Partners: bdG Sports, MGM Resorts International

At the MGM Resorts Championship golf tournament at Paiute, Fobi demonstrated a unified technology solution to simultaneously address 2 major challenges for sports business in the post-pandemic period:

1) Hosting live events in accordance with health guidelines. 

2) Delivering ongoing digital fan engagements that drive value for sponsors.

Fobi’s Solution

Fobi’s end-to-end Venue Management solution makes it easy for venues and event organizers to host live events safely. By connecting users’ vaccination status & COVID-19 testing information to a personalized digital access pass, Fobi’s technology lets venues automate access control based on users’ relevant health information – creating a fully contained and secure event bubble.

Fobi's solution creates a digital access pass in the native mobile wallet preinstalled on every Apple and Android device (Apple Pay & Google Pay), so users are not required to download any additional app to get their access pass. Since Fobi uses mobile wallet technology for both its Venue Management solution and its mobile Engage solution, the same platform used to provide contactless check-ins, exposure tracing, and targeted mobile alerts can also be used to manage customer / purchase data & deliver personalized mobile marketing at scale.

Compared with Fobi’s 3 previous Venue Management deployments for bdG, the MGM Resorts Championship was the most substantial implementation of the mobile engagement capabilities of the wallet pass thus far.

Over 4 days, attendees used Fobi’s mobile wallet pass to check in at various checkpoints stations placed at specific junctures throughout Paiute Golf Resort in Las Vegas. Attendees were sent alternating promotions from MGM Resorts & Bet MGM, which Fobi delivered directly to their phones by pushing updates to their wallet pass. To obtain their wallet pass, attendees were prompted to submit their role at the event (players, volunteers & staff, and fans) – as well as their age.  Using this information, Fobi delivered the BetMGM promotion for its gaming service exclusively to the segment of attendees verified to be over the legal age of eligibility.  Additionally, all clicks performed by users could be tracked back to the different categories of attendees present.

Mobile Engagement Results

Fobi’s deployment at the MGM Resorts Championship exceeded expectations, with stellar ad performance metrics unequivocally affirming the power & enormous potential of Fobi’s unique formula for delivering hyper-contextual, on-location mobile activations at live events.  By leveraging the multifunctional mobile wallet pass present on all Android and Apple devices, Fobi’s provided a unified solution for access management and fan engagement. 

The wallet pass technology was distinguished by its simpler, faster user onboarding, and extremely high user retention rate after the event compared with purpose-built mobile apps.  Building on the experience gained from Fobi’s previous collaborations with bdG, this event represents a key milestone in the evolution and ongoing development of Fobi’s solutions suite for addressing the unique mobile engagement and venue management needs facing sports and live entertainment operators in the post pandemic period.