At a time when every online brand and retailer is committing significant resources to creating customer loyalty and brand advocacy, sports clubs and organisations find themselves in a uniquely privileged position. Their fans worldwide are already committed to the club, subscribing to that ineffable sense of loyalty and belonging.

The challenge for clubs is to extend the fan experience beyond the few hours per week when games are in progress. Traditionally, season tickets with associated perks have been the go-to incentives organisations offer to reward the most loyal.

Loyalty schemes take fans’ association with a club to the next level. Consumers today expect more from interactions with organisations they commit time and money to. Given the extra commitment sports fans show as a matter of course, the possibilities that advanced loyalty schemes offer sports clubs are wide and exciting.

The need for more

Thanks to changes in financial regulations and technology, organisations are now able to take ownership of a loyalty scheme’s financial ecosystem in the form of Embedded Finance. With the benefits, they can increase their revenues, give back to fans in tangible ways, and gain significant data insights into the club’s followers.

For a deeper understanding of Embedded Finance, you can read our previous article on the subject, but for this article, here’s a simple description. Embedded Finance allows an organisation to issue real or virtual payment cards as part of a loyalty scheme and, inside a worldwide ecosystem of their creation, bear almost none of the financial costs (per-transaction fees, tariffs on every card payment, foreign exchange fees, and so on).

Fans with a club-issued card use it in the same way as they would any payment facility – card payment, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc. Clubs can use dedicated International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) with Embedded Finance in place so overseas fans are included.

Uses of Embedded Finance include not only wholly-owned retail outlets but also offerings from selected partners anywhere. Kevin McAdam of finance specialist Andaria terms these relationships “supply chain partnerships that operate peer-to-peer”. Because both club and suppliers worldwide operate from accounts (IBAN and debit cards) brokered by the club, there are no transaction fees applicable.

Clubs can even set up facilities like direct debits, standing orders, ex gratia payments and refunds without fees and transaction costs. Embedded Finance offers new revenue streams and creates a global collective of fans united by the club and its unique offerings.

The new gold of data

But loyalty programmes today also give clubs what Mr McAdam describes as its most valuable asset. “Clubs get access to granular data on every interaction in the programme. By acquiring detailed information about fans’ spending in a [club’s] extended financial ecosystem, it gains a data set detailing the demographics and interests of every individual in the fan base,” he said.

That type of information is 2024’s most valuable currency. Armed with detailed information about the loyalty scheme members, many new possibilities open to the club, not limited to:

– creating incentive packages for different regions based on local preferences,

– hyper-personalisation of offers right down to the level of the individual fan,

– segmentation of participants in the loyalty programme according to collective interests,

– directed marketing messaging tailored to fans’ specific activities,

– the formation of new partnerships going forward with much higher chances of gaining traction.

“This really goes well beyond offering a 10% discount in the food outlets and bars of the home ground. Clubs can extend their scheme further – to local businesses, international chains – and every interaction creates opportunity for the club and gives fans literally what they want,” Kevin added.

Installation and maintenance

Suppliers like Andaria provide Embedded Finance solutions that can be easily integrated into a business’s existing technological ecosystem. They use SDKs (software development kits) to plug into their clients’ IT stacks with minimal downtime or interruption to the business.

Forward-thinking organisations are only now realising new possibilities. For sports clubs, Embedded Finance is a no-brainer. To join them, find out more about the potential of Embedded Finance or consult an expert to explore the many possibilities.