When the world’s best skiers gathered in Trondheim for the 2025 World Ski Championships, it wasn’t just the competitions that needed to run smoothly – payment solutions also played a crucial role in the experience of visitors, athletes and organisers.
From 26 February to 9 March 2025, Trondheim was the centre of the international skiing world when the World Ski Championships took over the city. With 1,000 athletes from 54 nations competing in cross-country skiing, ski jumping and combined, the event offered world-class competition.
The championship took place at two different venues – Granåsen ski resort and Medaljetorget in Trondheim city centre. A total of 229,000 spectators filled Granåsen, while a further 200,000 visitors gathered for medal ceremonies and concerts, creating an unrivalled festival atmosphere.
To ensure fast, simple and reliable payments, CoreGo was given the honourable task of delivering payment solutions to around 40 different providers of food, drink, tickets and merchandise. To support this, we also set up several private network lines to ensure stable connectivity at both locations.
To meet the high demands of the event, CoreGo had a total of 170 payment terminals in operation. Each terminal was pre-configured with merchants’ products and pricing and strategically placed in the arena ahead of time. All vendors received thorough training ahead of the event.
In addition to traditional card payments, the major innovation was the possibility of paying directly through Vipps Tæp and directly through the Coopay app on the customer’s phone.
To handle the high transaction volume seamlessly, we set up our own 5G network with a dedicated network line to our terminals.
Since the venues were entirely cashless this year, we introduced custom-designed payment cards that allowed attendees to convert cash into digital currency.
In addition to traditional card payment terminals, CoreGo also offered prepaid VIP wristbands with tags that could be used at all the arena’s points of sale. These were also used as a visual access control inside the VIP areas.
The World Cup’s own VIP contact, Daniel Svensson, appreciated the fact that we were able to offer wristbands with his own design and that the payment terminals are easy and flexible to use.
"Very pleased with how solution-orientated you as a group have been. Thanks for your quick help throughout the championship!"
During the event, we also had the opportunity to test our brand new solution with QR code vouchers that were sent out by SMS to VIP groups, volunteer groups and other officials who needed a prepaid solution that was compatible with our payment system.
The QR codes are created quickly through our back-office system CoreGo Cloud, and are an excellent way for organisers to send out vouchers with specific amounts to larger groups.
Roar Munkvold, Chief Financial Officer at this year’s World Cup, was pleased with our choice of partner.
"The process leading up to the start-up, led by CoreGo, was professional and of good experience and expertise. The system itself, which was powered by a proprietary network solution, was easy to operate, also taking into account the fact that many volunteers were responsible for handling it."
Our alternative payment solutions, a fast network that created a secure and steady payment line, and a team that had continuous support at all World Cup locations made the event run smoothly. Together with the organiser, we ensured neat and clear lines of communication and a flexible process throughout two exciting winter weeks.
"Team CoreGo was present throughout the event and everything worked as it should. We are very pleased with the choice of partner, which contributed to a successful event." – Roar Munkvold
We at CoreGo are proud to have been a part of this successful event and look forward to more exciting winter collaborations in the future.