FanFood, a mobile platform for ordering concessions, is making a push into high school sports to serve as a proving ground for its technology.
The Chicago-based company is announcing this week that it has a four-year deal with Outfront Media Sports to be the “official digital concession solution” for California, Louisiana, Arizona, Michigan, Oregon, New Mexico and Nevada’s high school sports associations.
Carson Goodale, co-founder and CEO of FanFood, said the jump into high school sports concessions is a bit quicker and easier because of the lower barriers to entry compared with making deals with professional and collegiate teams that have established agreements with concessionaires and vendors.
“Mobile ordering in the sports space is tough to get because you have multiple decision makers,” Goodale said. “You have the concessionaire, the teams. But with high schools you’re mostly working with volunteer booster clubs that have decision-making authority on something like this.”
Goodale said the seven states represent 20 percent of the U.S. high school concessions market, which he estimates to be worth $10 billion overall.
FanFood will charge each school a one-time $250 setup fee for each kit purchased, which includes a tablet, mounts, marketing materials and training. Schools then pay FanFood $99 a month, or $1,000 a year, for each kit purchased to maintain and assist with the platform. Goodale said most high school customers buy two kits. The company will work with schools to set convenience fee rates, of which the company will get 40 percent. The system allows schools to ask customers for tips or donations that range from 10 to 15 percent of the transaction cost, Goodale added.
FanFood’s concessions management platform allows high school fans and parents to order concessions ahead, have concessions delivered during the game to their seat, or offer an express line, Goodale said. FanFood’s current roster of high school clients have seen on average a 20 percent bump in concession sales, he added. Along with the University of North Carolina and the University of South Carolina, FanFood has 50 venue clients overall, which are mostly minor league ballparks.
The long-term goal for FanFood is to become a player in professional sports. It sees the high school deals as a way to get people familiar with the technology and to grow its reputation.
In March, FanFood secured a new $2 million investment from Phoenix Sports Partners, which invests in sports technology firms. Last month, FanFood announced it had partnered with Samsung on the backend technology used in the platform.
