Gamification and sport: activating a venue during downtime

Gamification in sport consists in filling the downtime of a match — pre-match, half-time, stoppages — with a phone game that identifies the spectator and showcases a partner. It is played by QR code, without an app, in under a minute, and is measured in participants and clicks.

Why is downtime the most under-used moment of a match?

Because the audience is there, but nobody speaks to it. During play, all attention goes to the pitch; no set-up should divert it. Before kick-off, at half-time, during an injury or a video review, the spectator is seated, phone in hand, with nothing to watch. It is the only window when the venue can offer them something else without taking anything away from the show.

The scale is known. In Ligue 1, average attendance reached 27,505 spectators per match at mid-season 2025/26, with an occupancy rate of 88%, according to the report published by the LFP on 13 January 2026. Most clubs know nothing about these spectators, beyond the number of tickets sold.

Gamification, as defined in our guide to gamification, serves to turn these minutes into three measurable things: an identified contact for the club or the operator, a qualified exposure for the partner, a reason to come back for the next match.

Which mechanics work in a venue? The 8 formats

A venue imposes its own rules: a loaded mobile network, an audience standing or packed in, noise, and a game that must end before play resumes. Eight formats hold up.

1. Match prediction. The spectator gives the score before kick-off. It is played at the calmest moment of the evening and creates a reason to follow the match to the end.
2. Match MVP. The audience votes for the best player in the final minutes. The result is announced over the microphone or on the big screen: the vote has a visible consequence.
3. The Live quiz. The same questions for the whole stand, at the same time, with a leaderboard displayed at half-time.
4. The Solo quiz. The same principle, but everyone plays at their own pace, whenever they want. It suits boxes and lounges better, where the audience is not synchronised.
5. The Wheel of fortune. An immediate draw, a partner prize. The shortest mechanic for collecting quickly.
6. Guess the price. The spectator estimates the price of a partner’s product. The brand is at the heart of the game without a single line of advertising.
7. The Digital tifo. The phone screens together form an image or a colour in the stand. No prize: the reward is the collective spectacle.
8. The Fan Cam. The spectator sends a selfie from their phone; after moderation, it appears on the big screen. The kiss cam, selfie version.

The Question of the day completes the list for events that last several days — trade shows, tournaments, festivals — with one question per day and a draw at the end.

What does not work in a venue, and why?

Failures in a venue rarely come from the game, almost always from the context.

A game that overruns into the restart. If the quiz is not finished when the players come back onto the pitch, the spectator chooses the match, and they are right.

A QR code that nobody sees. This is the first cause of failure. A code displayed for thirty seconds on the big screen just as the audience gets up for the refreshment stand will be scanned by nobody. The next section details where and when to place it.

An app to download. The occasional spectator will not do it for a half-time game. Only a web page opened by QR code gets past this barrier, as detailed in our article on download-free gamification.

A prize unrelated to the audience. An online discount voucher does not interest a supporter in the stands. A signed shirt or a seat in a box does.

And an unrealistic expectation. At events run by Luckysit, 15 to 25% of the audience plays and leaves their data depending on the event. A set-up that convinces one spectator in five has succeeded.

Where to place QR codes in a venue so that they are seen?

A game is only as good as the visibility of its entry point. Each area has its moment, its audience and its constraints; the principle remains the same: the QR code must be where the spectator has their eyes free and their phone in hand.

Location	Useful moment	Audience reached	Constraint to respect	Suitable format
Big screen	Pre-match, half-time, stoppages	The whole crowd, at the same time	Code displayed long enough, over several passes, instruction in one line	Live quiz, MVP, Digital tifo, Fan Cam
Box and lounge screens	Pre-match, half-time, post-match	Seated audience, guests or season-ticket holders, high value to partners	Sound is often off: the instruction must be readable on its own	Solo quiz, Question of the day, Guess the price
Entrance and access queues	Before doors open and at the check	Almost the whole audience, in the same place	The spectator keeps moving: the game must be resumable once seated	Match prediction
Refreshment stands and catering	Half-time	Audience waiting, standing	Signage near the queues, at eye level	Wheel of fortune, Guess the price

Two rules complete this table. First, the same game but a distinct link per location: it is the only way to know where participants come from, and to remove the location that produces nothing. Second, an identical instruction everywhere, in one sentence: “Scan, play, win a shirt”. The spectator must not have to think.

On our own records, the consequence is direct. At Allianz Riviera, in summer 2026, the QR code was deployed in three areas: the lounges, the boxes and the fan zone. The results of those evenings therefore relate to that audience, not to the stadium’s capacity. Without a documented location, no participation figure can be related to attendance.

The big screen, the phone, or both?

Both, with distinct roles. The phone is where you play, identify yourself and click through to a partner. The big screen is where the game becomes collective: the quiz leaderboard, the MVP vote, the Fan Cam photo, the tifo.

The phone alone works, but stays individual. The screen alone catches the eye without measuring anything. Together, the screen makes people want to play, and the phone turns that wish into an identified participant.

If the big screen cannot be negotiated with the operator, you compensate with the other locations in the table: the game will work, but will reach fewer people at once.

What results in rugby? The case of Stade Français Paris and RC Strasbourg

At Stade Français Paris and RC Strasbourg events run by Luckysit, average engagement is 15% of the audience (internal data). The games, launched by QR code during match downtime, required no download.

This figure says two things. A rugby audience, less used to mobile games than an esports audience, takes part when access is immediate. And 15% of a stand means as many contacts that the club did not know, at every match, with their consent.

What it does not say: what those contacts became after the match. That is the next measurement to put in place, by cross-referencing participants with ticketing for the following match.

What does gamification bring the sponsor?

Three things that an LED board does not give.

Measured attention. The partner knows how many spectators saw its advert and how many clicked. At three concerts at Allianz Riviera, in summer 2026, 45 to 47% of the spectators who discovered the experience in the equipped areas saw the ticketing advert; 2.4 to 2.6% of those clicked. At the trade shows hosted in the same stadium, the click rate rose to 5 to 9%: a professional audience, smaller in number, clicks more.

A presence in the game itself. A Guess the price on a partner’s product, a Wheel of fortune with its prizes, a quiz question about its brand: the partner does not interrupt the experience, it is part of it.

Contacts, with consent. A spectator who ticks the partner’s opt-in box becomes a contact the brand can use. The club or the operator then sells the activation as a collection tool, not only as visibility.

How these set-ups fit into the spectator’s overall experience — from arrival at the stadium to the return for the next match — and how clubs and operators monetise them, is the subject of our page Fan Experience: Engaging Audiences and Monetising Downtime. Other cases, outside sport, appear in our 15 examples of gamification that work.

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