Fiserv targets sports and entertainment venues with Clover Sport suite

The news: Fiserv introduced Clover Sport, a suite of tools for arenas, stadiums, and entertainment venues, per a press release.

Under the hood: The payment suite brings together the Clover point-of-sale (POS) platform and Bypass, a back-office management system that Fiserv acquired in 2020. Clover Sport offers venues contactless payment acceptance, order management, and inventory tracking.

The trend: Fiserv has been on a verticalization push—part of an industry-wide trend of developing more tailored offerings.

• While a one-size-fits-all approach may work for smaller providers looking to cast a wider net, verticalization is gaining traction among larger, more established providers that want to hone in on specific market needs.
• Payment providers are leveraging in-house research and development, acquisitions, and partnerships to tap into each vertical—like Block’s Square for Restaurants suite, which it just expanded after acquiring GoParrot, and Paysafe’s and Shift4’s push into casinos and online gaming.
• As the payment sector becomes more competitive, providers like Fiserv can use verticalization to diversify their offerings and stand out from one-size-fits-all providers.

Why it’s worth watching: The return to in-person gatherings has opened an opportunity for payment providers as venues grapple with new consumer habits.

• Declining cash use is increasing the need for digital solutions. The share of POS payments made with cash in North America dropped 3.5% annually last year—and between 2021 and 2025, cash use is expected to decline 45%, according to FIS. Offering more digital ordering and payment solutions through things like Clover Sport can help sports and entertainment venues improve the customer experience.
• Sports and entertainment venues are lucrative businesses. Pre-pandemic, US consumers spent a whopping $56 billion a year on sporting events, per data from CreditCards.com cited by CNBC. Moving into this segment, and in-person events overall, can help Fiserv boost revenues, which grew 10% YoY in Q1, compared with flat growth from the same period last year.

Clover Sport can help Fiserv offer more tailored services to sports and entertainment venues through digital payment tools, attracting a wider base of clients and driving revenues.

Related content: Check out the “Point-of-Sale” section of our payments ecosystem report collection to learn more about how providers are tapping verticalization.