Motorsport Tickets: Your one-stop shop for racing experiences

Marketing Director Richard Gibson-Venner gives us the lowdown on Motorsport Tickets, telling us what’s on offer and what’s in the pipeline.

Welcome to Motorsport Tickets

Motorsport Tickets is our new name for 2020, as we align ourselves as part of our parent group, Motorsport Network, but we’ve actually been in business since 2003. Starting out as Bookf1, we’ve helped over 300,000 people to experience live motorsport across all corners of the globe.

When we started out as one of the original motorsport ticket resellers, the aim was simple: To provide a destination site with a consistent level of information, to make it easy for customers to understand what ticket options existed at each F1 race and to assist them to make a decision as to which was right for them.

The number of options available to the customer have grown significantly and diversified, and our website has constantly evolved to keep pace with the options available and the expectations of our ever more digital-savvy customer.

What has always been a core focus, and remains so today, is the delivery of reliable consistent information, backed up with a knowledgeable team and great customer service to assist the customer throughout their own personal research and purchase journey. Helping them to find the right product for them.

Motorsport Tickets calendar

Photo by: Motorsport.com

This commitment to the customer is the backbone of the business, has seen us grow a loyal customer base, returning again and again, which has in turn has helped us to expand our product portfolio. Expanding our horizons beyond Formula 1 to include every race on the MotoGP and FIA World Endurance Championship calendars, including the historic Le Mans 24 Hours, alongside other iconic events like the Isle of Man TT, an array of factory tours and other experiential elements.

Fans

Photo by: Motorsport.com

New Experiences

For us, whatever your motorsport of choice, going to an event is so much more than just a ticket to an event. Whether you are a fan or looking to try a motorsport event for the very first time, we want to give you a full end-to-end experience. From nurturing an interest into the purchase of a ticket, to counting down the months, weeks, days before you go with helpful tips on how to maximise your trip, right through to serving world-class images after the race to ensure the memories stay long after the action has come to an end.

Nowhere is this more evident than with our Fan Grandstand and Fan Village products we pioneered for the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix. With the rise of Dutch superstar, Max Verstappen, we pioneered the original ‘orange army’ Fan Grandstand at the Red Bull Ring. This gave fans a unique opportunity to get up close to their favourite driver and be part of a community of likeminded individuals.

Fan Grandstand was the on-track destination. Alongside this, our dedicated Orange Fan Village, located just a short walking distance from the track, offered a variety of camping solutions, and provided a truly unique motorsport camping experience and a 24-hour location from which fans could base themselves. Providing catering throughout the day, and entertainment by night, it ensured the party remained alive long after the track action was over.

So popular have these products been, that 2019 saw us expand the offering to both Belgian and Hungarian Grands Prix and we continue to explore more options for 2021 and beyond.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes with fans

Photo by: Motorsport.com

Adding Value

Being part of the Motorsport Network also enables Motorsport Tickets the ability to offer something unique to our customer base. Alongside our wider Price Promise Guarantee, ensuring customers get the very best ticket price when they book, they can also take advantage of a unique set of benefits as part of our Exclusive Content Pack.

The Exclusive Content Pack gives all customers the chance to access world class editorial and journalism courtesy of Motorsport Prime and Autosport Plus, but also access to over 4,000 hours of live steamed and on-demand video content from Motorsport.tv. Representing great value to the customer, with a saving up to £124, but also a unique way for those new to motorsport to get up to speed on what is happening before (and after) they go.

After the race, customers receive an email with up to 24 images from our world-class photographers, courtesy of Motorsport Images. Delivered directly to your inbox, these can be downloaded and kept as a memento of the weekend. Alongside this all customers receive access to all of Motorsport Images’ achieve from that weekend, which can then be subsequently printed and framed, or applied to a raft of merchandising solutions, from cups, to mouse mats, to puzzles. This provides an array of very personalised gifting options.

Fans

Photo by: Motorsport.com

Platform Advancement and Working with Circuits

How our customers navigate for products, and what they want to see when they get there, is a key part of constant development and keeping pace within the wide eCommerce marketplace. The web today is image and video heavy, and with much of the research done via mobile, it means we have to focus on tailoring the quality while minimising file sizes to facilitate fast downloads.

Our proposition has consistently evolved, and as we look to the second half of 2020, we have an all-new mobile-first site coming this autumn. Offering all new, more intuitive way to see and select the products on offer, it’s about simplifying the whole experience. With races now having anywhere from 80-190 options, its super-important to us that our customers can easily navigate and find the products that are right for them.

In recent years we’ve moved to incorporate multiple languages and multi-currency display features to give a much more personalised experience for our customers. Enabling them to tailor the site to their own personal configuration and to help drive our reach across mainland Europe. Further expansion into travel will come to the site in the next 12 months.

Our wider links, as part of Motorsport Network across the motorsport community, also sees Motorsport Tickets powering a variety of leading circuits technology infrastructures globally, as well as race team and charity ticket solutions.

This trust from our partners, and their wider customer bases, enables the creation of a truly unique platform designed, developed and operated purely for the motorsport industry and its unique set of needs.

A key part of our wider offering is the creation and delivery of unique content for our growing motorsport community, allowing them to engage, be thrilled and inspired. Our focus is on showcasing how motorsport can be part of a wider travel experience, while also building knowledge of young upcoming talent.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes with a young fan

Photo by: Motorsport.com

The Future

Covid-19 might have caused chaos to the calendar and an ability for customers to travel to motorsport events during much of 2020, but this period has enabled us to focus ever harder on ensuring the delivery of a first-class experience our customers expect.

We continue to communicate with series owners, race promoters and circuits worldwide, and are working hard to broaden our motorsport offerings over the next 12-24 months. Alongside our new travel solutions in the pipeline, we are committed to being the destination global provider for motorsport fan experiences.

With an exciting set of new products and acquisition developments in the works, and with the sale of 2021 races imminent, we can’t wait to get back to racing and are focused on making 2021 our best year yet.