Dive Brief:
- PayPal Holdings has become the National Football League’s “official” peer-to-peer payments partner by way of a multi-year deal that designates the company as the tool by which NFL fans can send, pool or split money, the company said Tuesday in a press release. A PayPal spokesperson declined to comment on financial details of the deal.
- The new tie to the major U.S. sports league not only provides a high-profile marketing opportunity for the digital payments player, the company said the partnership also will make its apps more available for payments when NFL fans pool money for purchases, including for games overseas.
- “As an official NFL partner, PayPal P2P customers will have access to benefits like being able to enter exclusive sweepstakes for tickets, upgraded seating, and exclusive experiences,” the company said in the press release.
Dive Insight:
The San Jose, California-based company sees the new NFL tie allowing it to be a part of fans’ pooling money and splitting payments for everything from game tickets to tailgating expenses. Such payments could include those over PayPal’s P2P tool Venmo.
The link to the NFL comes as the company’s new CEO, Enrique Lores, is plugging for renewed growth after two prior chief executives struggled to expand the brand’s appeal. PayPal plans to take a more targeted approach to building its business with a focus on boosting its legacy payment checkout services and its biggest merchant clients.
Lores served on the company’s board before taking over the top post last month from Alex Chriss, who also made significant marketing moves, including launching an ad campaign featuring the comedian-actor Will Ferrell.
The new NFL relationship builds on sports contracts PayPal forged last year with two big college sports leagues, the Big Ten and Big 12 Conferences.
PayPal has some 430 million active merchant and consumer accounts across its payments ecosystem, touching 200 markets worldwide.
