The CEO of cashless payment specialist Tappit says the technology is improving the fan experience at events after the company reported huge year-on-year growth.
Tappit has worked with festivals including Creamfields and Bestival, along with Birmingham City Football Club and sporting events such as Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the World Surf League.
Global CEO Jason Thomas (pictured) said the number of events the firm worked on worldwide rose by 800% in 2018, leading it to open eight new offices.
"It cuts down the barrier between the event and the fan because the data helps you understand what the fan wants and you can understand, from a flow perspective, where there might be bottlenecks. Fans spend a lot more money when they use wristbands – we found last year the average increase in expenditure at an event was 22% and that's because it's a lot quicker than paying with cash or even credit card, so the adoption has increased enormously.
"We've been going just over two years now and it's interesting in seeing the evolution of it at different paces in different parts of the world," Thomas told Music Week. "Using Asia as an example, they're much further in their evolution of it than in some other parts of the world such as America, which doesn't use contactless."
Fans spend a lot more money when they use wristbands – it's a lot quicker than paying with cash
Jason Thomas
Tappit
He added: "From a fans' perspective, you can set limits on what you what to spend at the event, which can be really useful. You're seeing more and more people going down this route and it's not just in events, it's the larger ecosystem. If you look at statistics, less than 1% of transactions in Sweden now are via cash, it's just the way the world's changing. Cash is going to continue to diminish in relation to its importance in society in general."
Thomas also sought to correct some of the misconceptions around the technology that arose in the recent Netflix Fyre Festival documentary and explained why cashless payments can work without wireless connection.
"To have a successful event you need experience, relevant technology and you obviously need a marketing arm," said Thomas. "The marketing arm was the one piece that they seemed to focus on without all the rest of the aspects.
"The solution they decided on from a payment perspective – cashless – was the one thing that made sense in theory because, based on where the event was, Wi-Fi was always going to be an issue. The good thing about cashless is the fact you don't need Wi-Fi compared to if you use contactless credit cards etc, where you need that Wi-Fi signal from a POS [point of sale] perspective, because you're effectively pre-loading the funds onto your wristband."
