The Oakland Athletics have become the first Major League Baseball club to implement the full functionality of Tickets.com’s ProVenueMobile to enable mobile commerce.

Tickets.com claims to be the only ticketing provider in North America to offer client-branded Web site mobilization. Using this technology, Athletics fans can complete full-circle, real-time ticket transactions from select Internet-enabled mobile devices without downloading an application.

“Tickets.com provides industry-leading technologies that enable the A’s to offer the latest advances in ticketing to their fans,” said Steve Fanelli, executive director of ticket sales and operations at Tickets.com, Costa Mesa, CA. “The A’s are continually trying to make the purchase process easy, convenient and capitalize on impulse purchase decisions.

“The advancement and prevalence of mobile devices allows them to provide fans new channels to buy tickets in a secure and comfortable transaction,” he said. “Further, with Tickets @ Phone, fans can have the actual ticket delivered to the same mobile device in order complete the full circle transaction without having to print at home, stop by will call or wait for a physical ticket to arrive in the mail.

“It’s instant gratification for the buyer—our consumers have demonstrated a predominance to transact via the Internet and we are supplying them the ability to go mobile.”

Tickets.com, a privately held subsidiary of MLB Advanced Media LP, is a provider of integrated event ticketing services for arts, entertainment and sports organizations worldwide.

Its ProVenue ticketing platform is the core of a suite of integrated features, products and services designed to help clients enhance ticket sales, marketing efforts and overall customer experience.

Tickets.com claims to be the only ticket provider in the United States to enable ticket delivery to a mobile device.

Mobile ticketing is a homerun
The A’s strategy behind integrating ProVenueMobile is obvious. The team is now able to drive and process ticket sales via the mobile channel to reach baseball fans on the go.

ProVenueMobile enables customers to buy tickets anytime, anywhere.

The mobile site is targeting mobile-savvy, on-the-go baseball fans.

ProVenueMobile lets fans buy tickets from their mobile devices and have them electronically delivered via a 2D bar code ticket to that device.

A’s fans go to the mobile Web site and select the game they want to buy tickets for.

Then, fans go through the purchase process. If they have an MLB.com log-in, their customer information is stored and there is no need to re-enter their credit card information.

In addition to their being the first to adopt ProVenueMobile, the Athletics were also the first Tickets.com client to offer Tickets @ Phone when the delivery channel was originally introduced in 2007.

Using Tickets @ Phone, search, selection, payment and ticket delivery can be done directly through the Athletics mobile Web site at http://wap.oaklandathletics.com without the need to click-to-call or access a computer.

The fans can choose any of the delivery options that are available on the regular A’s Web site, including Tickets @ Phone mobile ticket delivery, in which the barcode will be delivered directly to their mobile phones using SMS or MMS.

Tickets.com expects it will launch the ProVenueMobile service for other MLB clubs on its client roster before the start of the 2010 baseball season.

The A’s are looking to highlight the technology on their Web site and in-stadium. The team is also considering text-message alerts.

“The A’s are also hoping to offer special ticket discounts for select games at some point to fans that choose to purchase and have tickets delivered through the mobile channel,” Mr. Fanelli said.

“Tickets.com is helping to support the launch by making the A’s mobile site accessible through the Tickets.com mobile site,” he said.