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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter

THE Premier Soccer League (PSL) has partnered with NMB Bank to introduce an electronic ticketing system to ease transactions at turnstiles.

The electronic ticketing system, which is in the form of a “tap and go” card, also seeks to increase revenue collection and efficiency on match days.

On Sunday, Highlanders lost potential revenue when scores of fans were turned away after failing to buy tickets for the match against TelOne using Ecocash at Barbourfields Stadium.

PSL chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele yesterday said they are gradually introducing the “tap and go” system, which will be convenient for fans and clubs.

“We are working on having an electronic ticketing system in the form of a tap and go card; the one that is being used to pay in Zupco buses and at tollgates. The system is convenient, as it doesn’t have network connectivity challenges. It is also faster than swipe or mobile money payment methods,” said Ndebele.

“What happens is that a person preloads money into the card at any NMB branch. Because it’s a pin-less card, at present the daily limit is $100. We hope the fans will find value in this system,” he said.

The tap and go card payment was trialed during last week’s Herentals and Highlanders league match that ended 1-1 at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.

Ndebele said due to erratic mobile network connections at various stadia, they had been forced to halt livestreaming of Premiership games.

On the possibility of introducing pre-match ticket sales, Ndebele said: “Even presales require network connection for validation of the tickets.”

Early this year the PSL ran a trial run for electronic ticketing allowing fans to purchase tickets in advance from anywhere in the country.

The facility was available to Econet subscribers and allowed fans to choose the match they wanted to watch as well as the number of tickets to purchase. 

After payment, a confirmation message with a unique ticket ID was sent to the user containing the match details.

Verification and validation of tickets was done at the gates upon presentation of the unique ticket ID number received via SMS upon purchase of the ticket.

However, the PSL was forced to abort that system due to network glitches. — @ZililoR