Lantern scores big with Sporting Kansas City deal
June 26, 2015 | Bobby Burch
Tech firm Lantern Software’s mobile app hit the right pitch with its hometown soccer team.
Lantern CEO Aaron Sloup
The startup, located in Kansas City, Kan., recently partnered with Sporting Kansas City to offer its mobile concessions ordering platform. The deal, effective Saturday, will allow fans in Sporting KC’s Boulevard Members Club to order and pay for concessions on their phones, and then pick up orders quicker at a separate “fast lane.”
Lantern CEO Aaron Sloup said that working with Sporting KC’s affiliate tech company — Sporting Innovations — enabled the companies to try new, innovative approaches to improve fans’ experiences at the stadium.
“This is definitely a big deal for us,” Sloup said. “Their whole team has been great to work with. They want to stay at the leading edge of technology and that means they’re willing to do some new things to move quickly.”
The app, named Gameday, allows fans to choose concession items and pay for their order via credit card or PayPal. Featuring Sporting KC colors and photos, Gameday then tracks fans’ orders, notifying them of when an order is placed and ready for pickup from a separate line.
Gameday app
Fans may draft an order before entering the Boulevard Members Club, but must enter the club to activate the order via small Bluetooth beacons confirming one’s proximity. The app is now available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play store.
“We’re continuously looking at ways to improve the fan experience at Sporting Park,” Sporting KC CEO Robb Heineman said in a release. “Lantern has a proven track record of using micro-location to improve the fan experience at sporting events. We are excited to form a relationship with a local company to provide a service that will greatly benefit our fans.”
Lantern previously was conducting pilot testing with the same app technology with the Kansas City Chiefs. Sloup said that testing has yet to result in a contract, though he remains hopeful for a partnership.
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Pipeline, NXTUS drive exposure for entrepreneur’s on-demand fuel delivery startup
Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. WICHITA…
Tesseract taps into KC’s sticky innovation culture with homegrown partnership to build IoT tools
A new partnership between a leading robotics creator and one of its fellow Kansas City tech innovators showcases the founder’s longstanding commitment to harnessing the region’s potential as a collaboration powerhouse. “When I moved back to Kansas City to start Tesseract, I made up my mind to lead by example and attempt to build close…
A weakness today can be KC’s superpower tomorrow: Call for corporate engagement begins with CEOs
Editor’s note: The following story was sponsored by KC Rising, a regional initiative to help Kansas City grow faster and more intentionally, as part of a campaign to promote its CEO-to-CEO Challenge on supplier diversity. Successful entrepreneurial ecosystems require a certain level of corporate engagement — and even stewardship — said Neal Sharma, noting the…
‘Supplier diversity is deceptively difficult’: How to boost diverse small businesses without tokenizing them
Editor’s note: The following story was sponsored by KC Rising, a regional initiative to help Kansas City grow faster and more intentionally, as part of a campaign to promote its CEO-to-CEO Challenge on supplier diversity. Successful efforts to promote increased, consistent spending with more diverse small businesses must start with C-Suite buy-in, Christine Kelly said,…