Event ticketing & entertainment
Case Study: The Ticket to Catch a Big Fish
How performance testing took a Middle East event-ticketing platform from a routine migration check to passing Formula 1's compliance gate
- Middle East
- PHP
- AWS
- 2018-2024
Concurrent visitors validated: 5,000
Engagement summary
| Phase | Challenge | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 - Migration | New framework, unknown performance ceiling | Stable site under load, ready for production |
| Phase 2 - Stadium Sales | 30,000-100,000 seats sold in first-hour spikes | Queueing system + rebuilt seat-map flow shipped |
| Phase 3 - Formula 1 Deal | Hard sign-off requirement: 5,000 concurrent visitors | Requirement met - F1 licensing secured |
Phase 1 - Stabilizing the Foundation
The client was migrating its event-ticketing platform from a legacy codebase to a new PHP framework hosted on AWS in the Middle East region. Before launch, they needed confidence that the rebuilt site could hold up under real-world traffic.
What we delivered
- A full performance test suite tailored to the new framework
- Multiple rounds of load testing to surface and resolve bottlenecks
- A stabilized site ready for production traffic
Key outcomes
- Migration risk reduced - performance validated before go-live
- Reusable test suite established as a baseline for future releases
- Foundation laid for the larger scaling challenges to come
Phase 2 - Surviving the Stadium Sales Spike
A year later, the platform faced a much bigger test: selling 30,000 to 100,000 stadium seats, with the overwhelming majority of demand hitting in the first hour of sales. The existing architecture could not handle the seat-map interactions at that scale.
What we delivered
- Designed and validated a customer queueing mechanism triggered once visitor limits were reached
- Supported a rebuild of the seat-map selection flow for high concurrency
- Load-tested the new approach against realistic first-hour traffic spikes
Key outcomes
- Platform survived peak first-hour demand without collapse
- Fair, orderly access for customers during high-demand launches
- Seat-map architecture rebuilt to scale to six-figure inventories
Phase 3 - The Formula 1 Deal
To represent Formula 1 ticket sales, the client had to meet a strict, non-negotiable licensing requirement: the site had to demonstrably handle 5,000 concurrent online visitors, with performance test results required as evidence for sign-off.
What we delivered
- Performance testing scoped specifically to the F1 sign-off criteria
- Documented test results submitted as compliance evidence
- Validation that the platform met the 5,000-concurrent-user threshold
Key outcomes
- F1 compliance requirement passed on the strength of test evidence
- Licensing secured - client cleared to sell Formula 1 tickets
- Multi-year track record of performance reliability across three major milestones
Sectors we have supported
- Entertainment & ticketing
- Media & broadcasting
- Theatre & live events
- Finance
- Telecommunications
- Cosmetics & retail
- Mobile apps
- Healthcare
- Banking
- Oil & gas