OneFlash equips Olympique de Marseille at the CEPAC Vélodrome stadium

The Orange Vélodrome means 67,000 seats, an unrivalled atmosphere on match nights and 5,000 VIP seats spread across the hospitality areas that host Olympique de Marseille's partners, sponsors and guests. At the Table des Légendes, a prestigious lounge with a panoramic view of the pitch, 900 people dine at every match, in an atmosphere where the experience offered has to match the standing of the club. In this demanding context, mobile charging has become a service in its own right, now provided by the OneFlash stations deployed in the stadium's hospitality areas. A look back at a partnership that shows how the club has built the battery constraint into its overall thinking on the VIP experience.

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A standard of service worthy of the club's stature

OM cannot settle for an average service in its hospitality areas. On every match night, business partners, sponsors, VIP guests and premium supporters take their places in the 5,000 VIP seats spread across the stadium. These audiences expect a level of attention in proportion to their financial commitment to the club, and every detail of the journey contributes to the perceived value of the invitation.

It is in this spirit that smartphone battery life became a real topic, on a par with catering, seat comfort or the quality of the view over the pitch. Benjamin Llanes, who is in charge of hospitality at OM, clearly sums up the finding that triggered the thinking. “We realised that the low-battery service was a real service that mattered to our customers.” This realisation rests on a simple observation: in the lounges as at pitch level, smartphones are used very intensively throughout the evening.

The smartphone, inseparable from the match experience

To understand how important the service is, you only need to watch what a spectator does during the three to four hours of a match night, from arriving in the hospitality areas to leaving the stadium after the final whistle. François Martinez, host of the Table des Légendes lounge, lists it all. Guests check their messages, take calls, scroll on social media, look up information about the city of Marseille, stay in touch with family whether or not they are at the stadium, and above all capture the unique atmosphere of the Vélodrome through photos and videos that they share live.

“We take photos, we shoot videos, we film ourselves with the stadium in the background, this beautiful pitch at the Orange Vélodrome. It would be a real, real shame to run out of battery and not be able to film or take photos on match nights”, he stresses. This memory dimension is particularly strong in a stadium where the fervour is proverbial: on match nights, every supporter, every partner and every guest wants to be able to capture what they are experiencing. A battery dying in the 60th minute means the end of shared memories and, for the club, a customer experience that deteriorates at a critical moment.

A partnership built on listening and adaptation

The meeting between OM and OneFlash was structured around the club's methodical demand for quality of support. Benjamin Llanes insists on this aspect. “The things that convinced us to work with OneFlash are very simple. Basically, it was good communication, and the listening we got from the OneFlash teams, who managed to understand a little what our needs were.”

This tailored approach was particularly important in a context such as the Vélodrome, where each hospitality area has its own constraints, different types of audience and specific uses. Private boxes for a dozen guests do not have the same needs as a 900-cover lounge like the Table des Légendes. It was therefore necessary to offer flexible set-ups, adapted to each configuration, without imposing a single standard across the whole stadium.

A product range designed for modularity

One of the points that won the club over is the variety of formats available in the OneFlash catalogue. The club was able to combine several types of stations according to the needs of each area. For private boxes, compact stations with six power banks were deployed, sized for a small audience and limited space. For the large hospitality lounges, more imposing stations were installed, with large built-in screens that serve a dual strategic purpose.

These screens make it possible to showcase the club's sponsors, who fund a significant share of its activity, and to communicate about the offers available in the hospitality areas or, more broadly, about all of Olympique de Marseille's services. The station thus stops being a simple utility and becomes a genuine communication medium at the heart of the VIP journey. For a club that has to optimise every touchpoint with its premium partners, this dual function is a real value lever.

A charging service that follows the customer beyond the stadium

One of the decisive strengths of the OneFlash model for OM is the network dimension of the service. Unlike a fixed locker or a wall socket, a power bank borrowed in the Vélodrome's hospitality areas can be returned to any other station in the OneFlash network. In practice, a partner who came to watch a match can leave with the power bank and return it the next day at Marseille Airport, at a station in the region or at another venue equipped with the service.

This continuity changes how users perceive the service. It is no longer a one-off rescue confined to one evening, but a genuine mobility companion that naturally extends into the visitor's travels. For a club whose guests often come from far away, by plane or train, this dimension reflects particular attention to the entire journey, well beyond the stadium walls.

A deliberately simple user journey

One of the hallmarks of good service in a premium environment is smooth access. Nobody in a hospitality lounge wants to spend several minutes creating an account, downloading an app or filling in a form to get a power bank. The journey chosen meets this requirement through a deliberately streamlined design. The user scans a QR code on the station, takes a power bank and carries on with their evening. The club has also built this experience into its digital platform for Vélodrome ticket holders, where users find their match tickets and all the services on offer, including mobile charging and the locations of available stations.

“Customers find it very easy”, confirms Benjamin Llanes. This perceived simplicity is the result of rigorous work on friction, often invisible at first glance but decisive for real adoption of the service.

Operational follow-up over time

Installation is only the first step of a partnership that has to hold its quality over time. On this point, OM and OneFlash have set up regular on-site follow-up. “We also have follow-up. Every month, the OneFlash teams come through the stadium to check that the equipment is still working”, explains Benjamin Llanes. This monthly visit is part of OneFlash's broader operating model, which combines centralised real-time monitoring via its management platform with dedicated human intervention by in-house teams.

In an environment such as the Vélodrome, where match nights generate intensive use concentrated into a few hours, this level of rigour is essential. A station out of service on derby night means several hundred premium visitors leaving with a poorer impression. Monthly follow-up, supplemented by real-time alerts via the platform, ensures that this scenario remains exceptional.

A service that fits naturally into the VIP experience

The OneFlash deployment at the CEPAC Vélodrome illustrates a structural shift in professional sport. Spectators no longer simply attend a match, they live a complete experience in which every component contributes to the perceived value of the evening. Catering, comfort, entertainment, ancillary services: each element is now assessed and compared, particularly in hospitality segments where competition between European clubs is fierce.

For Benjamin Llanes and François Martinez, the charging station has become one of those elements that extend the experience and reassure the guest. It meets a stated need without ever weighing on the organisation. It showcases the club's sponsors through its built-in screens. It extends the customer relationship beyond the stadium thanks to the network logic. At a time when the smartphone has become, in François Martinez's words, “an extension of our body”, guaranteeing its battery life for the whole evening is now a service imperative, on a par with the quality of the table or the view over the pitch.

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