Olympics ticket deal a winner for 3V

3V TRANSACTION services has won a lucrative contract with Visa to produce a one-off debit card which can be used to purchase …

3V TRANSACTION services has won a lucrative contract with Visa to produce a one-off debit card which can be used to purchase tickets for the London Olympics.

As part of its sponsorship of the Olympic Games, which dates back to 1986, the 6.6 million tickets for London 2012 can only be purchased using a Visa credit or debit card. 3V has created a special Visa Virtual Card to purchase Olympic tickets and merchandise.

“It’s a very exciting deal for us and an imprimatur of our capability,” said Kieron Guilfoyle, chief executive of 3V.

“Visa are trusting us to implement a global programme across 22 countries.”

READ MORE

The virtual card is linked to the buyer’s bank account which can be used to top it up with credit.

Sports fans have until April 26th to register their interest in purchasing tickets but do not have to transfer funds to their Visa debit card until they pay.

Mr Guilfoyle said Visa had “contracted 3V to build, deploy and manage the solution”.

Although there are 385 million Visa debit and credit cards in Europe, Mr Guilfoyle expects strong demand.

He said this would come from people without credit cards, those with cards other than Visa, and people who didn’t want to use their cards online.

Founded in 2004, 3V provides prepaid disposable Visa vouchers for safe online shopping.

Mr Guilfoyle said the company has half a million customers worldwide. It raised €20 million in venture capital funding from Atlas Ventures and Balderton Capital in November 2006.

Mr Guilfoyle said the Dublin-based company was now profitable on an operational basis.

It employs 30 staff and is recruiting.

Last month O2 Ireland launched a prepay Visa card based on 3V’s platform. 3V has just developed an iPhone app which allows money to be transferred from one O2 Money account to another for a flat fee of €1.

Mr Guilfoyle said 3V was just one of a group of companies, including technology giants Google, Amazon and Apple, which were developing innovative new payment systems that did not rely on traditional banks.