The NCAA® Men's Final Four®: The Largest Digital Ticketing Event in History Powered by Veritix®

CLEVELAND, April 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Veritix® today announced that the 2013 NCAA Men's Final Four was the largest digital ticketing event in history. The Final Four in Atlanta had more than 60,000 people enter the semi-final and championship games through Flash Seats®, the patented Veritix digital ticketing system.

Flash Seats has been used for the past five years for student ticketing, but this year, the NCAA expanded digital entry to all tickets available to the general public. All tickets distributed through the NCAA's Final Four random selection process were Flash Seats digital tickets. All tickets distributed to coaches with the National Association of Basketball Coaches were also Flash Seats. Through this process, over 30,000 fans for the semi-final and championship received their tickets digitally and swiped their electronic IDs at the gate to enter the venue without ever needing to get, print, or present a paper ticket.

In addition, all tickets purchased on the official NCAA Ticket Exchange were distributed as Flash Seats.  The NCAA Ticket Exchange allows fans to post their tickets for sale.  The use of Flash Seats digital tickets assured that the buyers received authentic, original tickets instantly and conveniently.

"We are thrilled with the success of Flash Seats for this year's Final Four, and we're very happy that we made the decision to open it up as an option for NCAA basketball fans," said Josh Logan, Director of Ticketing & Marketing at the NCAA. "It offered the flexibility and convenience that fans needed and a totally safe and secure ticket transaction, ensuring all fans who purchased Flash Seats tickets received guaranteed, legitimate tickets. We were so impressed with how perfectly the system performed."

With approximately half of the fans in the Georgia Dome using Flash Seats, the benefits of the system were clear at the gates. Flash Seats offered fast entry for fans, and fans that used Flash Seats showed up for the games at a higher rate than those who had paper tickets. The system delivered a stellar experience for fans throughout the Final Four.

"After seeing how well Flash Seats performed at the Final Four in Atlanta, for both our schools and their fans, we are ready to fully embrace paperless ticketing as the preferred method for ticket entry and ticket sales," said Josh Logan. "Our confidence in the Flash Seats platform is tremendous, and we look forward to expanding that offering in the future."

This historic achievement solidifies Veritix as the technology leader in the ticketing industry. With a robust and customizable ticketing platform, used by the NCAA and other leading sports teams, Veritix provides the only paperless ticketing system with full transferability of tickets and fast, convenient entry.

"This was the most significant event on our platform to date, and Flash Seats performed flawlessly," said Samuel P. Gerace, CEO of Veritix. "Flash Seats is used at events and venues all over the country, but this event was unique because of its size and prominence. The fact that more than 60,000 people paperlessly entered one of the most significant sporting events in the country quickly, easily, and with no issues demonstrates that our system is the most fan-friendly paperless platform available. Flash Seats is proven, and we look forward to working with the NCAA to continue to expand the use of Flash Seats."

About Veritix ^®

Veritix® provides the most dynamic paperless ticketing, event marketing, and relationship management applications to artists, professional sports teams, universities, arts organizations, and entertainment venues. Veritix also has the only patent-protected, fully-integrated paperless ticketing platform — Flash Seats® — which has revolutionized the sports and live entertainment industry by enabling paperless venue access while allowing artists, team owners and venue operators to regain control of their secondary market. The Veritix ticketing platform lets clients truly take ownership of their ticketing operations and build better relationships with their customers and fans.

Veritix® currently provides ticketing services to major venues across the U.S., including Quicken Loans Arena (Cleveland), Toyota Center (Houston), Energy Solutions Arena (Salt Lake City), Pepsi Center (Denver), Dick's Sporting Good Park (Denver), and Paramount Theatre (Denver); four National Basketball Association teams, including the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz and Cleveland Cavaliers; the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche; the American Hockey League's Lake Erie Monsters and Houston Aeros; Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake and Colorado Rapids; Dover Motorsports, Inc. (Dover International Speedway); and Texas A&M University, Boise State University, Duquesne University and University of Texas at Arlington.

About the NCAA

The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletics opportunities for more than 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 54,000 student athletes compete in NCAA championships in Divisions I, II and III sports. Visit www.NCAA.org and www.NCAA.com for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes.

Contact: Meagan Manning, 216-978-5641, [email protected]

SOURCE Veritix