Verteda to bring Biometric Payment Technology to the UK Stadium Sector

Verteda, an MPower MSL company, has announced it is rolling out biometric recognition technology into the Stadium and Hospitality sectors. 

Fingopay, a biometric payment and identity solution enabling fast, safe and secure payments, is now being integrated into Verteda’s Point of Sale systems, bringing the ability to pay for food and beverages with your finger to the UK stadium sector for the first time. Some stadia sites are also using this technology to recognise staff clocking in for their shifts, delivering valuable additional functionality connected to a POS system.

Verteda will be rolling out Fingopay to one of the UK’s leading stadiums before the end of the year, and finger vein technology is set to become a popular way to purchase at more stadiums across the UK in the future.

Stadium customers initially register themselves at the start of the football season, and as they attend matches they can make further purchases using just their finger; speeding up transactions and making it simpler for attendees to purchase without having to carry cards or cash.

The Fingopay reader uses Hitachi VeinID technology. Harmless infrared light maps the unique pattern of veins inside your finger, while a cloud-based matching system verifies payment in seconds.

Unlike fingerprints, your vein pattern leaves no trace and cannot be copied, making it an ideal biometric for high security authentication. This has significant value in the growing hospitality season ticket market. Once the initial registration is made, you can use your finger to access hospitality and VIP areas, and make a payment for food and beverage directly though the credit/debit card information linked to your account.

For operators, it provides greater insight into customer purchases; feeding back information on what customers have purchased and when, to uncover trends and insights to feed into wider membership and loyalty programmes for stadiums. This enables stadiums and catering providers to have a single customer view; uniting data across food and beverage purchases, attendance data, stadium entry and exit times combined with hospitality and wider brand engagement information.

Matthew Prosser, Sales Director at Verteda, said:

This is an exciting time for stadium payment technology. We’re going beyond the traditional boundaries of cash and even card transactions, offering consumers a wider array of payment methods to improve the customer experience. Combined with data from stadium operators’ other systems, Fingopay gives stadiums and hospitality venues the ability to collect more insightful data about their customers’ purchases to improve service delivery and be more operationally efficient.

Simon Binns, Chief Commercial Officer for Fingopay, said:

We are delighted to be partnering with Verteda who are leaders in the category. This is the culmination of many months work with Verteda and will be a world first in the stadium market.

Image, courtesy: Fingopay

Verteda was one of twenty industry leaders that exhibited at Europe’s first Premium Seat event, ALSD International, held in London back in October. They were joined by the likes of Camatic Seating, Cedar Packaging, Ecoprod/URIMAT, Ferco Seating, Portview Fit-Out, Recreational Systems Europe, Restaurant Design Associates and Smart Buffet Ware, along with event sponsors and partners such as 1HUDDLE, 3D Digital Venue, AVIXA, European Arenas Association, Elevate Sports Ventures, Fund Raisers Sports, HOK, IHS Global Alliance, Levy Restaurants, LiveStyled, Sports Venue Business, Spring, The Parker Company and Wavework. The 251 registered attendees benefitted from two days of learning, networking and doing business. The event also featured special networking events and behind-the-scenes tours of Wembley Stadium’s Club Wembley, The SSE Arena Wembley and Fulham FC’s Craven Cottage. To find out more and secure your place at ALSD International 2019, email: katie@alsd.com or visit the website at: www.ALSDInternational.com

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