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Shift4 Payments Inc. has been cementing its position as a major payments provider for stadiums and arenas, and early on Wednesday it announced a big move into a closely related market: online ticketing. The Allentown, Pa.-based processor said it will handle payments for all tickets sold through Premier Productions’ iTickets.com platform.
The deal will bring to Shift4 yet more end-to-end payments volume, a key strategy for the company as it seeks to sign more such deals and convert gateway clients to its more profitable end-to-end service. With gateway deals, Shift4 sends payments volume to other processors. The company reported last week its fourth-quarter end-to-end volume grew a record 55% year-over-year to $20.7 billion. Among other markets, Shift4’s end-to-end platform now processes for more than 150 sports stadiums and other entertainment venues, according to the company.
Said to be one of the world’s largest promoters of live events, Nashville, Tenn.-based Premier Productions serves as the producer for “hundreds” of events annually and sells just shy of 1 million tickets each year, according to information released by Shift4. The company started out in 1996 and concentrates on the “faith and family” segment of live events, according to information from Shift4. In 2019, the latest year for which information is available, Premier was ranked the fourth-largest U.S. concert and event promoter by Pollstar, a trade publication for the live-event industry.
Also on Wednesday, the major Montreal-based e-commerce processor Nuvei Corp. announced its fourth-quarter 2022 payments volume totaled $40.3 billion, a 28% increase over the same quarter in 2021.
For the full year, volume rose 34% to $127.7 billion. E-commerce represented about 90% of volume for both periods. Revenue increased 16% to $843.3 million but net income fell 42% to $62 million, chiefly owing to a large increase in “share-based” payments, the company reported. All dollar results are reported in U.S. currency.
Earlier this week, Nuvei reported it has begun operations in Australia for e-commerce processing, following its moves last year into Singapore and Hong Kong.
Nuvei has been an active merger-and-acquisition player, with its latest deal, in which it acquired Atlanta-based processor Paya Holdings Inc. for $1.3 billion, closing last month.
Among its other markets, Nuvei has developed a strong service supporting sports betting in the U.S. market, with clients in several states.
