The connected stadium is no longer a promise. The LDLC Arena opened in Lyon in 2024 with native 5G connectivity and interactive screens built in from the design stage. The Accor Arena in Paris has been rethinking its spectator journey for several seasons. The Stade de France tested real-time activations during the Rugby World Cup. The digital transformation of France’s large venues is under way, but it is still far from uniform. Between the venues that have invested heavily and those that have not yet taken the step, the gap widens with every event.
Key takeaways
- 🏟️ Going digital is not just about connectivity: the whole spectator journey is concerned, from the ticket to the exit.
- 📱 The smartphone is now the first point of contact between the spectator and the venue, before they even walk through the gates.
- 💰 Ancillary revenue is the main driver of investment: engagement, activatable sponsorship, data collection. Digital opens revenue streams the ticket alone cannot.
- ⚡ Frictionless solutions are the most adopted: anything that requires a download or a long sign-up is massively abandoned by the public.
Connected stadium: a structural delay that is starting to close
For a long time, the digital transformation of large French venues was held back by very concrete constraints: old buildings that are hard to wire, tight operating budgets, and a sector culture unused to thinking in terms of user experience. The stadium or the concert hall was a container; what mattered was the content. The artist. The team. The match.
That logic collapsed with the rise of at-home alternatives. When a fan can watch a match in 4K from the sofa, with live statistics and several camera angles, simply being in a stadium is no longer enough to justify the trip. The venue has to offer something irreplaceable, and that something increasingly runs through digital.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games accelerated this awareness. Several Olympic sites served as laboratories for interactive set-ups, real-time activations and connected experiences that proved their effectiveness with the French general public.
The three priorities of large venues
Connectivity as the basic infrastructure
Nothing is possible without a network. A spectator with no signal in a stadium is a frustrated spectator, and a frustrated spectator will not take part in any digital activation, share anything on social media or look at the content the venue offers. Connectivity is the absolute prerequisite, not an option.
The most advanced venues have deployed dense Wi-Fi architectures and 5G coverage in partnership with operators. The LDLC Arena in Décines-Charpieu is probably the most accomplished French example, designed from the outset to host a complete digital experience. For most existing venues, however, upgrading the network remains an expensive and technically complex project.
Digital activation during the event
Once the network is in place, the question becomes: what do we offer spectators on their screens? This is where approaches diverge. Some venues bet on proprietary apps, with mixed results, as download rates remain structurally low. Others chose solutions that open directly in the browser, with no friction at the entrance.
The formats that work best are those that fit naturally into the flow of the event: the man-of-the-match vote launched at half-time, the quiz about the artist shown during the changeover, the prediction opened as soon as people enter the venue. These activations, reached through a simple QR code from the seat, create a link between what happens on stage or on the pitch and what each spectator experiences individually.
This is exactly the logic behind Luckysit: a library of games and activations that can be launched during the highlights and the downtime of an event, with no app to download, accessible from any smartphone. For a fan experience manager, it is a turnkey engagement infrastructure, with no dependency on an internal technical team.
Monetising the new interactions
Digital must not be a cost: it must generate revenue. That is the reasoning most directors of large venues now follow, and it is well founded. Every interactive activation is a visibility surface for a sponsor. Every participation generates data. Every piece of data has commercial value.
An advertiser funding a sponsored quiz during a Ligue 1 match in front of 40,000 spectators is not paying for a logo on a board: it is paying for a direct interaction with an engaged audience, in a strong emotional context. This logic of monetising waiting time and highlights is becoming a standard in large sports and music venues.
What venue managers really expect
Solutions that do not depend on IT
One of the obstacles most often cited by fan experience managers and venue directors is dependency on technical teams. Deploying a new digital solution often takes months of integration, IT department approval and a separate IT budget. In a sector where events follow one another at a sustained pace, that tempo is incompatible with operational reality.
The solutions that progress fastest are those that can be activated autonomously, with no particular technical skill: a link, a QR code, a set-up in a few clicks. The SaaS promise applied to live events: deploying in minutes what would have taken weeks of development ten years ago.
Data that is usable, not just collected
Collecting data at an event only has value if that data is accessible, structured and actionable. A raw CSV export that nobody processes is not a data strategy; it is the illusion of one. The most advanced venues have connected their engagement tools to their CRM, their emailing tools and their analytics platforms, so that every spectator interaction enriches a usable profile in real time.
This approach meets the challenges of first party data collection head on: what counts is not the volume of data but its quality, and the ability to use it to personalise the relationship with the spectator over the long term.
Is your venue ready for digital engagement?
See how arenas and concert venues use Luckysit to engage their audience, collect qualified data and strengthen their offer to advertisers.
Frequently asked questions about the connected stadium and digital arenas
What does the digital transformation of a stadium or an arena mean?
Going digital in a sports or music venue covers several realities: upgrading connectivity (Wi-Fi, 5G), deploying interactive tools for spectators, managing the journey digitally (ticketing, catering, cloakrooms) and collecting data to know and retain the audience. It is a global project that touches both the infrastructure and the spectator experience.
How do you engage fans in a stadium during a match?
The most effective formats are those with no friction: a QR code from the seat, quick games (prediction, man-of-the-match vote, quiz), results shown on the big screen. Collective interactivity, seeing your answers compared with the rest of the crowd, creates a dynamic that strengthens the sense of belonging to the venue and extends engagement well beyond the final whistle.
Can digital activations generate revenue in an arena?
Yes. Interactive activations create premium visibility spaces for sponsors, well beyond the advertising board. A sponsored quiz, a co-branded wheel of fortune or a game with partner prizes generate a direct interaction between the advertiser and the audience, which can be sold commercially. On top of that comes the value of the data collected, usable for future partnerships.
Do you need an app to offer digital activations in a concert venue?
No, and it is even counterproductive. Download rates of event apps rarely exceed 10% of the audience present. Browser-based solutions, where a simple QR code is enough, reach much higher participation rates, with no friction at the entrance and no technical constraint for the venue.
