Belgium's KBC has secured exclusive rights to offer mobile clips of live football games during matches of the Jupiler Pro League through its banking app.
From the end of August onwards all football fans, both KBC customers and non-customers, will be able to use KBC Mobile to view the goals and highlights during the match and all the summaries at the end of the football weekend.
The move is part of the bank's plan to develop its banking app into a lifestyle portal for general public consumption, providing an array of services beyond the usual account management and transactional options.
KBC began adding non-banking services to the app in 2018. Users who download the app can already buy De Lijn and SNCB public transport tickets and pay for parking at 4411 and Q-Park sites. By the end of the year other services will become available, including airport lounge and fast-lane passes, group energy purchasing deals, merchant discounts, and mobile safe deposit services.
Patrick Tans, senior general manager banking products and transformation KBC Division Belgium explains: "Consumer expectations are evolving rapidly. KBC wants its customers to benefit from the widest possible range of services, quickly and easily activated directly from one central app, without hassle and without having to download 10 different apps."
He says that more than 250,000 of the bank's 1.5 million mobile customers have so far used the app to access third-party non-banking services, delivering a total of 2.7 million downloads.
Since December 2019, KBC became the first financial institution in Belgium to open its mobile applications to a wider audience than its own customers.
Patrick Tans continues: "We are developing KBC Mobile into an open platform that is easily accessible to every consumer and offers real added value. Now we want to go one step further. It is common knowledge that football connects and brings people together, it is also the most popular sport in Belgium. We believe that, with KBC Mobile, we can offer a unique and exclusive mobile football proposition to all Belgian football fans."