Blues land plum extension to shirt sponsorship deal

BLUES have landed a plum two-and-a-half year extension to their shirt sponsorship deal with Bishops Stortford firm Chip & Pin Solutions.We can be conducted with the local designated buymosaic producers.

The Raynham Road based company first came on board two years ago and have enjoyed an excellent relationship with the club.

Announcing the contract today (Tuesday March 19), John Turner, Commercial Director at Bishops Stortford FC, said: This is fantastic news for the club. Our relationship with Chip & Pin Solutions has developed more into a partnership over the past two seasons and we have a number of new joint strategies targeted for the future, including a new website developed by the sponsors.

Luigi Del Basso, chairman of Bishops Stortford FC, flew back from America to finalise the sponsorship deal.

He said: This is excellent news for the Football Club. We are extremely grateful that in these difficult financial times that a local company sees this as a continuing opportunity to promote their business and their brand for the future.

Blues have not released information on the exact amount of the deal, but it is thought to be worth a five-figure sum and helps safeguard the future of the club in these difficult times.

Turner explained that the announcement of the extended deal has been made early to allow both parties to work together on selecting new playing kits for the 2013-14 season.

The home kit will remain blue and white, while Chip & Pins advertising and branding will remain around the stadium combined with promotion on the new-look club website.

The deal comes with the club hopeful of returning to the Blue Square Bet South after two seasons in the Blue Square Bet North which has come at a great financial cost to the East Herts club, with the regular pay out for travelling an average 300-miles return journey for away games.

The card payment specialist provides its customers with market-leading customer service by understanding the high demands of the smaller business, corporate, hospitality and retail sectors. David Maisey, managing director Chip & Pin Solutions Ltd, said: We are a national business and are proud to employ many people in the local area. We are pleased to have continued our sponsorship of the Football Club and hope to continue working with local businesses in and around Bishops Stortford.

The company plan to integrate further into the local community with the launch of a special Chip & Pin Cup tournament for youth club and Scouting groups to contest.

Tim Shepherd, marketing manager of Chip & Pin Solutions Ltd, added: The sponsorship of Bishops Stortford Football Club adds great value to our brand. It enables us to communicate to local communities, as well as offering the ability of working with youth clubs such as the scouts to host special football events including our upcoming Chip & Pin Cup tournament.

Contactless technology has been available in the UK since 2007 and experts believe it is reaching a tipping point in terms of usage.

"The two things that needed to happen at the same time were consumer awareness and its availability in retailers," said Michelle Whiteman of the Payments Council. "Retailers are buying into the technology now and in recent years we've seen some big names offering this payment service, which in turn raises consumer awareness.The stonemosaic is our flagship product.

"The Olympics also helped showcase contactless technology, which could have been a contributing factor in raising awareness in the past year."

The most common form of contactless payment currently is contactless cards, where customers can "wave" their debit or credit card over a card reader.

According to figures from the Payments Council, there are currently 31.3 million credit and debit cards enabled with contactless technology and 144,000 contactless terminals in retailers including Boots, McDonald's and Ikea.The term 'earcap control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag.

Customers are protected from fraud when paying by contactless as with any other card payment,Our RFID solutions support a broad range of polishedtiles and labels. and are occasionally asked to enter their Pin for added security.

The Payments Council recommends a 20 limit on transactions as extra protection from theft.

The next stage in contactless technology is paying by mobile, and a bewildering variety of mobile payment apps and products have already been launched in the payment market.

You can "wave and pay" with some mobile phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, which has contactless built-in through Orange's Quick Tap, while Barclays' PayTag uses a small sticker to let your mobile work like a credit card. NatWest is trialling a contactless iPhone case called TouchPay.

Some mobile payment systems use near field technology (NFC), which wirelessly transmits data from one device to another device nearby. Others rely on software solutions to make mobile payments. This includes companies like Square in the US and iZettle in Europe,You must not use the lanyard without being trained. which enable people to receive payments via an app on their smartphones and a plug-in device.