Visitors to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) can pay for drinks – and possibly earplugs – simply by waving their arms about, rivaling some of the on stage dance routines.
Digital security company Gemalto is collaborating with Visa, one of the world’s largest payment providers, to equip visitors at the Contest in Stockholm with contactless payment wristbands, as part of Visa Europe’s official ESC sponsorship and can be purchased at the Eurovision Village in Stockholm in the week leading up to the contest.
The wristbands can be used to make payments at any Visa ready contactless POS terminal in the world and continue to be active after the show is over until 31 October 2016.
Gemalto’s solution will let Visa showcase contactless experiences, including shopping and more through a Gemalto-provided responsive website that gives access to real-time account information including prepaid balances and history.
ESC expects to attract up to 65,000 visitors providing a contactless experience and culminates in a Grand Finale at the Globe Arena on 14 May drawing an estimated TV audience of 200 million.
The full Gemalto solution supports a rich array of features including ‘tap and go’ payments, seamless access management to venues and hospitality areas, and many other value-added applications. It improves and secures the visitor experience, and enables organizers and other stakeholders to implement intelligent communication, marketing and loyalty programs that run before, during and after live events.
“At this year’s event, Visa is creating a new contactless payments experience for fans and visitors of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016,” explains Christina Lind, Country Manager Visa Europe Sweden. “Together with Gemalto we are taking a big step into the future of payments and the launch of contactless in Sweden.”
“Gemalto’s support for Visa Europe at Eurovision 2016 demonstrates how the live event ecosystem is ideally suited to an extended NFC experience,” says Philippe Cambriel, President for Europe, Mediterranean and CIS at Gemalto. “Our end-to-end Smart Event service makes it easy to look beyond contactless payments and embrace additional functions such as access, visitor entitlements and data management.”
