Visa last week began an Olympic campaign to promote a "new tech-enabled ring that will allow users to pay with their Visa accounts just by tapping it at a specially equipped payment terminal," according to Ben Fischer of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. All 45 athletes signed to Team Visa will be "given the jewelry to wear in Rio, where Visa is installing 4,000 such point-of-sale devices." Visa has been the official consumer payment system of the Olympics since '86, and a '15 Turnkey Sports poll of sports execs "rated it as the Games’ best-known sponsor." Its current deal with the IOC runs through '20 and cost about $100M per quadrennium when it was signed in '09. Visa Chief Brand & Innovation Marketing Officer Chris Curtin said that company will "continue to market its brand in the Olympics this year, signing a global stable of athletes to tell a story of worldwide acceptance and a 'borderless world'" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/6 issue). USA TODAY's Edward Baig writes the Rio ring campaign is "essentially meant to be a high-profile beta test, conducted in an open but controlled environment." There are "no immediate plans to make a version of the ring available to consumers" (USA TODAY, 6/7).
