Doncaster Knights

Doncaster Knights Rugby Football Club operates from Castle Park, a modern multi-million-pound stadium in South Yorkshire. The venue hosts RFU Championship fixtures, national and international rugby, including England Under 20s and England Women’s Six Nations, alongside conferences, hospitality events, and concerts. To manage this diverse programme efficiently while improving fan experience based on data, the club required a single, flexible ticketing and access control platform.

Since 2022, Future Ticketing has provided Doncaster Knights with a high-performance, API-first ticketing solution that supports the sale and management of season tickets, matchday tickets, hospitality packages and online-redeemable gift vouchers. The same system is used across all events, allowing the club to manage ticketing, gift vouchers and bookings through one central platform, resulting in 4,614 new customers since the beginning of our partnership.

Access control at Castle Park is delivered through an API-driven integration between Future Ticketing and the venue’s turnstile infrastructure. Integration with OLS enables automated turnstile entry, validating tickets in real time and significantly reducing the need for manual checks. This has improved ingress speed, reduced queue times during peak arrival periods and delivered a more consistent and secure entry experience for supporters.

Future Ticketing’s open REST API underpins the club’s wider digital ecosystem, enabling integration with third-party partners and future platforms. This includes an analytics integration with Datatalks, providing enhanced visibility of fan behaviour, purchasing patterns and engagement. These data-driven insights support more targeted communications, improved commercial decision-making and a stronger long-term relationship between the club and its supporters. The API-first architecture also enables
ticket sales through a fan engagement club app and ensures the platform can evolve in
line with changing digital and mobile-first expectations.

These implementations have delivered measurable improvements across fan experience, operations and insight, with a 36% increase in average spend per customer over the past year. Supporters enjoy faster online ticketing, improved mobile and contactless access through OLS-integrated turnstiles, and simpler booking management for both general admission and hospitality. Operationally, the club has centralised ticketing, reduced manual processes, and built a scalable infrastructure to support ongoing growth. The integration with Datatalks has strengthened visibility of fan behaviour and engagement, helping the club improve targeting and commercial decisions, resulting in a 19% growth in digital sales between 2023 and 2024.

Castle Park has also proven its capability to deliver elite international fixtures while maintaining the highest standards of governance, brand alignment and customer experience. Doncaster Knights has successfully hosted England Women’s Six Nations matches, working in close alignment with England Rugby’s brand guidelines and operational requirements. The Future Ticketing platform supported controlled on-sale windows, pricing structures and fan communications consistent with national governing body standards, ensuring a seamless and premium experience for supporters attending these high-profile international fixtures.

Building on this success, Castle Park will host an upcoming England Under 19s international fixture against France, further reinforcing the venue’s role within England Rugby’s performance pathway. Many of the players involved in this match will be eligible for selection in the forthcoming World Rugby U20 Championship, making the fixture a key development milestone. The same centralised ticketing, access control and data infrastructure will be used to manage the event, ensuring consistent delivery standards across club, national
and international rugby while capturing valuable insight into fan engagement for future international events.

Future Ticketing’s platform for Doncaster is fully scalable and adaptable, capable of supporting a diverse range of event sizes and formats, from elite senior internationals to age-grade development fixtures, while maintaining consistent delivery standards and commercial control.

Client Perspective