Everton Football Club has outsourced its card payments and transaction network infrastructure to reduce internal complexities.

Everton has evolved into a multi-channel retailer, selling tickets, hospitality packages and merchandise through its stadium shop, the internet and call centres.

However, the resulting payment transactions had become a complex process and Everton decided training staff internally was too costly.

It has outsourced the card payments infrastructure to the Logic Group, which provides secure delivery of data from all of Everton’s sales channels to the Logic Group’s data centre and on to acquiring banks.

Everton systems analyst Philip Davis says managing the club's multi-channel retail IT network was costly and time consuming and did not meet fans’ changing needs.

‘Rather than spend time and money training our staff on the intricacies of non core applications, we have decided to outsource our requirements,’ he said. ‘This means our time is freed up to meet the needs of our loyal and valued fan base.’

The Logic Group now manages Everton’s ticketing, retail, call centre and mail order purchases, hospitality and online commerce, including merchandising and eticketing; transactions worth more than £10m a year.

By choosing an IP network as the backbone of its IT department’s infrastructure, Everton could in future adopt technologies such as IP enabled in-store TV advertising, IP CCTV and voice over IP.

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Further reading

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Premiership clubs kick off IT overhaul

Everton kicks off with new system