A Five-Franchise Hockey Organization, and up to $1.7M in Recoverable Value
A major Canadian sports and entertainment organization runs five professional franchises and pays a card network cost on every dollar its venues process. CredX showed its leadership what an embedded value platform with fan-facing branded credit returns across the whole portfolio, without replacing a single system.
Embedded Value Platform & fan-facing branded credit · All figures are directional estimates from publicly available data
The cost across five franchises.
On an estimated $49M to $66M in annual gross payment volume, at 1.5% to 2.6%.
The organization pays between 1.5% and 2.6% on every dollar processed through its venues, across an estimated $49M to $66M in annual gross payment volume. That cost leaves before a single operating expense is counted.
CredX sits alongside the existing venue infrastructure. Nothing is replaced and no point-of-sale system is touched. Fans onboard through a QR process that takes under 20 seconds, and when they pay through the CredX embedded value layer, the card network cost that would have left the venue stays with the organization. The saving is immediate, and it grows with every fan who adopts it.
| Franchise | Home events | Annual fee exposure | Est. annual saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flagship hockey franchise | 41 | $450K – $988K | $391K – $851K |
| Football franchise | 9 | $81K – $221K | $69K – $188K |
| Junior and minor-league franchisesThree franchises, combined | 81 | $85K – $202K | $72K – $172K |
| Portfolio total | 131 | $735K – $1.72M | $532K – $1.21M |
Saving estimates at 85% fan adoption. All figures are directional estimates based on publicly available venue volume data.
20 seconds. No new hardware. No disruption.
The first concern any major venue operator raises is integration: point-of-sale systems, inventory and payment infrastructure carry years of configuration and long contracts. In a live session with the organization's business development and partnership leadership, CredX showed three capabilities that answer it directly. Nothing gets replaced, there is no back-end migration and operations staff need no retraining.
- QR onboarding in under 20 seconds
- A fan scans a QR code at any touchpoint in the venue (concessions, merchandise, ticketing, parking) and is enrolled in the branded fan credit experience in one session. No app download, no separate sign-up and no friction at the point of sale.
- Lower cost on every fan who adopts
- Each fan who pays through the CredX embedded value layer takes that transaction off the card networks, and the organization keeps what would have left the venue on that tap. The estimates above assume up to 85% of fans adopting it.
- A branded fan credit experience
- It sits on top of what already exists. Fans see the organization's brand at every touchpoint while CredX runs in the background, and the member relationship, the brand equity and the fan data stay with the organization.
Available credit changes every transaction.
The dynamic that drives conversion in retail, hospitality and golf clubs applies in sports venues too, with one difference: a hockey fan's spending window is three hours, and a decision that does not convert inside it cannot be recovered later.
When a fan arrives with a pre-approved branded credit facility already active, the $180 jersey, the upgraded seats and the post-game dinner convert instead of being put off. Across a five-month season, higher conversion and larger transactions compound: a 20% lift in per-fan spend across 41 home dates, at an average transaction of $45, adds more to the organization's annual revenue than a new sponsorship category.
| Benchmark | Directional figure |
|---|---|
| Uplift | 321% |
| Greater spend when fans return | 76% |
| Revenue lift on premium upsells | 2–4× |
The 321% and 76% figures are PayPal benchmark data, not CredX results, shown for illustrative comparison in a similar embedded payment ecosystem.
The organization's brand. CredX infrastructure.
The whole platform runs under the organization's brand, or any name the group chooses. The technology, compliance and credit infrastructure are CredX's; the fan relationship and the brand equity belong to the organization.
- Branded fan revolving credit
- A digital revolving credit facility under the organization's name, available at every touchpoint: concessions, merchandise, ticketing, premium experiences, parking and event entry. It lives in the fan's digital wallet next to their other payment methods, and no physical card is issued. To the fan it is a team benefit; the CredX name never appears, and approval, servicing and compliance run behind it.
- Fan value-back participation
- Fans who opt in, with explicit consent, take part in a value-back program funded by the transaction data they generate. For the first time a share of the value their spending creates comes back to them, as spendable credit that lowers the cost of attending games, buying merchandise and other recurring fan expenses.
Not a points program.
Points wear down the margin without recovering it. This works the other way: transaction value that would have leaked to the card networks is kept inside the organization's own ecosystem, where it becomes reusable capital. It can fund the program, subsidize future fan offers or go straight to the bottom line.
The fan sees one slice of it returned as credit, and the organization keeps the rest, permanently. Both sides compound with every transaction.
Interest rate: 11% per annum, competitive with prime-linked personal credit.
The data the organization has never had.
Every transaction through CredX across the five franchises produces structured data: what was bought, at which venue, at what point in the game, by which fan segment. It comes back to the organization as readable intelligence, not raw numbers.
Across more than 131 home events a year, that answers questions the organization could not see before: which concession locations peak in the second period, which fan segments drive merchandise volume, where spend drops after the third period, and which events produce the highest spend per fan.
The fan consents to its use, takes part in the value it generates and controls whether they participate. It is a consent-based ecosystem where the fan knows what their data is doing and receives real value when they share it.
SOC 2 and designed to align with PIPEDA.
Franchise by franchise, stream by stream.
The tables below break the value into three streams. Streams 2 and 3 are separate from the transaction fee savings and sit on top of them: every dollar in them is incremental. Conservative figures assume moderate fan adoption; upside reflects strong in-season engagement.
| Franchise | Conservative | Upside |
|---|---|---|
| Flagship hockey franchise | $464K | $1.24M |
| Football franchise | $68K | $215K |
| Junior and minor-league franchises | $73K | $198K |
| Stream 1 total | $637K | $2.90M |
The CredX flat rate against current variable processing costs, estimated from public venue volume data.
| Franchise | Conservative | Upside |
|---|---|---|
| Flagship hockey franchise | $83K | $148K |
| Football franchise | $15K | $42K |
| Junior and minor-league franchises | $12K | $40K |
| Stream 2 subtotal | $110K | $230K |
Lower hardware and settlement costs from routing fan spend through the CredX QR flow instead of card-present terminals. Above the transaction savings.
| Franchise | Conservative | Upside |
|---|---|---|
| Flagship hockey franchise | $60K | $120K |
| Football franchise | $9K | $18K |
| Junior and minor-league franchises | $8K | $16K |
| New arena (projected) | $54K | $108K |
| Stream 3 subtotal | $131K | $262K |
Aggregate transaction visibility returned to the organization: which fan segments spend more, where spend per fan peaks and drops, and which events drive the strongest merchandise sales. Above the transaction savings.
| Revenue component | Conservative | Upside |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction fee savings (Stream 1) | $532K | $1.21M |
| QR hardware & settlement saving (Stream 2) | $110K | $230K |
| Fan spending intelligence (Stream 3) | $131K | $262K |
| Combined portfolio value | $773K | $1.70M |
All five franchises. All estimates based on publicly available data.
What the demo showed.
The session drew a response common among major sports and entertainment operators: the concept is compelling, the numbers are real, and the concern is operational. A point-of-sale system already paid for, a migration already under way, another technology project the current cycle cannot absorb.
CredX answered that in the demo. The embedded value layer does not compete with existing infrastructure, needs no migration window and no parallel implementation. It is an overlay, and existing systems stay exactly as they are.
The organization's major new venue gives it a natural window for a full-scale implementation. The junior franchises in the same group, though, run on simpler infrastructure with shorter decision cycles, and are available as a pilot today. One season at one junior property produces a clean data set, a validated cost-reduction figure, and a case for the major venue built on the organization's own numbers rather than estimates.
One property. One season. Zero disruption to how that property already operates.
Start with one property.
CredX models your venues' actual transaction volume and fan spending, and maps a single-season pilot that proves the numbers on your own data.