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Mastercard's Web3 Experience at Arnold Palmer Invitational 2024 🏌️

Mastercard launch another Web3 activation with a sponsor partner using their Pass to Priceless Web3 Platform; the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational

March 18, 2024

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Introduction

👋 Welcome back to another edition of Sporting Crypto!

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how ‘hot’ crypto is for retail and institutions in finance, but not for brands.

For retail, you can see searches for crypto rising in Google Analytics, and Coinbase rising through the Apple app store rankings.

For institutions, we are seeing incredible amounts of capital come into this space through the Bitcoin ETF.

But brands, on the other hand, are lagging.

We are in a generational era of corporate cost-cutting, and to some that includes Web3. In the last two months alone, Starbucks have shuttered their Web3 program and Nike have let go of staff from their digital division.

Crypto is back, but is it back for brands?

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Mastercard have followed up their UEFA Champions League NFT Trivia Game with a Web3 activation during the Arnold Pamer Invitational.

For those unfamiliar, the Arnold Palmer Invitational Open is a Tournament, as part of the PGA Tour, in Florida, usually hosted in early March.Discussed:

💳 Mastercard’s Arnold Palmer Invitational Web3 Activation🖥️ Pass to Priceless Platform 🧠Concluding Thoughts & Analysis

💳 Mastercard’s Arnold Palmer Invitational Web3 Activation

During last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, Mastercard cardholders were able to claim collectibles at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge Golf Resort, where the tournament was hosted.

The activation revolved around real-life checkpoints, where users tapped their phone on a reader to claim each collectible.

Users were able to collect four digital passes from different locations at Bay Hill Club and Lodge. Claiming all four passes made users eligible to win prizes and ‘money can’t buy’ experiences.

These prizes and experiences included custom artwork by Coach Rusty, the opportunity to walk inside the ropes of next year’s 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational, or ground passes to next year’s tournament.

The digital passes were located at the following:

  1. Mastercard Palmer Patio - an exclusive Mastercard-only spectator venue located on the 14th green.

  2. Fan Village - The fan Village located on the 9th fairway

  3. Foodies & Fairways 

  4. Mastercard Club - a venue open exclusively to all Mastercard cardholders, at the 9th hole

At the Mastercard Club, the first 2,000 Mastercard cardholders will receive a limited edition golf hat, exclusively designed to include a contactless chip — allowing holders to relive their visit to Bay Hill at the ‘tap of a hat’.

🖥️ Pass to Priceless Platform

Mastercard’s Pass to Priceless platform, built with the support of MoonPay, aims to centralise Mastercard cetric, and adjacent experiences, through one user login in the form of a crypto wallet.

It’s a simple sign-up process.

The MoonPay backend creates a wallet associated with your email and to the average user, it feels like signing up for any product or service.

In the below example, you can see the user flow for their UEFA Champions League program, which allows users to claim a ‘Mastercard x Champions League pass’ allowing you to then engage in trivia throughout the tournament.

The experience is pretty seamless to the average user, and logging in and out is done strictly through email — so there’s no need to engage with a crypto wallet at all.

🧠Concluding Thoughts & Analysis

🤝 In the short term, sponsors seem to be the way forward. 

When budgets are tight, it’s difficult to convince internal stakeholders that Web3 is the right thing to invest your time and resources into.

But if you’re a sports brand with a sponsor who actively wants to engage the audience they’re renting, with digital assets, there is not much you have to do. It’s already part of a sponsorship contract. If Mastercard wants a phygital piece of merchandise using assets they’ve already acquired in a sponsorship deal, as long as that contract doesn’t say they *cannot use digital assets* — it’s their right to do so.

I think that this is the cycle of sponsors when it comes to Web3 & sports.

Everyone wants to ‘do Web3’ but they don’t want it to be a commercial sink.

And with fewer blockchains footing the bill, it feels like sponsors are the ones who will step in to take the financial burden in the short term.

🌐 Connected loyalty is a plus point 

When I saw Visa announce the launch of a ‘Web3 loyalty’ solution which centres around their payments ecosystem, I have to be honest I raised an eyebrow. But an ‘everything loyalty’ solution can only be configured via a payments system… which Visa of course has. So the dots started to connect to that extent, for me.

Mastercard and Amex, also have those networks.

While crypto-native payment networks remain largely immature, especially at scale, it makes sense for payment networks with significant market share to try and engage networks of younger people, through digital means. One of those could be Web3.

We’ve already seen Starbucks shutter its blockchain loyalty program, and Nike lay off some of their digital staff. Using an ‘open’ technology to build siloed loyalty programs means you are using less of the attributes that make blockchains special, even though I believe you don’t have to use all of those attributes to make a successful Web3 product.

With Mastercard however, they’re in a position where — although their users may not be loyal to them (who loves their payment provider?!) — but they are loyal to the things they sponsor.

Sports and Entertainment.

If Mastercard can become the entry point in Web3 for sports fans with the likes of the UEFA Champions League and the PGA Tour, they could build a large network of fans they can leverage via direct relationships in the future beyond one-off activations.

📉 In an era of generational corporate cost-cutting, Web3 is shoved to the side by brands. 

As far as corporations go, layoffs are still prevalent and cost-cutting is still rife.

If an entity is at the beginning of its Web3 journey from a strategic perspective and feels like the return on investment is years in the future. It’s a straightforward decision for said strategy to be shuttered early.

I’ve said multiple times that first-mover advantage in a space so nascent isn’t something big brands need to worry about. Starbucks could easily turn Starbucks Odyssey ‘back on’ in the future when there is greater demand for digital assets as part of their user journey.

We’re in a weird spot right now where crypto is hot — but brands want the potential of ‘lots of new customers’ or ‘lots more money’ and won’t be lulled into the idea that this is the future just because a memecoin explodes in value, no matter what a consultant you know says.

Brands played a huge part in the last crypto cycle but right now they’re bystanders to some extent as prices rise and users return.

And whilst it probably won’t impact them negatively soon, there is a potential future where Web3 literate or even native brands start eating their lunch.

💡 Sporting Crypto Spotlight - Ep. 15 of the Podcast!

In Ep. 15 of the Podcast I was lucky enough to speak to Matt Lord, Director of Technology & Digital Systems at SailGP!

Watch the episode on YouTube!

Or your podcast player of choice… if you’d prefer not to see our faces!

More Sports & Web3 Stories

  • LFP Media launches fantasy blockchain game with trading cards (Read more here)

  • UEFA takes another run at crypto by inviting Champions League sponsor bids (Read more here)

  • MLS continues fan engagement drive with renewed focus on NFTs (Read more here)

  • From SBJ: Marketing and Sponsorship: As bitcoin and crypto soar again, expect another sponsorship run (Read more here)

  • Animoca Brands makes strategic investment in UAE gaming start-up Param Labs (Read more here)

General ‘Stuff’ that Could Impact You

  • Moonbug & VaynerWatt To Co-Create Animated Series Based On VeeFriends Franchise (Read more here)

  • Starbucks Is Shutting Down Its Odyssey Beta NFT Rewards Program—Will It Return? (Read more here)

  • With Mastercard, MetaMask Tests First Blockchain-Powered Payment Card (Read more here)

  • London Stock Exchange to Accept Applications for Bitcoin, Ethereum ETNs (Read more here)

  • Craig Wright Did Not Invent Bitcoin and Is Not Satoshi Nakamoto: UK Judge Ruling (Read more here)

  • Crypto.com inks deal with Altava Group to boost Web3 through fashion (Read more here)

Thanks for reading the latest edition of the Sporting Crypto newsletter. I’m happy to see so many people enjoying and sharing it with their networks.

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Disclaimers

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not financial, business or legal advice.These are the author’s thoughts & opinions and do not represent the opinions of any other person, business, entity or sponsor. Any companies or projects mentioned are for illustrative purposes unless specified.

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