Our weekly tech round-up from the stadium and arena sector…
The Seattle Mariners and hospitality partner Sodexo Live! have announced that Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One will be introduced at T-Mobile Park, marking a first for a Major League Baseball (MLB) venue.
The new technologies will be featured at T-Mobile Park’s new Walk-Off Market, which will open this summer and is designed to eliminate lines and allow fans to enjoy more of the action.
Mariners fans will be able to insert a credit card at the entry gate or hover their palm over an Amazon One device to enter the Walk-Off Market, before doing their shopping and leaving. The card will then be charged for the items they took after they leave the store.
The Walk-Off Market will be stocked with beer, wines and ready-to-drink cocktails, as well as Coca-Cola products, grab-and-go snacks and other ballpark food such as hot dogs, nachos and pretzels. Merchandise will also be sold at the store.
Elsewhere, Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology has launched at UBS Arena, home of the NHL’s New York Islanders.
Two convenience-oriented stores opened at UBS Arena last week as the venue became the first sports and entertainment facility in New York to adopt the technology. The two stores have been branded ‘On the Fly’ and are operated by foodservice partner Delaware North.
Products available at the stores will include packaged beer, spiked seltzers, soda, bottled water, crisps, sweets and sundries. Delaware North associates will serve as greeters and provide in-store assistance as needed.
The Islanders have also teamed up with Verizon Business to provide enabled watch parties in the HOMEICE Experience platform within the UBS Arena mobile app.
The Islanders will leverage the BlueJeans by Verizon software development kit to introduce the BlueJeans Meetings capability for HOMEICE. The option will be available as an in-app second-screen experience for fans looking to connect over live video with their friends during games.
The BlueJeans Meetings integration will complement the Islanders’ existing HOMEICE chat, trivia, polls and other scoreboard features available during games. The technology will be available to fans in HOMEICE for the Islanders’ game against the Washington Capitals later today (Thursday).
The Washington Nationals MLB team has partnered with financial technology company FIS to enhance the in-game experience for fans and support the club’s cashless strategy.
FIS will serve as the official payments technology provider for the Nationals, with its Worldpay payment solutions to provide best-in-class merchant-processing technology.
The technology will allow Nationals fans to pay for tickets, food, beverages and merchandise seamlessly and securely. FIS will become the merchant processor for the BetMGM Sportsbook at Nationals Park and will also design a first-of-its-kind analytics platform to deliver more personalised experiences for fans.
Retail enablement company Instacart has unveiled Caper Counter, an AI-powered point-of-sale system, at Fenway Park, home of MLB’s Boston Red Sox.
Instacart has teamed up with Aramark Sports + Entertainment to introduce the new Caper Counter checkout systems at Fenway Park to provide fast, contact-free transactions for fans through visual recognition and AI technology.
Three Caper Counters will be located at Fenway Park’s Truly Terrace and Walk Thru Bru spaces. Fans will be able to place items for purchase on the counter, where they will be automatically detected and added to the cart for checkout.
Beverage technology company TendedBar has entered into a partnership with identity proofing and AI technology specialist IDmission.
TendedBar will work with IDmission to make its one-time registration, onboarding and payment process for potential customers more seamless and secure. As part of the agreement, customers will have the opportunity to scan a QR code to initiate the digital bar tab process.
The web app will then capture a selfie, a scan of the customer’s ID document, and payment details. IDmission will authenticate the customer, validate their age, and sync their verified ID/payment token with every TendedBar unit.
