Cryptocurrency in play at Adelaide Oval

Article posted by Coliseum, April 18^th, 2024

Image: AFL

Fans attending Australian Football League (AFL) matches at the Adelaide Oval in Australia can now purchase food and drinks using cryptocurrency.

Adelaide Football Club said that supported by Adelaide Oval tenants the Adelaide Crows and Datamesh, which has provided the payment technology and terminals, the innovation kicked off just in time for the AFL’s 2024 Gather Round, which saw five AFL matches and hundreds of thousands of fans at the venue.

The technology was in play for the Crows’ match against Melbourne and is now available across all AFL matches at Adelaide Oval for the remainder of the 2024 Toyota AFL Premiership Season.

The Adelaide Oval is a multi-purpose sports ground used primarily for cricket and AFL matches and can hold up to 70,000 fans.

As part of the pilot, which is a world-first trial at this scale, select food and drink kiosks in the Southern Stand will have the facilities to accept crypto payments from Crypto.com customers in real time.

Crypto.com is the world’s fastest growing cryptocurrency platform, trusted by more than 80 million customers worldwide, and is the industry leader in regulatory compliance, security and privacy.

Crypto.com General Manager for APAC Karl Mohan said: “Australians continue to adopt cryptocurrency at a rapid rate and as a company we are constantly innovating to find new ways for people to use crypto in the real world.

“The payment technology we’re introducing at Adelaide Oval is not only user-friendly for both the merchant and customer but also extremely scalable and we see a lot of promise for future integrations like this.

“As a major sponsor of the Adelaide Crows and the AFL, it is exciting to launch this trial during one of the biggest and busiest rounds of the season, and we’re delighted to be able to provide an easy new payment method to thousands of fans.”

Adelaide Crows CEO Tim Silvers described Crypto.com as an innovative and much valued Club partner, which continues to break new ground in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

He said, “We are always looking for ways to collaborate with our partners to deliver new initiatives, such as this one, to our members and fans.

“Whether it’s membership offerings or in this case purchasing food and beverage on game day, we also want to give our supporters the opportunity to choose what best suits them.”

Datamesh CEO Mark Nagy added, “From the outset, our mission has been to dismantle the barriers between traditional payments and the potential use of digital currencies.

“We empower consumers by enabling smooth and secure cryptocurrency transactions, unlocking a new frontier of payment acceptance.

“DataMesh’s cutting-edge payment technology, which is seamlessly integrated with Echidna POS, empowers Crypto.com users to effortlessly leverage their holdings for everyday purchases, ushering in a new era of crypto adoption.”

For customers who want to pay with their crypto, Crypto.com is selected as the preferred payment method at the time of checkout to generate a dynamic QR code on the merchant terminal which the customer then scans with their Crypto.com App. The customer selects and authorises their preferred cryptocurrency for payment.

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