Payments in Stadiums, Entertainment Venues & Festivals with Jake Stone, CRO of Cheq by Cantaloupe | Episode 320

In a world where convenience is king and technology reigns, the realm of live event payments is undergoing a revolutionary transformation. Jake Stone, Chief Revenue Officer of Cantaloupe, graces us with his insights in a recent podcast episode, highlighting the seismic shift towards self-service and mobile payments in stadiums, entertainment venues and festivals. This move is not only enhancing the fan experience but also significantly augmenting venue revenue—a double win for the industry.

The emergence of Generation Z as a driving force in the economy is shaping how payment systems evolve. Their mobile-first mindset and preference for digital solutions are paving the way for venues to rethink their service models. And as we cast our eyes towards the horizon, the future of event payments looks cashless and frictionless. Technologies such as AI and biometrics are on the cusp of redefining convenience and personalization. But this transformation isn't solely about the technology; it's about the human experience. These advancements in payment systems are designed to keep fans immersed in the event, reducing the time spent waiting in line and increasing the time spent enjoying the spectacle.

In conclusion, the path towards a cashless, high-tech future in live event arenas is not just inevitable; it's already underway. The innovations spearheaded by companies like Cantaloupe are setting a new standard in the industry. As we embrace these changes, we're not just witnessing the evolution of payment systems; we're participating in the redefinition of the live event experience itself.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast, where we talk to C-level leaders from across the payments landscape. We'll be discussing the products and services that impact the payment space today, as well as trends and predictions for the future of payments. We will also hear stories from our guests about their journeys to the top.

Speaker 2: 0:18

So on the check side, in the sports entertainment side, we have seen very strong data that shows people who use self-checkout or self-walkout or mobile solutions spend on average, over 30% more than they would if they were ordering from someone in person.

Speaker 3: 0:41

That was Jake Stone, the Chief Revenue Officer of Check by Cantaloupe, and he is my special guest on this episode, episode 320 of the Leaders in Payments podcast, and I'm your host, greg Myers. In this special episode, we're going to be talking about all things payments within stadiums, entertainment venues and festivals. Jake and I talk in detail about consumer expectations at these venues, as well as the expectations through the lens of the venue or the event organizer. We also cover some of the emerging trends in this space, as well as what Check by Cantaloupe is doing to capitalize on these trends. We've got a great episode ahead, so let's get started. Hi, jake, thank you for being here and welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast. Today, we're diving into the world of payments within stadiums, entertainment venues and festivals, so it's great having you here, hey.

Speaker 2: 1:33

I appreciate you for bringing me on here and excited to have the conversation.

Speaker 3: 1:37

Yeah, me too. So could you share a little bit about yourself, maybe your journey, how you came to be the Chief Revenue Officer at Check by Cantaloupe?

Speaker 2: 1:45

Yeah, sure thing. I co-founded Check back in 2021 with my two partners, tom and Jim, and this was kind of during the height of COVID, and so the original product and the app was focused on mobile order pay at restaurants, so being able to walk into a table, scan a QR code, order food from that QR code, open up a tab and then check out. And so we started with that. We were other verticals and areas that we could expand that product into, and Sports Stadiums was kind of a organic extension being able to put a QR code on a seat, being able to order food to that seat or for pickup and so we actually did our first deal within the sports space in 2021, at the end of it, actually with the Miami Marlins, and from there we had really great success on the mobile order side and we collected a ton of feedback from there from partners, clients, different fans and people that we were interacting with and from there decided to take that mobile experience and transform it into a full point of sale ordering experience.

Speaker 2: 2:50

That would also include other areas POS kiosks, handhelds, things like that that we'll talk about and over the last couple of years we've grown that platform a ton across sports entertainment. We've grown that platform a ton across sports entertainment and very recently fast forward to 2024,. The company was acquired by Cantaloupe in February and Cantaloupe is the global technology leader. They power self-service commerce across many different verticals and we're really excited about the acquisition. We're excited to partner with them, being able to bring some of their products and innovations to our clients and vice versa, and so they've been an amazing partner for Check and we're super excited to continue growing with them throughout the future here.

Speaker 3: 3:35

Awesome. So for our listeners who might not be familiar, could you provide and you gave us a little bit of information, but maybe provide an overview of Check and maybe the role it plays when we look at it from the context of stadiums, entertainment venues and festivals?

Speaker 2: 3:50

Yeah, for sure. So Check is, if you think about it, a full end-to-end payments platform. We provide point-of-sale and different ordering solutions for sports stadiums, entertainment venues, festivals, live events and much more from that mediums, entertainment venues, festivals, live events and much more from that and the platform features a mobile-first ordering experience across all touchpoints. So that's traditional point-of-sale ordering. We call it belly-up style at a concession stand or table service at a restaurant, Self-service and self-checkout kiosks, walkout markets, micro-markets, mobile handheld devices for payments on the go, mobile ordering for delivery or pickup, social gifting. We have suite and catering management and also a full backend and data analytics platform as well, and so that platform is rolled out in a couple of different kind of capacities to help F&B solutions in over 30 sports entertainment properties today, and it includes names such as the Miami Marlins, the Minnesota Twins, Miami Dolphins, Washington Commanders, Miami MLS, the Panthers, CFG Bank Arena with the Oakview Group and Loudon Life Festivals as well.

Speaker 3: 5:01

Okay, so when we think of stadiums could be indoor, could be outdoor, same with entertainment, there's no real restriction based on what it is? Yep exactly.

Speaker 2: 5:11

It could be sports entertainment, concerts, amphitheaters, theme parks, basically anywhere where fans are on site Majority of high volume capacity areas is what we like to call it where F&B transactions are happening on site, and the same kind of principles apply to a football stadium or maybe a small soccer stadium. The sizes are different, Maybe the scenery or scenarios are a little bit different, but the same principles of ordering on site that F&B stay the same.

Speaker 3: 5:42

Okay, okay, great. So what would you say? Sets Check apart in this kind of niche market that you play in.

Speaker 2: 5:48

Yeah, we spoke about mobile first. So we really benefit in this case from building the platform with mobile as a starting point, versus some of the other competitors in this space who kind of added mobile on after you know, the overall UI, UX and kind of the guest experience is made for the phone, unlike taking a large experience and kind of shrinking it down. So that's one of our main advantages. And then from there, all these different ordering solutions that we talked about the POS, the kiosks, the handhelds they're all connected and integrated on the same backend platform so operators control all the touch points on one system and this really helps when you're managing from an operator perspective, you. It allows our partners to have access to all of this live data in real time on one intuitive dashboard for the full venue. And then we really do focus. Check does focus on self-service commerce, so predominantly through kiosks, marketplaces and mobile ordering, and the results we've seen from that have been pretty spectacular. On average we've seen customer ticket sizes increase by about 28% versus normal point-of-sale platforms and we've seen also reductions in line wait times at concessions by up to 33%. So those are pretty huge numbers that we've seen through the platform and these live entertainment and sports environments.

Speaker 2: 7:08

One of the other main advantages that we have is we are the only fan-facing point of sale on the market today, and what we mean by that is we do have a super unique gifting feature that allows people the ability to send food, drinks, merchandise to their friends in real time from anywhere in the world.

Speaker 2: 7:26

So I could be in LA right now.

Speaker 2: 7:28

You might be in Dallas, You're going to a sporting event or a concert tonight.

Speaker 2: 7:33

I can actually send you a drink directly to your seat at that venue and not be there in person.

Speaker 2: 7:39

Or I could send you maybe a jersey in advance and you'd be able to walk in that venue later tonight and be able to redeem that gift at a point of sale and be able to have that gift delivered to you right there. So it's a pretty unique feature and with all of that, our operators are able to capture the data about those fans with every transaction that we do inside or outside the venue, and they can actually use that data to understand a lot more about who's actually going in that stadium, how many times they've been there, what they're buying, what their favorite drink is, even their preferred way of transacting, and so they can communicate with fans directly on our feed and through our platform by sending them gifts, promos, tickets and ultimately engage with them well before and after the live event, not just during the live event. So those are definitely some of the ways that we kind of stand out and we're a little bit unique compared to some other POS players in the space.

Speaker 3: 8:35

Cool, you mentioned earlier the COVID era. Did that drive the mobile first kind of thought process?

Speaker 2: 8:42

It definitely played a huge role in moving towards mobile, not only from a safety perspective, but also from an ease perspective. So we definitely saw a push with the mobile during COVID and that's continued. You know well, outside of that as well.

Speaker 3: 9:00

Sure sure, okay. Well, when we look at this space, I want to break it down into kind of two perspectives. So we've got the consumer and their experience and expectations, and then the venue or the event organizer. So let's start with the end consumer. This is kind of a two-part question. So one, what are the expectations of fans or event attendees, so kind of high level, and then, second part of the question how is Gen Z driving change here? Do you see that demographic having unique expectations?

Speaker 2: 9:32

Yeah, this market isn't that complicated when you think about it high level. So expectations of a fan or event attendee they're pretty simple One. I think the ability to use the option of transacting that they prefer is really important. Not all fans are the same. Someone might be very comfortable and excited to use their phone to make a payment, whereas someone might not have a smartphone and they want to walk up and place the order with someone who can interact with them. So being able to provide multiple options for payment transactions is really important in this day and age. And then the second big thing they're looking for is to not miss the game or the event while they're standing in line, and so you need a platform and a system in place where you can get through lines quickly and right back to the action. And so that's one of the main reasons most of the concession environments are now going to self-service is to really help speed up that ordering process.

Speaker 2: 10:28

And the second part to your question about Gen Z driving the change we definitely see a huge movement of Gen Z and kind of their behaviors, especially in the live event space, and that really comes back to what we just talked about with the mobile ordering, and that really comes back to what we just talked about with the mobile ordering.

Speaker 2: 10:49

We see a lot more ordering through the younger demographic on mobile compared to maybe some older generations, and, for example, one of our stadiums that we work with, the Miami Marlins at Lone Depot Park, 12% of all transactions that go through at that venue go through mobile devices. So that's either ordering in-seat delivery or for pickup at certain locations around the ballpark, and that number is huge compared to a lot of other venues. It's definitely something that we're proud of and also showcases this kind of movement and change in using the phone as the point of sale. And so for Gen Z, they're on their phones a lot, everything is connected to that phone, and so for them, the point of sale might not be a terminal that's sitting at a concession stand. The point of sale is actually in their pocket and they want to use that phone as their preferred payment tool, whether that's to send money to a friend, upload a deposit to their bank or, in this case, purchase an item at a stadium.

Speaker 3: 11:41

Yeah, makes a lot of sense. So now let's switch over to kind of the venue or event organizers perspective. What are their specific needs and challenges and how does check address them?

Speaker 2: 11:54

Yeah, so there's a few main challenges that are definitely consistent, no matter what type of environment that you're in within this space, and the first one is kind of around operational capacity restraints, and the second one is really around labor shortages. And so, operationally speaking, if you think about it, you're cramming tens of thousands of guests into one place and then you're trying to support huge influxes of transactions in a very small window of time. So you're not really talking about an ideal environment, and there's actually a lot of friction from accomplishing a relatively simple task, which is I want to buy a drink and I want to do that as quickly as possible. So in this case, spacing becomes a major issue. Connectivity becomes another huge issue, and really, in order to address these issues, we promote multiple ordering options to keep fans moving through lines quickly, as well as providing the option to potentially stay in your seat and have your orders come to you.

Speaker 2: 12:53

Being able to use self-service kiosks, we can remove additional labor from the equation, and once you get into the front of the line, the overall payment experience needs to be super quick and seamless as well, and in many cases, the connectivity inside these buildings go down or it gets very slow with the amount of people that are in it. And so Check does provide a full offline mode capability across all of our devices and touch points to ensure payments are stored locally in case the network goes down or is poor, and that type of behavior is essential to these types of environments. And then I mentioned, on the other hand, the labor that's extremely hard to come by for operators, right? So operators are always looking for alternative options that allow fans the ability to order without needing a physical body there to take that order. So the whole self-service commerce. It really is essential to solving that problem Self-ordering kiosks, grab-and-go marketplaces, walk-out marketplaces and mobile ordering, where the back-of-house team can really focus on order fulfillment versus order taking.

Speaker 3: 13:59

Okay, and as someone who doesn't know this space that well, is it traditionally or has it been traditionally, where I'm thinking like a stadium, multiple vendors or concessions? Do they have, like, multiple payment systems, that at some point in time they have to figure out how to reconcile all of them?

Speaker 2: 14:16

Yeah, it really is a mix. Some systems, some venues, have the same system throughout, all different touchpoints. Some have brought in different providers for specific tasks, so you might have someone that does a walkout market in one location and a self-service on another. We try to bring in a full portfolio of offerings so they can keep everything on the same platform. But there is no matter which venue you go to. There's going to be some different systems being used, so being able to be fully connected on the back end and have those systems talk to each other creates a much more seamless approach from an operator perspective.

Speaker 3: 14:52

Okay, all right. Well, taking a step back, let's look at the evolution of the payment system within these environments. So maybe talk about it from the traditional cash transactions to the digital era. So how have things changed?

Speaker 2: 15:05

If you think back many years ago, everyone had paper tickets, right. You'd go to the box office, you'd buy your ticket. It'd be a paper ticket. You'd get them maybe in the mail ahead of time if you had season tickets and slowly they introduced this concept of a digital ticket that was on your phone. It was a barcode or it was a QR code now, and at first there was actually quite a bit of resistance. People were very hesitant to adopt that technology and for many, many years you had half the stadium that was using digital ticketing and you had half the stadium that was still using paper ticketing.

Speaker 2: 15:50

Fast forward to 2024, there's essentially no more paper ticketing out there. Today, even when you walk up to the box office at a stadium, you buy your ticket and they're sending you a link and you're downloading that ticket on your phone and you're walking in. It's just a more efficient process. You can manage tickets better. You can send a ticket to someone instantaneously. You know you don't have to give a physical ticket. If you lose your ticket, well, it's available digitally, so you can't really lose it anymore.

Speaker 2: 16:21

And so if we take that same approach to cash to digital, we're at the later stages of that transformation and so cash in most venues most large professional venues at this point is obsolete. Digital payments is the preferred method everywhere and even if you have cash, you're still allowed to go to these venues and you can use a reverse ATM and have a prepaid debit card and you can transact, and so most of the larger venues are completely cashless at this point. Some of the smaller venues you still have cash today, but it is moving in the direction of being fully cashless and I would imagine probably about a 99,. But it is moving in the direction of being fully cashless and I would imagine probably about a 99% adoption across the board in the coming years in this space.

Speaker 2: 17:04

And there's reasons for this. It's not just because people don't like using cash anymore or don't carry cash. It's really a security reason. Cash is a huge liability, so there's security and theft issues with having that much cash after a game, being able to transfer that to a bank. There's reporting and tracking issues for cash as well. It's never going to be perfect. Compared to digital systems, there's just a larger room for error with cash, and so going to digital payments just makes sense across the board, not only for the consumer, but also for the operator and the property on the back end.

Speaker 3: 17:38

So in what ways are unattended payment solutions becoming more prevalent within these environments, like the stadiums and the entertainment venues and festivals, and can you highlight some of the notable examples or verticals where these solutions are gaining traction?

Speaker 2: 17:53

Yeah, of course, two main things when I think about this that really drive self-service commerce, and that's across sports entertainment festivals, but really most other verticals as well. So number one is really how do we solve the labor shortage issue? And number two is how can we allow for individuals that take the checkout process into their own hands where there isn't a need for premium customer service at checkout? And so number one, labor shortage it's really consistent across all service industries restaurants, hospitality, retail, grocery stores being able to reduce the number of bodies required to provide the baseline support. And you're really seeing this most at like QSR restaurants with self-service kiosks. You walk into McDonald's everything is self-service kiosks now and you're seeing that at the airport as well. You're seeing at the grocery store checkout line and you're really also now seeing that at the stadium environment. So if operators can hire less people and still provide the same operations they did with half the labor, it's going to make perfect sense for them to move to that model, reducing their internal cost in many cases, actually increasing their revenue. And so on the check side, in the sports entertainment side, we have seen very strong data that shows people who use self-checkout or self-walkout or mobile solutions spend, on average over 30% more than they would if they were ordering from someone in person. And it's mostly a psychological thing. There's data that supports this, but I'm not being judged when I place an order on a self-service kiosk, right. So we've had people come into our stadiums and order 10 hot dogs on their mobile device, and it's pretty easy to do that. It might be a little harder for them to stare someone in the face at a concession and order 10 hot dogs in a row, right? So that's one aspect of it. And then these ordering kiosks mobile one of the things here is intuitive upselling as well, so we actually can build in a cadence that intuitively will upsell someone on buying more, adding additional items, and in many cases these are pretty successful programs to get someone to increase the size of their order, increase the amount of items, add in something that they might not be thinking about, or maybe bundle something together, and all that kind of helps increase the revenue. So if I'm looking at this saying, hey, I can increase my revenue and reduce my back of house labor costs, we're going to see a lot more people moving to these kind of solutions.

Speaker 2: 20:27

And then the areas the premium support thing here, if you think about it. Qsr airports retails concessions. Again, they're generally not high premium support. Touch points, meaning the service that I receive from someone taking my order and handing me my food, is not really critical to the operation and that's very different compared to a nice sit-down restaurant or, in our case, maybe a suite or a lounge area inside a stadium where it is imperative to have a body that are taking orders and providing strong customer service. You expect that in some of these areas, but the areas where you don't necessarily need or expect that, those are the areas that we've seen a much more push into the self-commerce or self-checkout solutions.

Speaker 3: 21:13

It makes a lot of sense. It seems like almost a no-brainer for these venues when you talk about increasing revenue and decreasing costs.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Exactly, exactly. We're seeing that across the board, and it can be a little bit daunting as well. There's a lot of solutions out there and the fan experience is really important. You want to make sure that when you do that, you're not creating a worse experience, but we've really seen the opposite and fans have started to become a lot more comfortable using self-checkout. You're always going to have those few people that want a body there, they want to talk to someone, and most venues still have that option, but I think really across the board, a lot more people are feeling more comfortable about doing those simple tasks by themselves.

Speaker 3: 22:02

Yeah, definitely would agree with that. Well, looking ahead, where do you envision the future of payments within these environments that we've been talking about? Where are they headed, say, in the next five to seven years? And then, how is technology and consumer preferences shaping this kind of landscape that we've been talking about?

Speaker 2: 22:16

Yeah, five to seven years in this business is a that's a long time out, right? Yeah, seems like technology is changing every every other week at this point, but, you know, within five to seven years, number one I think will be, you know, 99.9% cashless right, and I also think we are going to be majority skewed towards self service commerce across all these different locations, towards self-service commerce across all these different locations. So there'll be even less labor inside some of these environments and a much more ownership on the guests making that transaction by themselves, and I think this really is both consumer preference and a need for operators to obviously adapt to the new normal, which is what we just talked about, right, the labor concerns and the opportunity for revenue. In technology, there is a tool to assist them in that evolution. And so other things that we're going to see a much more connected data analytics piece of this more understanding from operators on who the customers are and knowing a lot more about them, and then leaning into AI-based intuitive ordering solutions, and AI is obviously the buzzword today.

Speaker 2: 23:24

Everyone's talking about AI. What does that mean inside a stadium? Well, think about this I walk into a stadium, maybe I've been there before and my phone's going to automatically geolocate that I've walked into that stadium. It's going to immediately prompt me on my phone, welcome me to the stadium and say, hey, last time we were here you ordered this drink and this food item. Would you like to order it again? Right, I'm going to hit a button. Yes, it's going to immediately place that order at a concession stand and I'm going to be able to walk over to that stand, grab my food on my way to my seat. Right, it's going to be the seventh inning. It's going to know it's the seventh inning. On my phone, it's going to prompt me immediately and say, hey, would you like to send a drink to your buddy? Would you like to buy your second round before alcohol shut off?

Speaker 2: 24:12

And so this intuitive AI-based experience is going to, we think, give a really cool and unique experience to everyone, both from the fan perspective of hey, it knows what I want. Maybe this is a little creepy, but hey, I do want another drink. Hey, I did like this, I ordered it last time. Or maybe I want to try something new. And then, from an operator perspective, it really creates a pretty cool cadence of getting them to order more in a really authentic and organic way at the same time. So that's one way to look at it. And then, if you think about it, biometric payment techniques, facial recognition or even tapping your finger I think ways to continue speeding up the operations and reducing friction at the point of sale without getting out a credit card. Obviously, paying it's going to be a phone, it's going to be your eyes, it's going to be your thumb. I think ways to get through the payment experience in that transaction, ways to increase the speed of that, are going to be very, very big focus points in five to seven years from now as well.

Speaker 3: 25:15

Okay, okay. So you mentioned some really interesting and emerging trends there. So how is Check adapting to align with those and help solve those for the clients in this space?

Speaker 2: 25:27

Yeah, the best way for us to stay on the front lines of some of these emerging trends and products that we just talked about, think ahead of what's coming down the pipeline. It's really imperative for us to understand the pain points and the opportunities that exist for both sides and then build a product roadmap that addresses those concerns, pain points and opportunities. And the way to do that isn't in a lab, right. It's not at the back end tech lab being able to create that technology. It really is going to be at the stadium, at the festival boots, on the ground style and rolling out new products, features, solutions and testing them in a live environment with real people is incredibly important, not just to all businesses, but especially important for this one.

Speaker 2: 26:16

And too many products are built in the lab, in a perfect environment, and really that's just not the case with sports. So sports is hectic, it's chaotic, right. So we need to be able to stress, test new products and innovations in that messy setting to ensure they work well. And many good things sound good in context. I can throw out AI, I can throw out biometrics, I can throw out all these cool things, but sometimes they just don't have the intended result in real-world environments. So, in order to continue innovating, we need to take these ideas, put them into action, test them early on and see what's actually resonating with the customers and what's actually increasing back-end operational efficiency for our partners. And some of the best ideas we get are from our partners and from fans, and I think that will continue to be the cornerstone approach for our future roadmap at Check is allowing the customers and our partners to guide what comes next.

Speaker 3: 27:13

Makes a lot of sense. So, before we conclude, is there anything you'd like to add or any more insights that you believe are important for our listeners to know about?

Speaker 2: 27:22

Check, or about the future of this industry, and we're really a lot more than just a point of sale or a mobile ordering solution or a way to transact. When you think about it, it's a 360-degree fan engagement tool. It allows operators to lock the user data, to leverage that data to create deeper connections with their fans and customers and, on the other side, it allows fans the ability to control the purchase process, choose the method they prefer to pay and then transform a relatively routine experience payments right Into a social one by being able to send or receive gifts in the same platform. So we're trying to take the rudimentary payment experience platform. So we're trying to take the rudimentary payment experience, make it a lot deeper for both sides of it and have some fun along the way. So if that excites you, you can definitely learn more about what we're doing together and how we're innovating for the future at cantaloupecom Awesome.

Speaker 3: 28:35

Well, I think that was a great summary. So, jake, thank you so much for being on the show today. I know your time is very valuable, so I really appreciate you being here.

Speaker 2: 28:42

Thanks, greg, I really appreciate you having me on and excited to tune into more episodes.

Speaker 3: 28:47

Absolutely, and to all you listeners out there, I thank you for your time as well, and until the next story.

Speaker 1: 28:53

Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in Payments podcast. Make sure you visit our website at leadersinpaymentscom, where you can subscribe to the show and where you'll find our show notes. If you enjoyed listening, please share on your social channels as well.