Going for gold: when fintech meets the Olympics
“I touched the wall and all my dreams, hopes and ambitions basically coalesced into one moment.”
The Olympics and the financial services industry have a connected history
Those were the words of Australian swimmer Duncan Armstrong after winning gold at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988.
The Olympics symbolises excellence. Every four years, athletes from across the world are provided the opportunity to realise their dreams and cement themselves as the undisputed leader in their discipline.
And the same can be said for the fintechs and financial services firms that work alongside the world’s foremost sports competition.
With the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on the horizon, FinTech Futures looks at how the relationship between financial services and the Olympics has evolved in recent years, what to expect from this relationship at the 33rd Olympiad in France, and how the industry may help shape the Olympics in the coming years.
A blossoming relationship
The relationship between fintechs and the Olympics is well-documented. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has often seen the benefits of tapping the financial services sector for its innovative tech solutions, while fintechs have also taken the opportunity to showcase new products or simply rebrand old ones.
Take the 2008 Beijing Olympics for example, which introduced China to a new payment solution, the ‘Great Wall’ card offered by the Bank of China and China’s UnionPay. The bank-issued prepaid card was only available to tourists and allowed them to access China’s payment system to pay for goods while attending the games.
The 2012 Olympics in London were a hotbed for fintech innovation. With smartphone-based payments still in their infancy, Samsung tested the waters with the introduction of a near-field communication-enabled mobile phone, leveraging Visa’s payWave technology. Visa even demoed its contactless payment card at the games, which could be used at over 3,000 points of sale across the Olympic venues.
During the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Visa took the opportunity to unveil three payment wearables. The paytech giant presented near-field communication-enabled payment gloves, Olympic pins and commemorative stickers, which allowed fans and athletes to make payments with a simple tap at any contactless-enabled terminal.
In more recent times, innovations in AI are increasingly being utilised by the IOC. During the Tokyo Games in 2021, AI was used to collect athletes’ performance data through wearable sensors, enhance security measures, and even helped create the official theme song.
2021 also saw the IOC attempt to deliver its digital strategy to “embrace new digital technologies” by offering fans non-fungible token (NFT) Olympic pins sold via San Francsico-headquartered tech platform nWayPlay’s marketplace.
Fintech and Paris 2024
Paris will be the host of the 33rd Summer Olympic Games this year
This year, all eyes will be on France as it hosts the summer Olympics for the first time since 1924.
Not only will the athletes and spectators be in town, but so too the fintechs. The Chinese tech giant Alibaba has been named a worldwide partner and official cloud service provider to the Paris Olympics, with its digital backbone Alibaba Cloud being directly leveraged by the event’s organisers.
In 2020, Alibaba Cloud announced that its tech would be used to support Paris 2024’s digital infrastructure and host the official interactive website, Paris2024.org, to help “digitalise the Olympic games”.
A common name seen throughout the Olympics/fintech story is that of Visa, the games’ worldwide partner since 1986. The official payment technology partner of the coming games will once again be deploying its payment solutions to the spectators and the event’s organising committees.
The global payments heavyweight is also committed to the future of the athletes on display, with its Team Visa programme aimed at providing competitors tools and resources to support them “on and off the pitch” – in total, 56 Team Visa athletes are set to participate at Paris 2024.
A similar project can be seen in the UK, with NatWest partnering with Team GB and revealing that the financial organisation is offering GB competitors resources to help set up small businesses if they desire to do so.
Visa has also announced a partnership with Bulgaria’s Fibank to launch Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic-themed credit and debit cards. In comments made to FinTech Futures, a Visa spokesperson explained that the cards offer “Fibank customers the opportunity to enjoy unique benefits” and emphasises the company’s commitment to the “values and spirit” of the games.
Meanwhile, on the tech front, AI will also be further leveraged this summer, with the Paris Paralympics implementing Intel’s AI-powered 3D Athlete Tracking (3DAT) solution for the first time. This is projected to improve the fan experience by using cameras with AI and computer vision to provide fans with biomechanical analysis of the competitors (i.e. their speed, distance remaining in the race, and so on), with the near real-time data to be displayed on screen and during replays.
2028 and beyond
Tech innovation is a key objective for the IOC going forward, with global business consulting firm Deloitte being tasked to support its digital transformation strategy. The Olympic committee will utilise the UK-based firm’s tech services and expertise as it looks to replace its legacy systems and personalise the fan experience, with a partnership being agreed through to 2032.
Furthermore, in an interesting development over the past few years, the financial services sector has turned the tables and has looked to tap the Olympics ecosystem by recruiting former athletes to head up their firms. Companies are identifying the benefit of employing hyper-competitive individuals in a hyper-competitive landscape.
This year, former GB archer Helen Bierton, who competed at the Athens Summer Olympics in 2004, was appointed director of everyday banking for Lloyds, while former junior fencing Olympiad Nico Simko rose through the ranks at JP Morgan before founding digital banking platform Clair.
Whether it’s providing the infrastructure for the games’ payment systems or helping to unearth the fintech leaders of tomorrow, what is clear is the interconnectedness between financial services and the Olympics. Both look to unite the world with their products and reward those who are first to innovate. Expect to see this relationship continue to blossom.
