From pre-match drinks and half-time hotdogs to souvenir scarves and replica shirts – football stadiums offer many things to enhance the matchday experience. But when your favourite team is about walk onto the pitch, the last thing you want is to be stuck in a queue. FC St. Pauli partnered with Unzer to add new contactless terminals in several areas of the stadium, helping fans save time on matchday.

German Sports Stadiums Add Cashless Payment Options

Cashless payment methods have been on the rise in Germany for years now. When looking at the top two tiers of football in Germany, the trend is clear. In the 2. Bundesliga, Germany’s second division of professional football, 16 out of 18 clubs accept cashless payment. Five of these clubs no longer accept cash at all. Nevertheless, fans are sure to find their payment method of choice: there are an average of 4.4 payment methods on offer at the stadiums in the 2. Bundesliga.¹

More recently, the pandemic accelerated this development. Sports stadiums faced some of the toughest restrictions with games being played behind closed doors. During this time, Hamburg-based FC St. Pauli took steps to digitise its payment systems. By partnering with Unzer, the cult football club aimed to improve the stadium experience once fans were able to return.

FC St. Pauli stands for more than just football – and that’s what makes it so special. In addition to the sporting success, social concerns matter to us too.

Ole Drews, Head of E-Commerce, FC St. Pauli

Contactless Terminals: A Quicker and Easier Way to Pay

FC St. Pauli’s aim was to make payment at the Millerntor-Stadion as efficient, stress-free, and hygienic as possible. To do this, Unzer implemented contactless terminals at multiple key areas of the stadium. These include the fan shop, the ticket shop, the club bar, and at merchandise stands on matchday. The NFC-enabled terminals enable fans to simply tap their card, smartphone, or smartwatch to make a purchase. This helps reduce queueing times, which is especially important for fans buying tickets before a game or getting a quick snack at halftime. And, as there is no need to handle cash, the terminals present a hygienic solution for the club bar.

We currently use Unzer payment solutions in our fan shop, at merchandise stands on matchday, and in the club bar. In future, we will potentially add Unzer solutions to our online shop, too.

Ole Drews, Head of E-Commerce, FC St. Pauli

Less Queueing, More Cheering

Thanks to the new contactless payment options, FC St. Pauli fans can enjoy everything the Millerntor-Stadion has to offer, with less queueing. This means more time to focus on supporting the team. The payment process is not only faster and more efficient; Unzer also ensures that the card transactions are secure. The result is a payment solution that benefits fans and club alike.

To eliminate the need for customers to pay at each ekofair store separately, the founders opted for a centralised solution for all three checkouts. No matter which products they have purchased, customers can pay for everything at any of these checkouts.

The main benefits of our partnership with Unzer are that we get a high quality of service from a single partner. And we can rely on high security standards, which is the most important factor in digital payment.

Ole Drews, Head of E-Commerce, FC St. Pauli

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¹ Source: Stadionwelt: How Fans Can Pay in German Stadiums (German language only)

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