the top tier clubs, so we can pilot things, we can test things together and, yeah, it turned into a fruitful relationship for both parties.

Speaker 2:

It's fantastic and I want to talk a little bit more about the innovation journey you've both been on together. A little bit later in the conversation, but staying with the fans and the importance of fans. So Brand played St Mirren home and away last year in the UEFA Conference League. First of all, what was your experience of Scotland and St Mirren and did you feel any difference with how the fans approached the game compared to your fans in Bergen?

Speaker 3:

I think when you grow up in Norway, you kind of idolize everything that happens in football in the UK. You grow up, you pick a team, you have your local team in Norway. You kind of idolize everything that happens in football in the UK. You grow up, you pick a team, you have your local team in Norway and then you have your UK team and not to be. Maybe this is not the correct place, but what we learn is that, wow, we can actually be a huge team in Norway. We have waiting lists for season tickets now I don't think St Mirren has that. So it's like meeting them kind of gives us the feeling that we're on our way to something. Meeting the UK clubs and other European teams like AZ Alkmaar in the Dutch League I think Norwegian football is going somewhere now with Bode Glemt, especially in Molde as well.

Speaker 2:

And especially your women's team. I mean, they're really going somewhere with Bode Glemt, especially in Moldova as well. Yeah, and especially your women's team. Yeah, I mean, they're really going somewhere. So, for those who don't know, brandt's women's team reached the quarterfinals of the UEFA Women's Champions League against Barcelona. Is it fair to say your women's team are more successful than your men's team.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, definitely, definitely. And also the Bon supporters also really embraced the women's team when they came into our club. It's a kind of new project. It's a local club that became Bon a couple of years ago and they won the league, the cup, and then qualified for the Champions League and went to the quarterfinals and we had more away supporters in Barcelona than some clubs have on their home games. So the people of Bergen really is fond of the women's team as well and we have the highest now attendance in both leagues.

Speaker 2:

And why do you think that is? How did you package the ticket sales or engage with the existing fans for the men's game? To bring them into the men's game, to bring them into the women's match?

Speaker 3:

Just like I said earlier, we start with the supporters, we start with the members, the club members, and they have to vote Is this a good thing for the club to have a women's team here? And when they have voted yes, then we have to do the job, like everybody has to do the job, job. So the members and all the supporters do do their job to just this is how brand works. Yeah fantastic.

Speaker 2:

So let's talk about innovation, and I'm really interested in how the relationship has evolved between ticket co and brand over the years. Would you say it's fair to say that you have helped make the product better in terms of the innovations, and what's that experience been like?

Speaker 3:

I hope so. I remember I wrote two pages an email with two pages that, hey, we live next door to each other, but you don't use us enough for innovation, so get your asses up here and let's start working. And after that, jessica has done a really good job as our customer success manager and we get almost everything that we need, and we're really excited to see the rest of what's coming now with TicketCo and not to do your job here, but it's really going somewhere with the innovative thoughts that you have.

Speaker 2:

And what are the highlights of that? So, in terms of the new customer journey, what were the key things that you were really looking for? To service your fans better and to give them a better match day experience.

Speaker 3:

Not just a match day experience but for us having 10,000 season tickets and a waiting list for 6,000, and we have a capacity of 17,000, or we want people to also buy some single tickets, and that gives us a lot of administration, with 10,000 people and 6,000 people knocking on our doors every day and just to do all the resale. When we think about loyalty programs, we can have all these companies coming to us trying to sell us loyalty programs and all that, and we think, oh, we should do it with TicketCo, it's much easier. We already have our contact people and they know who buys the tickets and everything. So then we look to TicketCo and we want to do this with you instead of with somebody else.

Speaker 2:

And Con Carlo over to you. So, in terms of that, how innovation evolves with customers, what is the culture, I suppose, within the company, that allows that to happen?

Speaker 1:

I mean, we have a couple of reasons to get up in the morning. Right, there are hundreds of ticketing companies out there. Everyone is doing different things, slightly different customer journey, but there are three key drivers that makes our company worth looking into, and one of them is we've been touching on today and that's data. I mean, paul Barber mentioned it right With the Mother's Day and the flowers on the seat the only way he can do things like that. It's not complicated, but what's complicated is that you need to own your own data. You need to be in full control of your own data. So that's one thing, and if you don't have that as a driver from the beginning, it's impossible to do these things. That creates a viral marketing. It's basically a marketing campaign, right, because people take pictures, they post, they share with friends, etc. The second part is the fact that, if you think about it, every time you get up in the morning and you go to work, you put on your Spotify playlist or your Apple Music playlist, and it's not like you sit down and you make your own playlist before you go to work. Spotify just suggests what you like.

Speaker 1:

In most business-to-business systems today, you have to sit down in front of the computer.

Speaker 1:

Every time you come to the office as a ticketing manager, you have to log in and you have to start the same tasks, repetitive tasks all over and over and over again. Why is that the case when you have these super user-friendly systems on your private life, like Spotify? But when you come to work, everything is changing. That is the big difference and that's also where the opportunity lies, because when you come to the office on the Monday, the ticketing system should know that today is the Monday. They should know when your next match is on, they should know how much you sold for last year for the same match, and it should nudge you that you should maybe do a promo code for the people that was there on the last match this time to make them come, and it should just suggest it and you should do it with one click. I think that's what's going to happen in the future the drive of new tech that people use day to day coming into business, to business sales, and that should be what we strive for all the time.

Speaker 3:

Again, one of the pilot projects that I'm hoping that we can do with Chatel this year is that all emails that come to Bonn, to the customer service address at Bonn, will go through TicketCo first, so that TicketCo can learn what does everybody, what do they want, what do they ask about. So yeah, I'm looking forward to that and see how machine learning AI can help us with that.

Speaker 2:

So that leads me on to the next question. So you mentioned AI. Obviously, that's something that everybody is talking about in all different sectors and certainly in all different aspects of the football industry. Where do you see, first of all, mads, to you the ticketing industry in Norway going, say, in the next five years? How different do you think it will look to how it looks now? How different do you think it will look to how it looks now?

Speaker 3:

That's a tough question. I remember in 2021 telling TicketGo hey, you should get this up and running because it's 2021. And then I think I said the same in 22 and 23 and 24 and 25. But hopefully it's going to get a lot easier to buy your tickets, to use your tickets and to share your tickets. We shouldn't make it a new thing. The tickets that we have now it works, so I don't hope it's going to be a totally different industry.

Speaker 1:

No, we discussed fans previously, right, and you have different fans with different backgrounds and different ages, and I think innovation can be scary if it happens all at the same time. You have a new generation of fans coming up that they're not used to using a laptop to buy anything. They're used to scrolling through everything they need and basically they just live a different life than we've done whilst growing up. But then you have the people who would like to have that paper ticket, and the case is that you can't force innovation on all your fans at the same time. You have to have the data and you have to find out, okay, what fans are open for innovation. Who wants to be my pilot fans for new projects? How could I create focus groups, et cetera, and test new things together with them and then measure feedback click rates, like we're doing when we're implementing all the support messages through us, to use AI to understand what's the pattern and improve our system based on that? So hopefully, things will be quicker, easier and connect the fans stronger to the club.

Speaker 3:

And also, as we speak right now, our women's team is sitting at home and calling people, asking them to buy season tickets.

Speaker 2:

So you can also do it very easy without the AI. Yeah, and sometimes the personal touch is more effective, isn't it Out of interest? What is the percentage of your commercial revenue? What percentage comes through ticket sales roughly?

Speaker 3:

Well, in Norwegian kroner it's almost 50 million kroners. So yeah, yeah, no, it'd be interesting to compare actually in the UK.

Speaker 2:

Obviously it changes at every level, so National League would also be very different.

Speaker 3:

Premier League. So say 35-40%, then maybe Interesting.

Speaker 1:

But just to comment on that, in terms of Norwegian football, which you mentioned as well, mats marks, it's growing in popularity. Now something is happening in in norwegian football. There is more interest in bigger sponsorships, which we see, and then I think the balance will change over the next period of time. You have the leagues having initiatives to make things easier and you have more global brands that would like to be a part of it, probably like you saw, maybe in the uk five, ten years ago, right, yeah and we're a small country, small nation, but still the captain who plays at the harry every, every weekend he's from norway, so I guess we're doing something no, we have a few norwegian players, don't?

Speaker 2:

in the uk, so yeah, so talking about the uk, so, carl eric, obviously here we are. The emirates stadium ticket curve obviously been working in the uk for a number of years now. But what are your future goals for this market?

Speaker 1:

so we strongly believe and again that's our reason to get up in the morning is that we believe that there needs to be a product that is specific for sports, and there's very, very few products that is built for clubs today. There are several products doing different things, several companies doing different things, but that also comes back to what I initially talked about. We can talk about Norwegian and we can talk about UK football, and it's very different. It's very different commercially how fans behave on the stadium, etc. But one thing is the same the clubs like to be listened to If they have an issue, if they spend time on doing things. If they have a supplier that has the ability to listen and understand what the customers want, they can actually build a great product.

Speaker 1:

So, from a product perspective, our goal is to be the dominant player in sports. We're focusing on the UK market because that's probably the toughest market in the world. And why not go into the toughest market in the world? Because then you learn the hard way. Building business is a hard project anyway. Why not do it in the UK? Why not do it together with some of these wonderful clubs that we have today which are already customers, and some of the other clubs we're in dialogue with, so it's the perfect opportunity to win other markets after we have gone into the UK market.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic, Exciting times ahead. So, just coming up to the last question, I want to ask both of you what your metrics are for success. How do you measure success and I suppose to you first, Mads how do you measure success as a football club off the pitch? Obviously on the pitch. We know what that is.

Speaker 3:

There's no bond board members here, so of course I have to have some metrics there. But for me and for most of the work in marketing, it's to see the young children with the brand shirts and not the Arling Brut Haaland shirts in the streets. It's getting them to support brand instead of Manchester City. That's a success and we can already see that in the streets in Bergen you see a lot more shirts from Bonn. But it's also just like with the waiting list on season tickets. Now that's a success, yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's brilliant. And over to you how do you measure success?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for me maybe I have some board members here, but I'll still say it For me it's very emotional right when I'm at a club and I see that the match day queues that they had has disappeared, that gives purpose, because then I know that the fans are having a completely different experience. They're coming in, they're not standing outside in the snow or in the storm or in the rain. They're inside looking at what they love, and that is football. And we said previously or I think it was Paul who said it business in football may change, but football will always be played and it's our damn job to get people into the stadium. And if we can make that happen, we've done something good.

Speaker 2:

Brilliant. And then a final question. So you mentioned, obviously, most people growing up in Norway have a Norwegian team and they also have a UK team, which is yours.

Speaker 3:

AFC Wimbledon.

Speaker 2:

Oh, interesting.

Speaker 3:

No, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. Sorry, no, I support Manchester United. Sorry about that. No, I'm sorry. These days they look like Braun used to, so it's a perfect match.

Speaker 2:

And Conor, how about yourself?

Speaker 1:

I had to go back when I was I think I was five years old and I tried to make a new friend. And you know, when you're a little kid and you want to get new friends, you just walk over. Do you want to be my friend? Maybe we should start doing it in an older age as well. But I rang the doorbell and he looked at me, looked at me like I was why are you approaching me like this? What's your favorite team? And when I was five I didn't know any teams. So I said I countered and I said what's yours? And he said it's the Spurs. And I said me too. And after that it was the Spurs fan.

Speaker 2:

There's quite a few of us here today in the Emirates Stadium.

Speaker 1:

We're still friends, by the way. We're always friends, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much.

Speaker 3:

Thank you next time.

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Carl-Erik Michalsen Moberg

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