BIRMINGHAM 26 April - NEC Group – the UK’s leading live events business – today announced a long-term partnership with AXS, a global leader in ticketing, to provide an enhanced event experience for millions of NEC Group visitors to two of the UK’s largest venues, the Resorts World Arena and Utilita Arena Birmingham. Fans will now benefit from AXS’ patented identity-based ticketing solution, AXS Mobile ID, with peer-to-peer transfer capability and integrated ethical resale through the AXS Official Resale offering.
As part of the deal, AXS will assume the management of ticketing operations previously handled by the NEC Group’s internal ticketing arm, The Ticket Factory. AXS will establish a ticketing hub in Birmingham adjacent to the NEC Campus to add to their locations in London and Manchester. Furthermore, as part of this partnership, all existing employee roles within The Ticket Factory at the NEC Group will seamlessly transfer to AXS.
Mel Smith, CEO, NEC Group, said: “We want to make every customer’s experience brilliant, from the moment they think about buying a ticket, to the experience they have at our venues, and every interaction beyond. The AXS platform opens new and exciting opportunities for us to connect with customers and enhance their journey with us. We are delighted AXS has chosen to establish a centre of ticketing operations in Birmingham and look forward to a long-term partnership for the benefit of customers and the community.”
Bryan Perez, CEO, AXS, said: “We have long admired the NEC Group and The Ticket Factory and are therefore thrilled to welcome them into the AXS family. We share their vision for transforming the entire customer journey for fans at Resorts World Arena and Utilita Arena Birmingham and look forward to deploying our industry leading AXS Mobile ID for fans and Apex platform for arenas to meet that goal. We are also excited to establish another base of operations in the West Midlands that will help grow and service our partners throughout the UK.”
For NEC Group media enquiries, please contact: Teneo necgroup@teneo.com
For AXS media enquiries, please contact: Candace Cunningham ccunningham@axs.com
ABOUT THE NEC GROUP
NEC Group is the UK’s leading live events business with forty-five years of venue and destination management. Every year, millions of visitors, fans, and enthusiasts come together at our five leading business, leisure, and entertainment venues which are the best connected in Europe - the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), International Convention Centre (ICC), Vox Conference Venue (Vox), Resorts World Arena and Utilita Arena Birmingham. Learn more at necgroup.co.uk.
ABOUT AXS
AXS is a global ticketing platform, offering best-in-class ticketing, marketing, and data technology in a single platform to suit every client size and type, from the most intimate music clubs to world championship sporting events. As the ticketing partner for over 500 premier venues, sports teams, and event organizers across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, AXS powers both primary and resale marketplaces, leveraging integrated technology and analytics to enable our partners to sell the right ticket to the right fan at the right price. Clients include USGA, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Crypto.com Arena, Coachella, Stagecoach, Stockholm Live, The O2, and B. League (Japan). Learn more at axs.com.