Payment services company Mastercard has signed a multi-year extension to its partnership with Major League Baseball, with the new deal to support a contactless and cashless environment at stadiums.
The new deal has been signed ahead of this year’s MLB All-Star Game at Coors Field (pictured), home of the Colorado Rockies. Mastercard will continue to serve as the presenting sponsor of the event.
Mastercard is one of MLB’s longest-serving sponsors after first partnering with the league in 1997. As part of the new agreement, Mastercard will provide fans with enhanced payment technologies at the All-Star Game and throughout the season by working closely with the league, point-of-sale providers and concessionaires in stadiums.
The two parties will work to create contactless and cashless environments through the integration of touchless, contactless point of sale systems and reverse ATMs. Mastercard and MLB will also provide an enhanced ecommerce checkout experience with Click to Pay on the league’s MLB.TV, Tickets.com and MLBshop.com platforms.
During the ballot for this year’s All-Star Game, MLB deployed Mastercard’s NuDetect fraud detection technology to ensure a seamless and accurate count through the two-phase fan-voting process.
Mastercard and MLB are both long-standing partners of the Stand Up To Cancer and will support the charity through a range of initiatives, including the Mastercard Ballpark Sensory Experience, the Field of Dreams Experience and the Digital Stand Up To Cancer Placard.
MLB will also become a member of Mastercard’s Priceless Planet Coalition, a reforestation programme that aims to restore 100 million trees by 2025 to mitigate climate change. In support of the coalition and celebration of the All-Star Game, Mastercard and MLB auctioned off a visit to the Coors Field Garden, with all proceeds benefiting the coalition.
Noah Garden, MLB’s chief revenue officer, said: “Mastercard has been an incredible partner to Major League Baseball for more than two decades and we take a lot of pride in this great relationship that we’ve forged together.
“The partnership between Mastercard and MLB has truly evolved over the years as technology and our fans’ habits have evolved. Mastercard helped us bring new payment technologies to the forefront for our fans over the years and we are going to continually innovate this space together for the benefit of baseball fans everywhere.”
Image: Owen Lystrup on Unsplash
