Viva.com Scales UK Event Payments Partnership with MARI to Reach 3 Million Visitors

Quick Summary

Viva.com has expanded its event payments partnership with MARI to cover five major UK festivals, including Hyde Park Winter Wonderland and Taste of London. Utilizing Tap on Any Device technology, the partnership facilitates seamless transactions for over 3 million visitors, ensuring high-volume reliability and offline payment capabilities.

How Does Viva.com Support High-Volume Event Payments?

Event payments partnership success in high-pressure environments requires infrastructure that eliminates traditional bottlenecks. Viva.com deploys its full payments stack, anchored by Tap on Any Device technology, which transforms any Android or iPhone into a point-of-sale terminal. This flexibility allows vendors to transact anywhere on-site, removing the need for fixed till points and reducing queue times during peak periods.

• 450+ payment devices deployed at flagship events like Winter Wonderland.
• 3.5 million+ transactions processed successfully over previous seasons.
• 40+ payment methods supported to cater to a diverse, international audience.

What Results Has the MARI Partnership Delivered?

The collaboration has proven its scalability by managing massive footfall volumes across the UK's most iconic summer and winter festivals. By integrating offline payment guarantees, Viva.com ensures that sales continue even in areas with poor connectivity, a critical factor for outdoor festival sites. This reliability has led to the partnership's expansion from a single event to a five-event UK portfolio with potential for European growth.

• 2.4 million visitors served at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland alone.
• 1.2 million footfall managed during the Electric Summer series.
• Real-time settlement features that help merchants protect margins and manage cash flow instantly.

“MARI's portfolio brings together some of the UK's most recognised live event brands. Our extended partnership puts Viva.com to work across some of the UK's highest-footfall, most demanding payment environments. Payments that perform in every queue, at every peak, at every point of sale, in all connectivity conditions. Exactly what our platform is built for.” said George Sinanis, CΟΟ, Viva.com UK Ltd.

How Does Technology Improve the Visitor Experience?

For the 3 million+ visitors attending these events, the event payments partnership focuses on frictionless commerce. Features like Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) allow international tourists to pay in their home currency, while the support for contactless mobile payments aligns with modern consumer habits. This technological layer, supported on the ground by event tech partner Tapaygo, ensures that the payment process is an invisible, efficient part of the festival experience.

“We're delighted to be continuing our partnership with Viva.com for a third year. Over the past two years, they have demonstrated their value at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland through a robust and reliable platform, strong revenue protection backed by their offline guarantee, and exceptional on-the-ground support. Following that success, we're excited to extend these benefits to the new events line up, helping us deliver a seamless experience.” said Alay Paun, Senior Finance Operations Manager, MARI.

FF NEWS TAKE:

This expansion proves that Viva.com is successfully carving out a niche in the high-stakes event payments partnership sector. By solving the "connectivity nightmare" of outdoor festivals with robust offline capabilities and hardware-free SoftPOS, they are moving the needle for merchant acquirers. Handling 3.5 million transactions at a single site isn't just a pilot; it’s a battle-tested validation of their cloud-native stack against legacy hardware competitors.