New fan loyalty program boosts behavior and revenue for Club Brugge 

Project summary

Club Brugge is a professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. Founded in 1891, the club plays in the Pro League, the top tier of Belgian football.

The club runs a fan engagement program called Club Loyalty - a direct manifestation of Club Brugge's aim to be "Europe's most innovative, efficient and sustainable football company by creating value for its fans, partners, team and society".

"(...) a fan is not a customer, it's a sensitive relationship when it comes to spending budget. You need to make sure that the added value that you provide back to a fan, matches the perception of what the fan invested in his fan journey. And that's what we are trying to do by listening to their feedback."

Thomas Rypens
Innovation & Insights Director at Club Brugge

Relevant trend: App-first strategy

By building a custom mobile app that serves as the central digital hub or "personal wallet" for all loyalty points, cash back, and digital tickets, the club prioritizes a modern, integrated fan experience over off-the-shelf solutions.

"(...) we have an app-first strategy. So everything we do needs to end up in the app. And that's also one of the reasons why we've decided to build a custom app and did not choose an off the shelf solution. We want to control the roadmap ourselves.

Because for us, the app is really your personal wallet. It shows your loyalty points, shows what money you earned with your Club Brugge Pay card. But it also gives you digital access to your tickets, content, et cetera. So it's really the hub where fans can find everything within their own personal journey. Fans carry their phones 24/7. That makes us accessible at all times for fans."

Thomas Rypens
Innovation & Insights Director at Club Brugge

Key results

Here are the most important Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) achieved with the Club Loyalty Program:

Matchday attendance‍

• 8% more fans visiting the stadium on matchdays
• 84.67% visited the stadium on matchday with the program
• 76.7% visited the stadium on matchday before the program

Spend Per Fan (merchandise, F&B)

• 13.3% increase in spend since the program launch

Early arrival at the stadium‍

• 9.2% more fans arrive at least 30 minutes before the game
• 43.4% of fans arrive early with the program
• 34.2% of fans arrived early before the program

Ticket release

• 17% more fans release tickets with the program
• 52.71% increase in resold tickets (now included in the loyalty program)
• 11.5% increase in matchday attendance

"From those 17% more release tickets, we've seen 52% more resold tickets. That, and growing matchday attendance, increased our attendance with about 11% in our season ticket holder attendance. So yes, that's been massive for us."

‍Thomas Rypens
Innovation & Insights Director at Club Brugge