As of today, attendees at University of Louisville’s basketball games will be able to pay for all concessions purchased at the arena using LevelUp. More than 200 food and beverage stands at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky. are now capable of accepting LevelUp mobile payments.
LevelUp quickly deployed its terminals at the arena thanks to its partnership reached last month with POS system manufacturer Micros, which supplies all POS hardware in the venue.
From GigaOm:
Priebatsch told me the arena deal is significant because it demonstrates the work LevelUp has done to build out its mobile payment system. The company last month announced it had integrated with three of the top point-of-sale systems: Micros, Positouch and Dinerware POS Systems, which cover 30 percent of all POS systems. LevelUp is also working to integrate with nine of the top 10 POS systems.
LevelUp will use its presence at the KFC Yum! Center to try out new services, such as using transaction data to send offers when sales slow down or directing people to less crowded stands during peak times.
This arrangement with the arena has the potential to display the true value of mobile payments. Yes, it is convenient attendees can pay for all food and drink purchases using their mobile phones, but they could already pay for all food and drink purchases with a credit card. The value comes from creating an environment where leather wallets are unnecessary. If the ticket can be stored on the mobile device, payments can be made from the device, loyalty cards and coupons accessed via the device, then all of the paper and plastic tokens can be left at home. Legal IDs cannot yet be stored in a smartphone; but for those not driving or purchasing alcohol, why bother bringing a wallet at all?
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