Visa collaborates with Gemalto at Eurovision

Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, is collaborating with Visa, one of the world's largest payment providers, to equip visitors at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest with conta​ctless payment wristbands​. Gemalto's solution for Visa encompasses personalization, packaging and fulfilment of the contactless wristbands, and utilizes its Allynis Smart Event Platform for the prepaid payment program and event management.

The Visa contactless wristbands will be part of Visa Europe's official ES​C sponsorship, which will be made available for purchase at the Eurovision Village in Stockholm, Sweden, in the week leading up to the Contest. Eurovision Song Contest expects to attract up to 65,000 visitors providing a contactless experience and culminates in a Grand Finale at the Globe Arena on May 14th drawing an estimated TV audience of 200 million.

Gemalto's integrated solution ensures that Visa will be able to showcase contactless experiences, including shopping without carrying cash or payment cards. Gemalto has provided a responsive website that enables access to real-time account information including prepaid balances and history. 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 31st October 2016.

The Allynis Smart Event Platform can be employed in conjunction with any payment form factor, including wearables and mobile NFC, and provides off-the-shelf management of payment, data and access rights as well as an extensive portfolio of white label applications. The full 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," said 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," said 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."