Penetration Testing for UK Sports, Venues & Events
CREST-accredited penetration testing for UK sports clubs, governing bodies, stadiums and arenas, festival and event organisers, and the ticketing platforms selling into them. Evidence for UK GDPR Article 32 across ticketing and box office, fan and membership accounts, resale and transfer marketplaces and event-day entry systems, with ticket-holder, venue-staff and organiser roles kept separate throughout. We test the logic that decides who can buy, transfer or enter, not the load your infrastructure carries on a big on-sale day.
- Unlimited retesting
- Unlimited pre-retesting
- No hidden fees
“I would highly recommend EJN Labs to any organisation seeking reliable, detailed, and well-managed penetration testing services, particularly for government or enterprise-level projects.”
“There wasn’t another company we could find that could deliver what we needed in the timeframe we needed. The client loved it, and we got instant ROI from the engagement.”
distinct roles we test for privilege separation across a ticketing and venue platform: ticket-holder, box office or customer-service staff, gate or steward staff, event organiser or promoter, and reseller or resale-partner access.
What UK GDPR, PCI DSS & Cyber Insurance Expect
UK GDPR Article 32. Ticket-holder, fan and membership data, including purchase history, payment details and safeguarding information held for under-18 ticket holders, is personal data. Article 32(1)(d) requires a process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of your security measures. It does not name penetration testing as the method, but a test is the most direct evidence that your controls work. See our GDPR penetration testing page. UK GDPR Article 32.
PCI DSS. Where your ticketing platform or box office takes card payments directly, PCI DSS Requirement 11.4.1 requires a documented penetration testing methodology, and Requirements 11.4.2 and 11.4.3 require internal and external testing at least every 12 months and after significant change. Not every ticketing checkout sits in PCI scope; your QSA or acquiring bank confirms that. See our PCI DSS penetration testing page and the PCI Security Standards Council.
Cyber Essentials & cyber insurance. In our experience, some venue operators, governing bodies and corporate sponsors ask a ticketing or venue-technology supplier to hold Cyber Essentials Plus before they engage. Cyber Essentials Plus is an assessor-led technical audit, not a penetration test. We certify firms directly as an IASME Cyber Essentials certification body. Separately, some UK cyber insurance applications ask whether you conduct vulnerability assessments or penetration tests and remediate critical findings. Requirements vary by insurer and policy, and we document findings and remediation against the specific questions your broker or insurer asks. DUAL cyber proposal form.
Who we test for. Sports clubs and governing bodies, stadiums and arenas, festival and event organisers, ticketing and box-office platforms, and secondary ticketing or resale marketplaces. For fan and membership accounts see our customer portal page, and for booking and inventory logic see our booking platform page.
SCOPE
What We Test for UK Sports, Venues & Events
Ticketing & Box Office
Ticket sales, box office systems and guest-list management. Ticket duplication and QR or barcode reuse, inventory races during on-sale windows, discount and promo-code abuse, and reseller workflow integrity.
Fan & Membership Accounts
Season-ticket holder accounts, club membership platforms and loyalty schemes. Account takeover, membership-tier and benefit-entitlement tampering, and IDOR across fan and membership records.
Resale & Transfer Marketplaces
Official and partner ticket resale or transfer marketplaces. Listing and pricing manipulation, transfer-token reuse, seller and buyer boundary testing, and payout integrity between the marketplace and ticket-holders.
Event-Day Entry & Access Control
Turnstiles, NFC wristbands, QR scanners and accreditation systems used on event day. Credential and QR-code reuse, device-to-backend authentication, and steward or gate-staff role boundaries. We test the logic that decides who can enter, not a load or capacity test of your infrastructure.
Payments & PCI Scope
Ticket purchase and add-on payment flows, including card payments taken directly by your box office or platform. OWASP Top 10, payment-state tampering, and refund or cancellation-fee abuse.
Partner & Venue APIs
APIs behind ticketing platforms, venue management systems and partner or affiliate integrations. OWASP API Top 10 testing for object-level authorisation, rate and quota abuse, and the trust boundary between your platform and partner systems.
Cloud Infrastructure for Ticketing Platforms
AWS, Azure and GCP configuration behind ticketing and venue-management platforms. IAM scoping, encryption at rest, audit logging and autoscaling configuration ahead of high-demand on-sale events.
Phishing Defence
Targeted phishing simulation against box office, finance and venue operations staff, using event-sector-aware lures such as supplier invoice fraud and fake ticket-platform support requests.
OUR PROCESS
From Scope to Attestation in 4-6 Weeks
Scoping Call
30-minute technical scoping call covering ticketing, fan accounts, resale marketplaces and event-day entry systems in scope, rules of engagement, and safe testing windows around live on-sale dates and events. Fixed-price quote within 24 hours.
Active Testing
3-15 days of hands-on testing by CREST-certified UK-based pen testers, against non-production environments or a defined safe-test window around live on-sale periods and events. Daily status updates.
Reporting
Executive summary plus full technical report with CVSS scores, reproduction steps, screenshots, and specific remediation. 60-minute walkthrough call.
Free Retest
After remediation, we retest at no extra charge. Letter of attestation provided for buyer due diligence, cyber insurance underwriting, or governing-body assurance requests.
CREDENTIALS
Verified Accreditations Auditors Accept
Every credential below is independently verifiable. UK procurement teams, FCA supervisors, ISO 27001 / SOC 2 auditors, and cyber insurance underwriters all recognise these standards.
GET YOUR QUOTE
Get a CREST Sports, Venues & Events pen test quote in 24 hours
A fixed-price quote back in one business day, from a named CREST assessor. No sales pipeline, no chasing.
- CREST and IASME accredited. Testing your auditors and clients already recognise.
- Fast-track testing within 24 hours where required. Free retest of every fix included.
- Live findings via your client portal, not a four-week PDF.
- Fixed price from £3,500 for a single-role, single-app scope, agreed up front. Most engagements run £5,000 and up. No day-rate surprises.
Dan WilcocksonFounder, CelloriUnder NDA Further named references available on a scoping call.
- We reply within one business day with a fixed-price quote from a named CREST assessor.
- You approve the scope and we book a start date, usually within 24 hours.
- Live findings land in your client portal as we test, with a free retest of every fix.
Get your fixed pen test quote in 24 hours
Quote request received
We will reply within one business day with your fixed-price quote from a named CREST assessor.
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or book a 20-min scoping call first
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COMPLIANCE READY
Reports Aligned to Every Framework
Findings map to specific control references in each framework, so your audit team submits the report directly without translation work.
UK GDPR
Article 32(1)(d) evidence that you regularly test the effectiveness of your security measures, for ticket-holder and fan data.
PCI DSS
Requirement 11.4 evidence of a documented penetration testing methodology, where your ticketing platform or box office sits inside the cardholder data environment.
Cyber Essentials Plus
An assessor-led technical audit, not a penetration test. Often asked for by venue operators and corporate sponsors. Certified directly by us as an IASME certification body.
Cyber Insurance
Findings and remediation documented against the questions on your proposal form. Requirements vary by insurer and policy.
ISO 27001
Annex A 8.8 technical vulnerability management, once you declare that control applicable.
Governing Body & Venue Due Diligence
In our experience, sports governing bodies and venue operators increasingly ask for independent security testing evidence as part of supplier and partner due diligence.
PRICING
Indicative Engagement Pricing
Fixed-price quotes confirmed during scoping. Free retest, executive summary, walkthrough call, and letter of attestation included.
Depends on service + scope
External / web / API / mobile single-target engagement. CREST-certified delivery. Around 3 to 5 working days from kickoff to report.
Get a fixed quoteDepends on service + scope
Multi-target combined engagement (web + API + external + AD), or single complex target. Typically 7-10 days.
Get a fixed quoteDepends on service + scope
Full-stack engagement (multiple cloud accounts, hybrid AD, complex web + API + mobile). Typically 12-15+ days.
Get a fixed quoteWHY EJN LABS
What You Get From Sports, Venues & Events Penetration Testing
Six concrete differentiators competitors don’t all match.
CREST-Certified Testers, Verifiable
Every test by a CREST-certified pen tester (CRT, CCT APP, CCT INF where applicable). Verify our company status at crest-approved.org.
24-Hour Startup, Where Required
From signed scope to active testing in a single business day for incident response, audit deadlines, or regulator-driven timelines.
Live Findings, Not 4-Week PDFs
Critical issues reported during testing through your client portal. Your team remediates while testing continues.
Audit-Ready Reports
Executive summary plus full technical report with CVSS scores and explicit framework mappings (ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, FCA SYSC).
Free Retests, Standard
Verify remediation of every finding before close-out. Letter of attestation for audit submission included. Most competitors charge £1,500-£3,000 per retest.
UK-Based CREST Testers
Every engagement performed by vetted, UK-based CREST-certified testers, matched to your needs, security clearance, and compliance scope.
FAQ
Frequently Asked
Which sports, venue and events organisations do you test for?
Sports clubs and governing bodies, stadiums and arenas, festival and event organisers, ticketing and box-office platforms, and secondary ticketing or resale marketplaces.
What does a ticketing or venue test check that a standard web app test does not?
Ticket duplication and QR or barcode reuse, inventory races during on-sale windows, reseller and resale-marketplace workflow integrity, and the role boundaries between ticket-holders, box office staff, stewards and event organisers.
Do you load-test our platform ahead of a big on-sale?
No. We test the logic that decides who can buy, transfer or enter, such as inventory races, queue-bypass and duplicate-ticket issues, rather than running a load or capacity test of your infrastructure under peak on-sale demand. If you need capacity or load testing ahead of a major on-sale, that sits with your infrastructure or hosting provider.
Can you test our official resale or ticket transfer marketplace before a major on-sale?
Yes. We test listing and pricing manipulation, transfer-token reuse, and the seller and buyer boundaries in an official resale or transfer marketplace, scoped and reported ahead of your on-sale date where timelines allow.
How do you handle safeguarding data for under-18 ticket holders or academy players?
We ask for a non-production environment with synthetic data wherever the platform stores safeguarding or under-18 information. Production testing of that data only goes ahead with explicit approval and a restricted scope.
Can you test event-day entry systems like NFC wristbands or turnstile scanners?
Yes. We test the backend and device-to-backend authentication behind wristband, QR and turnstile entry systems: credential and QR-code reuse, device enrolment and steward or gate-staff role boundaries. We do not run entry hardware to failure or generate a live crowd load on your gates.
What’s in the report?
Executive summary (board-ready), technical report with CVSS 3.1 scores, reproduction steps, screenshots, specific remediation guidance, and a 60-minute walkthrough call. Letter of attestation issued after free retest.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes. We sign client-supplied NDAs as standard. Engagement data is protected under our ISO 27001 (BSI-audited) information security management system.
How quickly can you start?
From signed scope to active testing in 24 hours where required. Standard pipeline is 3-5 business days from initial scoping call to test start.
Are your testers UK-based and what certifications do they hold?
Every engagement is performed by vetted UK-based CREST-certified testers matched to your engagement based on security clearance, compliance scope, and sector specialism. Testers hold CREST certifications relevant to their discipline (CRT, CCT APP, CCT INF, CCSAM).
20+ CREST-accredited testing services in one place
Web, mobile, API, cloud, AI, infrastructure, red team. Pick the test that fits your environment.
Get my Sports, Venues & Events pen test scope
A CREST-certified UK-based pen tester will contact you within one business day with a fixed price aligned to your ticketing, venue and event-day needs.
