Convenience store chain 7-Eleven has partnered with mobile payment service PayNearMe to enable users of Nevada sports betting service William Hill’s application to deposit cash to the app within 7-Eleven stores, in an attempt to draw in more customers.

The convenient store chain already has a huge draw for consumers interested in gambling, as many of its customers visit the store for scratch offs and lottery tickets. The partnership makes sense for all parties, as the companies have an overlapping consumer base and can drive sales for each retailer.

“Seven-Elevens’ existing relationship with PayNearMe and convenient locations across Nevada make it natural transition to extend its PayNearMe services to the William Hill Mobile Sports app,” said David Naumann, director of marketing at Boston Retail Partners. “Many consumers already visit 7-Eleven stores for lottery tickets and scratch-offs and these customers will be prime candidates to visit their stores more frequently to load their sports booking app with funds.”

William Hill is a bookkeeping service operated in Nevada. Its app allows users to place sporting bets, only while located within Nevada.

Betting on sales
PayNearMe is a service already in place at 7-Eleven stores, in which users can deposit cash payments to pay off services such as rent, airfare and any other retail transaction. Many customers operate on a cash basis rather than with credit cards and this creates a simple and secure method for them to do so.

For William Hills, the partnership allows for it to seamlessly access 7-Eleven customers and in turn 7-Eleven will now have access to William Hills customers. With customers entering stores to deposit cash to the app, 7-Eleven will likely be able to further drive in-store sales with the hopes these consumers will impulse purchase products.

For convenience stores such as 7-Eleven these impulse buys are important, as a substantial amount of its sales come from extra purchases from customers upon entering the store for a specific item and leaving with more.

Customers that want to use cash for betting on William Hill can enter Nevada 7-Eleven locations and deposit cash through the PayNearMe service. Users select deposit cash on the mobile app, which generates a barcode, while at the checkout counter users pay with cash and scan the barcode, which automatically enters the amount into the betting app.

Mobile deposits 
The PayNearMe platform showcases how mobile commerce is continually growing and evolving. More and more customers are flocking to mobile for payments.

Mobile’s effectiveness in the banking sector is becoming indisputable, as deposits of physical checks decline and more consumers to turn to their smartphones for remote deposit capture capabilities, which are projected to account for approximately 33 percent of retail bank deposits by the end of this year and 50 percent by 2016, according to a report from Celent (see more).

Also, A Javelin Strategy and Research payments analyst at Mobile Commerce Daily’s Mobile Research Summit: Data & Insights 2015 said mobile and digital are upending perceptions of trust in financial institutions, with online services such as PayPal ranked tops in safeguarding privacy and traditional banks falling down the list (see more).

“Advertising and promotions of 7-Eleven’s Mobile Sports app cash deposit services will provide additional brand awareness and traffic to its stores,” Mr. Naumann said. “The additional traffic to 7-Eleven stores to deposit cash in their William Hill Mobile Sports app will likely spur additional impulse purchases while they are in the store.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily