The St. Louis Blues said Thursday they’ve inked a multiyear partnership with a blockchain startup to implement its technology to drive a more personalized fan experience, while also creating increased revenue opportunities for the team and its partners.
The Blues have teamed up with San Francisco-based Credenza Inc. to integrate its blockchain technology into the team’s Bluenatics fan engagement app. Blockchain technology is a distributed database that's shared across different components of a network. The partnership will create the Bluenatics Passport that will be a "universal ID for all fan activities" using blockchain technology to cull data from consumer transactions with the team to provide personalized incentives.
Financial terms of the Blues' new partnership were not disclosed. Credenza, founded in 2021, is focused on providing blockchain technology to sports teams and leagues to bolster fan engagement and revenue generation. The Blues are Credenza’s first major partner in professional sports, said Credenza's chief revenue officer, Pat Coyle.
The partnership with Credenza marks the latest initiative by the Blues in recent years to partner with startups to bring new technology to its fans.
"They have a reputation (that’s) well-earned for being really smart and strategic about using technology," Coyle said of the Blues.
Matt Gardner, the Blues' vice president of innovation and digital strategy, said conversations with Credenza began a little less than a year ago
Gardner knew Credenza founder and CEO Sandy Khaund through his involvement as a mentor with St. Louis-based startup investor Stadia Ventures. Stadia invested in Upgraded, another blockchain startup founded by Khaund that sold in 2018 to Ticketmaster. Discussions between Credenza and the Blues began broadly by exploring how the two could partner on blockchain technology, Gardner said. The Blues eventually decided the best approach toward the technology is to use it to make its “data actionable in a way that would also deliver incentives and benefits to our fanbase,” he said.
Gardner said the startup’s technology will allow the Bluenatics Passport to save as a “centralized hub” that connects business systems used by the Blues, including ticketing, concessions, retail and partnerships. By connecting the systems, Gardner said the blockchain technology allows the Blues to track fan habits and purchases, allowing the team to provide personalize discounts and other exclusive offers to fans based on a fan's individual behavior. For example, he said if the data show a fan frequently buys popcorn at Blues games, they could be offered a coupon for their next popcorn purchase.
The Blues plan to begin offering Bluenatics Passport in the 2023-24 NHL season. Existing Bluenatics users, as well as new ones, will be able to opt in to the program. The Blues said their Bluenatics platform currently has 127,000 members. Gardner said it’s important to make signing up for the program simple and the Blues said they will share more details on the program’s benefits and opt-in process as next season approaches.
“The more complicated you make programs like this, the less likely you get the adoption that you’re looking for,” Gardner said.
The Blues said in a news release Thursday that the partnership with Credenza will seek to boost engagement across several platforms, with a goal of creating “valuable fan-facing applications for the Blues App and NHL.com, in-arena at Enterprise Center, on television broadcasts, and potentially a team store in the Metaverse.”
Coyle said Credenza will measure the success of its partnership with the Blues by tracking how its technology can help the NHL franchise grow fan engagement, boost fan spending and help team partners and sponsors connect with fans.
“If we are able to show that we can help the Blues do that, that opens up the door for us to have lots of opportunity,” he said.
