Faster and Fraud-Proof Ticket Purchase for Football Fans

The client

Digital Zone is an online marketplace dedicated specifically to top-up cards for telecom companies, video gaming platforms (Xbox, Playstation), digital distribution services (Google Play), and streaming giants such as iTunes and Netflix.

Owned by International Smart Card LLC (ISC), a pioneering fintech and a leader in the Iraqi payment sector, Digital Zone accelerates solutions across consumer needs, paving the way for a seamless, mobile- and digital-first approach to products and services in Iraq.

The project

Netguru came together with Digital Zone to accelerate Ticket Zone, a sub-brand of the digital marketplace that transforms the traditional, time-consuming, and fraud-prone ticket purchasing process for the Iraqi Premier League. The project aimed to digitize the process, reducing the need for physical queues and reducing the risk of ticket fraud.

The project's main goal was to design and develop a web application that would allow fans to buy tickets fast and hassle-free, and a mobile application for security guards to scan fans’ tickets at the stadium entrance.

The scope included:

• designing a user-friendly app interface,
• developing a responsive web application for online ticket sales,
• integrating the application with the Digital Zone backend,
• creating a solution for generating the tickets with custom QR codes,
• delivering a mobile application for ticket scanning,
• incorporating third-party solutions such as seats.io,
• integration with the Qi payments gateway,
• DevOps support for on-demand product scaling.

The project was realized in two phases:

• Design: prototyping the web app solution,
• Development: building on the prototype, designing, developing, and releasing the web- and mobile apps.

Client expectations

• An intuitive end product easy to adopt even by non-tech-savvy users
• A responsive web app that meets the needs of a majority of Iraqi users who rely heavily on their mobile devices
• Rapid product delivery
• High system security to prevent fraud
• Scalability and reliability of the solution meant for handling heavy user traffic

The journey

In the first phase, we provided the designs for a full scope of app functionalities.

Following Agile principles, we worked in sprints, making sure that each sprint brought us closer to a working product.

While developing the admin dashboard, we maintained close cooperation with the Digital Zone team, as well as with the security and DevOps engineers to ensure a stable and secure service.

Our QA’s performed end-to-end application testing, including backend functionalities and system integrations with seats.io and Qi payments. The team also checked the product’s performance and its ability to sustain increased user traffic.

The mobile application was delivered in React Native, allowing us to launch it both on iOS and Android-based devices. The web app fronted was delivered in React, while the backend – in Node.js. System infrastructure was based on Amazon Web Services.

The challenges

The project presented its unique set of challenges:

• Tight delivery timeline,
• A dynamically shifting project scope,
• High client expectations towards an intuitive UX design,
• Backend shared with Digital Zone – the need to coordinate work and software releases with the DZ team,
• Extensive performance and security testing.

The results

Working hand in hand with the client, we managed to overcome all project difficulties and launch the digital suite in two months, right in time for the 23/24 football season.

The challenging nature of the project meant that both sides had to adjust to the dynamic environment: the client decided to scope down, and the project team needed to accelerate.

We’re proud that:

• Ticket Zone pioneers digital sports ticket sales in the Iraqi market.
• The solution has been released just in time for the 2023 autumn ticket sales.
• The system is highly secure and tackles ticket fraud in the market.
• The project team shipped an MVP version of the product in under 2 months.
• The user interfaces proved both attractive and intuitive.
• The team supplemented the solution with extra, post-MVP features.
• The product successfully passed a series of demanding performance tests.