The news: Payments companies are investing in sport marketing to capture volume at lucrative stadiums and live events, per multiple press releases.
- Shift4 will process payments at the Canadian Tire Centre for the Ottawa Senators.
- Fiserv’s Clover inked a deal with the Minnesota Wild to provide POS hardware and software at Grand Casino Arena.
- And PayPal netted its first Premier League digital payments partnership with Liverpool FC.
Why this matters: Sporting events are a valuable way to boost payments companies’ volume and exposure to key audiences. In the US, we forecast that live sport watchers this year will total 164 million people.
A former National Hockey League (NHL) executive speaking to The Athletic estimated that home games can net, on average, $215,000 for food and beverage sales and $86,850 for merchandise sales—valuable volume for any payment provider to snag over the course of a season.
Our take: Standard arena deals have big value, but there’s another area of sports with even less penetration: Women’s sports leagues. Viewership and attendance for professional women’s basketball is exploding thanks in part to standout rookies like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
Ads during women’s sports events have a 40% greater impact on consumer engagement than average primetime TV ad airings—meaning the opportunity to seize on rising attendance at women’s sporting events and TV viewership is ripe for payment providers trying to snag in-arena volumes and new customers.