Download Rugby Football Union: Revolutionising how fans pay

Rugby Football Union:
Revolutionising how fans pay
across the stadium with Worldpay
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) opened
Twickenham Stadium in 1909. The largest
dedicated rugby union venue in the world,
Twickenham is steeped in +100 years of
history and rugby heritage, and is
considered to be the heartland of English
rugby.
In recent years the stadium has also come
to establish itself as one of the most
advanced rugby grounds in the world.
Cutting edge technology has transformed
Twickenham to give fans the very best
possible rugby experience.
They also wanted to simplify payment
supplier overheads – so all payments
coming into the stadium, via corporate
boxes, concourse outlets, stores and
online were handled by a single provider.
Contactless
Worldpay has also enabled Twickenham
to accept contactless payments. Taking
contactless means RFU customers can
simply tap their contactless card against
the reader to pay.
Worldpay Total
Using High Definition Wi-Fi, the stadium
communicates with supporters via social
media by allowing fans to share photos at
speed. Additionally, the RFU installed
ticketless entry so that entrance is quick
and easy for the excited 82,000-strong
crowd.
Everything is designed with a match-first
mentality – to give customers the best
possible experience and allow them to
enjoy the rugby to the fullest. With this in
mind, the RFU then turned their attention
to revolutionising how fans pay across the
stadium.
At international rugby matches, 82,000
fans fill the stadium. During half time and
after the game, fans flood the concourse
and corporate hospitality areas buying
food and drink, or assemble into the
Rugby Store to pick up merchandise.
The RFU needed a way to help serve fans
faster to cut down on long queues –
allowing outlets to sell more during short
intervals and making sure fans didn’t miss
any of the game.
In November 2013 the RFU bought in
Worldpay Total, an Omni-channel service
which was rolled out across Twickenham’s
hospitality and retail outlets. Worldpay
Total allows the RFU to accept all major
credit cards and process payments swiftly
and securely through integration with
electronic Point-of-Sale (ePOS) systems.
The service has enabled the RFU to keep
on track of sales through real-time
transaction reporting, making the process
much easier for employees and cutting a
huge amount of time. Other benefits of
Worldpay Total include a 24/7 helpdesk
and online support team available if
needed.
Depending on the games being played,
since rolling out Worldpay Total, the RFU
now processes anywhere between 1,00010,000 payments a month on its ePOS
systems.
George Vaughan, Senior Project Manager
at the RFU, comments: “It’s clear to see
the value we get from using Worldpay
Total to take more card payments. Since
we rolled out the new service in October
2013 the value of payments taken has
grown three-fold (314%)”.
No longer needing to enter a pin has
dramatically reduced the time it takes to
pay anywhere in the stadium – with all the
bars, food stalls and shops are now
serving more people during peak times.
Having processed over 4,200 contactless
payments since they installed the
technology in November 2013, the RFU
saw their largest contactless month ever
in May 2014, with more than 1,500
transactions made across Twickenham.
Andy Ward, Head of Merchandising at the
RFU confirms, “Now that we’ve rolled out
contactless, our outlets are making more
in sales; and fans are getting back to the
game much more quickly, because they
don’t have to stand in a lengthy queue.”
Worldpay Total Mobile
The RFU were so pleased with Worldpay
Total that in February this year, they
introduced a new brand payment system
for corporate hospitality: Worldpay Total
Mobile, designed to offer a more
personalised sales experience for the
RFU’s most valued corporate customers.
Worldpay (UK) Limited. Registered in England No. 07316500. Registered Office: The Walbrook Building, 25 Walbrook, London EC4N 8AF.
Worldpay (UK) Limited is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Service Regulations 2009 (No. 530923) for the
provision of payment services and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for consumer credit activities.
Worldpay, the logo and any associated brand names are all trade marks of the Worldpay group of companies.
Offering the type of first class service that
higher-end customers expect, the RFU
can now make sure customers are served
immediately, and no longer need to worry
about settling their tab behind the bar at
the end of the game.
Employees now quickly take payments to
the customer anywhere in the corporate
box – so guests don’t have to get up from
their seat to pay and miss any of the
game. Using a hand held tablet that
needed no extra training, RFU employees
downloaded the payment App onto their
tablet device, and now just connect to a
portable card reader to take Chip and PIN
payments.
From February to March 2014, the RFU
saw a 44% increase in the value of
payments using its eight Worldpay Total
Mobile devices in the corporate boxes.
Additionally the RFU has taken more than
33,000 payments on its 141 Twickenham
Experience ePOS systems since
November 2013.
George comments,
“It’s about putting the
customer first so they get
the most out of coming to
watch a rugby match. The
tablets look slick and
professional, which is
exactly the image we want
to create in our corporate
boxes. And with
authorisation in seconds,
it’s a really easy way to
process card payments
quickly – so everyone can
just get back to focusing
on the game”.
Additionally, the Worldpay Total Mobile
tablets allow businesses to view daily
transaction reports for all the mobile card
readers, for every team member – along
with weekly and monthly analytics. Using
this reporting function, the RFU can tell
how much is taken in each box at each
game, allowing them to view their most
profitable corporate clients, products and
plan for future matches accordingly.
Andy Ward adds, “The fans at the bars
love contactless, and our corporate clients
are enjoying the new mobile payment
tablets in the boxes too. Everyone comes
to Twickenham to soak up the
atmosphere, cheer on their team and
watch great rugby – being able to pay
quickly and easily means more time to
enjoy the match – so everyone wins”.
The future:
George adds, “We had this type of
information before, but it had to be
manually created, usually at a high
management overhead and cost. Now we
have all the latest payment statistics for
each of our corporate boxes at our
fingertips, so we can better target these
customers with other loyalty schemes and
offers.
“Another benefit of Worldpay Total
Mobile is the recycling opportunity it has
presented, as we are now able to use the
new technology with existing iPhones we
previously had no use for.”
Having worked with Worldpay since 1990,
the RFU has been gradually rationalising
their other payment providers since
August 2013, in a bid to make Worldpay
their sole provider. Worldpay now looks
after all payments made at the
Twickenham stadium as well as all
ecommerce payments made through the
RFU website.
Vaughan confirms that having only to
work with one supplier for payments has
simplifying their dealings considerably,
freeing up important management time
for other matters. “We know now, that
we’ve got the right partner that
understands our needs and will help us
implement the right payments
technology for our business”.
As for where Vaughan would like to see
payments going next, he says, “I would
like to see the limit on contactless
payments to be raised above the current
£20 mark. This would be even more
convenient for fans as well as making our
revenue potential even greater.”
“In just nine months, it’s
clear to see exactly how
much mobile payments
and contactless have
boosted our bottom line,
the revenue uplift is
substantial. We’re also
always looking at how
much our half-time queues
have shrunk once the
season is over”.
George Vaughan, Senior Project
Manager, RFU.
www.rfu.com
Worldpay (UK) Limited. Registered in England No. 07316500. Registered Office: The Walbrook Building, 25 Walbrook, London EC4N 8AF.
Worldpay (UK) Limited is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Service Regulations 2009 (No. 530923) for the
provision of payment services and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for consumer credit activities.
Worldpay, the logo and any associated brand names are all trade marks of the Worldpay group of companies.