Foursquare adds events with Songkick, ESPN and MovieTickets deals

Users can now check in to gigs, films and sports matches when visiting specific venues.

Social location service Foursquare is adding context to its check-ins, via deals with Songkick, ESPN and MovieTickets.com.

The partnerships will pull in data on music concerts, sporting events and movies and associate them with specific venues in Foursquare's database.

"Now, when you check in to a place with one of those things happening, you’ll be able to check in to the event, too," explains the Foursquare blog. "It’s a great way to include big events and save the shout-typing time, without creating too much clutter in our UI. And we’re looking at ways to expand that further."

So, users can now check in to - for example - Lady Gaga at Wembley Arena, rather than just Wembley Arena. For now, the events functionality is only available in the iPhone version of Foursquare, but it will come to other platforms in the near future.

It's an important step for Foursquare, which is facing competition from Facebook Places. Facebook execs have spoken publicly about their desire to get people checking in to events as well as places.