Football fans in Mexico can now make contactless payments from a stored-value digital wallet to buy Corona beer at selected matches at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium using an NFC chip attached to the inside of a soccer jersey.

Corona is trialling the service to allow fans to make contactless payments without needing to take cash, payment cards or a smartphone to a match and risk having them stolen by pickpockets operating in the stadium.

The service — known as Jersey Pay — enables fans to take their team’s football jersey to a designated store or in-stadium stall to have the waterproof NFC chip inserted behind the team badge on the top.

They can then add funds to the digital wallet on the chip via drinks retailer Modelorama’s website and make purchases on match day by tapping the badge on a vendor’s NFC-enabled payment terminal.

A short video shows how Jersey Pay works.

During the pilot 30,000 tags have been installed and Corona’s in-stadium sales volume have increased by 35%, with branches of Modelorama retail outlets also seeing a 25% increase in footfall, according to marketing research agency Contagious.

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