How Jetron Ticket Made Dave’s Lagos Shows a Seamless Experience

British-Nigerian rapper Santan Dave held his first-ever headline shows in Lagos, Nigeria, on the 16th and 17th of October. This special homecoming show brought a memorable close to The Boy Who Played The Harp tour. It’s no secret that the seamless ticketing and check-in for the event made the experience of this show remarkable for the fans, and behind it all was Jetron Ticket.

You may be wondering, "How did they pull this feat off?" In this interview, Damilola Jerugba (D), Jetron Ticket’s Founder & CTO; Kayode Babalola (K), the COO; and Rejoice Oyebode (R), the Client/Customer Success Manager, tell us how. From planning to building the technical and operational systems, they get into the nitty-gritty of how the team pulled it off.

Handling the ticketing for Dave’s show was an outstanding achievement for the company. Walk us through how it all began and the feeling when it was confirmed you would be handling the event.

K: It actually started way earlier than people think, almost an entire year in the making. When Live Nation and Massive Entertainment reached out to us regarding the event, we were very excited because this was an opportunity to show what exactly we could do if Jetron Ticket was used to its fullest capabilities. We already had a functioning seat map prior, but during the demos, they pointed us in the right direction, in turn improving the user experience around it. It was fun seeing everything come to life; it was months of iterations and demos before we got the finished product.

D: It was honestly a surreal feeling. I saw it as a major turning point for Jetron Ticket. Over the years, we've worked really hard to prove ourselves, particularly when it comes to our technology, our ability to innovate, and how forward-thinking we are as a company. So when the opportunity came, I saw it as a chance to show the world what we'd been building and what we were truly capable of.

Of course, there was a mixture of excitement and nervousness. We were working with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, and with that comes a lot of pressure and expectations. But underneath all that excitement and anxiety, I was confident in our team and our technology. I knew we had what it took to deliver.

Talk to us about what it was like working with Massive Entertainment and Live Nation, a multinational company known to be associated with Ticketmaster, the largest ticketing platform in the world.

D: Working with Live Nation and Massive Entertainment was an incredible experience. When I started Jetron Ticket, I used to wonder when we'd get the opportunity to sit in the same room as a company like Live Nation, one of the biggest concert promoters in the world. I didn't expect that opportunity to come so soon.

What stood out to me was the level of professionalism and experience everyone brought to the table. Working closely with Seun Babalola from Live Nation was particularly valuable. He shared a lot of insights into how ticketing works at a global scale, from the technical requirements to the overall customer experience.

The same goes for the Massive Entertainment team, Dave's representatives, and everyone else involved. There was a shared understanding of what we wanted to achieve, and everyone was committed to making it happen.

Tell us what the preparation process looked like for the team in the months leading up to the event.

D: There were really two major phases of preparation: getting ready for ticket sales and getting ready for the actual concerts.

On the technology side, we did extensive testing across the entire platform, from our frontend and backend services to the mobile app and the overall user experience. We also provisioned additional server resources because we couldn't predict exactly how much traffic we'd receive.

Our priority was simple: make sure everything worked as expected, make sure our infrastructure could handle the demand, and make sure our customer support team was prepared.

As we got closer to the concert dates, our focus shifted towards on-site operations. We were testing our ticket scanning systems, accreditation processes, and everything involved in getting thousands of people into the venue as smoothly as possible.

What risks did you identify beforehand, and what technologies were added? Also, how was the system rebuilt to make the experience better and handle the traffic?

D: We identified several risks early on, particularly around bots, server capacity, ticket fraud, and managing large volumes of traffic. We built quite a lot of new technology specifically to support events of this scale.

We introduced several layers of protection, including CAPTCHA verification and a system we built called FairPass, an additional identity verification step before customers can proceed with purchasing tickets.

We also developed a waiting room and queueing system to control how many people could access the purchasing process at once. During presale, for example, we could limit the number of people actively purchasing tickets to around 100 at a time, allowing us to manage traffic in a controlled way.

For ticket fraud, we also had security measures within our mobile app, including visual indicators that help distinguish active tickets from inactive ones, making it easier for our team to verify tickets.

Ultimately, our approach was to anticipate as many potential problems as possible and build safeguards before they became real issues. I believe that preparation played a major role in making the ticket-buying experience as smooth as it was.

Is there any new technology that was newly built into the system that you are really proud of?

D: Yes. Our interactive seating chart system is the one I'm personally most proud of. Seun from Live Nation wanted the ticket-buying experience to meet the standards people are familiar with on platforms like Ticketmaster. So we studied those processes, adapted the best parts of them, and built our own solution around the needs of the event.

Honestly, I was worried about the seating chart. Traditionally, a lot of ticket-buying experiences in Nigeria are quite straightforward. You select a ticket category, choose your quantity, and proceed to payment. I was concerned that introducing that additional level of choice might make the experience feel complicated for some users.

So we approached it from two angles. First, we studied established ticketing experiences, particularly Ticketmaster’s, and incorporated familiar design patterns.

Second, we gave customers an alternative. If you didn't want to manually select seats from the seating chart, you could simply choose the best available option, and our system would automatically assign seats based on proximity to the stage and availability.

Additionally, we carried out extensive user testing. That gave us a lot more confidence going into the sale because we weren't just assuming the experience was intuitive. We'd actually watched people use it and made improvements based on what we observed.

A lot of effort went into the preparation for ticket sales, so tell us, how did the presale go?

K: The presale day was very intense, mainly because it was like our systems were being put to the test. Every hand was on deck, from customer support to engineering, making sure we solved any problems that came up immediately as they were raised. We did a really good job in handling the first day of sales; our systems held out, and there were no server crash reports. I would consider that a success.

How were customer complaints handled, and what was done to ensure attendees received timely and helpful responses?

R: I believe handling customer complaints starts with trusting the systems in place and staying calm under pressure. People have different temperaments and levels of patience, so we made sure their mood or reactions didn’t affect our professionalism. Our focus is always on understanding the issue and resolving it efficiently.

We made sure to ask relevant questions and gather all the necessary information at once to avoid unnecessary back-and-forth. Multitasking was also a big part of it. To be honest, I usually have a mental queue running in my head, constantly arranging and rearranging tasks based on priority. I generally work with the FIFO (First In, First Out) principle, making sure people are attended to in the order they reach out. However, when an issue takes longer to resolve, or there’s a delay, I move to the next task rather than leave everyone else waiting. For the team, it’s basically a continuous process of queue management, prioritisation, and keeping track of pending issues until they’re resolved.

Sales had begun, and it was time to focus on the actual event. Tell us how the team coordinated with the organisers, security, and so on.

K: The organisers already had their plan for how they wanted their accreditation to flow; we came in to augment their ideas and also advise based on behaviours in the Nigerian market.

Training the gate staff didn’t take too long because the mobile app had already been made easy to use. We just let them know what to look out for and how to identify valid, scanned, and invalid tickets. Following that, we showed them which tags matched up with which tickets, and once they understood that, we ran demo scenarios with some of them to make sure they actually understood the system.

On the event day, how did the team manage the flow of attendees and coordinate ticket checks?

K: The tickets went through two stages of checks. The first was a quick check by security to make sure the person at the event had a valid ticket. Once that was complete, the guests proceeded to the actual check by the ticketing staff. If any issues occurred at the point of scanning, the person was not allowed to hold up the line; they were then sent to the help desk to resolve their issues. We aimed to make sure people with valid tickets did not spend more than 6 seconds in the queue from scanning to when they got tagged. That's why the help desk was created: to make sure issues are resolved without breaking the flow at the main access points.

Was there a moment when an adjustment had to be made to the original plan during the event? What prompted the change?

D: One of the unexpected challenges was managing the guest list. We had a guest list system in place, but the original process required us to manually assign seats to guests. We expected the number of guest list entries to be relatively manageable, so that approach seemed reasonable.

However, once we got to the event, the volume was much higher than anticipated, and that created some operational challenges on the first day. So, rather than continuing with the same process, we made changes to our system to simplify how guest list tickets and seating assignments were handled.

The difference on the second day was remarkable. Even though we had more attendees on day two, the entire operation felt significantly smoother. I'd honestly say it felt ten times better than the first day.

Looking back, what did this event teach you about ticketing in Nigeria specifically, and how would you approach future events?

K: It showed me how, with proper structure and planning, ticketing can be even smoother and more efficient. And if you have a reliable system, it makes your job 10x easier. The engineering team did a good job with the mobile app and ensuring all edge cases were considered, so when issues came up at the event, we could easily pinpoint and offer a solution to those issues.

D: The biggest lesson for me is that you shouldn't just prepare for what you expect to happen. You should also build systems and processes that can accommodate situations you haven't anticipated.

And that's exactly how we're approaching future events. Everything we learned from this experience is something we can build upon, so the next major concert we handle will benefit from everything we've already been through.

Overall, Jetron Ticket did a great job. What was the feedback from Live Nation and Massive Entertainment?

D: The feedback from them was overwhelmingly positive, and that was honestly one of the most rewarding parts of the entire experience. We received a lot of positive feedback from both organisations, Dave's team, and the agency representing him.

One thing that stood out was how much they appreciated our flexibility and ability to adapt to their requirements. Hearing that feedback from organisations with that level of experience was incredibly validating. It reinforced my belief that we're building something capable of competing at an international level.

What do you have to say about the Jetron Ticket team?

I honestly couldn't have asked for a better team. Everyone was incredible, from engineering to operations, customer support, and everyone else who played a role in making the event successful.

What made me particularly proud was the level of commitment, ownership, and willingness to go above and beyond what was expected of them. There were moments when we had to work under significant pressure, make quick decisions, build new features within tight deadlines, and solve problems in real time. And every single time, the team stepped up.

As the founder and CTO, there's a certain level of confidence that comes from knowing you have people around you who care just as much about the success of the company as you do. That's exactly how I felt throughout this entire experience, and I'm incredibly proud of everyone.

If there's one thing I'd change going forward, it's that I'd love to have more people like the ones we already have. Not because the current team isn't capable, but because they've shown me what we can achieve with the right people. Imagine what we could accomplish if we had even more talented, dedicated individuals who share that same mindset.