Visa to Bring Contactless Payments to World Cup

Visa is bringing a contactless payments network to this year’s World Cup, joining a legion of companies attempting to make paying easier for sports fans.

Visa said in a Thursday (Nov. 17) news release that contactless payments will be available at the eight stadiums hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 next week.

“With more than one million fans expected to travel to Qatar for the tournament, Visa has installed 5,300 contactless-enabled payment terminals at official FIFA venues,” making it “the most payment-enabled FIFA tournament ever,” the company said in the release.

Visa will also pilot a few other payment programs, including a facial recognition payments option conducted in partnership with Qatar National Bank (QNB) and Pop ID, the release stated.

The company is also working with three Qatar-based banks to offer its Tap to Phone tool to small businesses, and with Qatar’s Ministry of Transport to allow contactless payment acceptance on taxis around the tournament.

Earlier this month, Visa announced another World Cup-related project, teaming with Crypto.com to create and promote NFTs inspired by the tournament.

Visa’s contactless payments pilot comes as several sports teams have moved to cashless transactions. For example, the Boston Red Sox announced this year that it had stopped accepting cash, meaning fans need to pay for concessions and souvenirs with cards or with their phones.

In an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in August, Pete Balsavias, senior vice president of global commerce innovation at Mastercard, said almost every aspect of the spectator experience is undergoing a digital revamp aimed at increasing enjoyment and offering a smoother trip to the ballpark or concert.

“When I’m at the stadium, I want to be watching the event,” he told Webster. “I want to be watching, whether it’s the artist that I’m a fan of, or the team. I want things to be seamless. Anything you can do to enable the tech to allow that to happen on the back end where you don’t have to think about it” is ideal.

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