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What if a football club could hold tomorrow’s revenue today — without taking a loan or selling a player? That’s the principle behind FC Hansa Rostock’s “Financial Float Strategy”, developed in partnership with GutscheinWERFT, a technology provider from Germany specialising in digital giftcard ecosystems.
By Joachim Stelmach
For years, clubs have issued gift cards and membership packages as part of their fan-engagement mix. But what Hansa and GutscheinWERFT built goes far beyond a typical loyalty or eCommerce project. It’s a financial system — one that turns fan passion into liquidity and digital engagement into cash-flow stability.
“Many clubs do a little gift-card business. But very few have a Financial Float Strategy,” says Stefan Nehls, Co-CEO and shareholder of DIGIWERFT GmbH, the parent company of GutscheinWERFT. “The difference is whether you see giftcards as merchandise — or as a financial instrument.”
He adds: “Instead of asking, ‘How many Giftcards did we sell?’, we ask, ‘Which of our value streams already generate prepaid revenue, and how can we integrate them into one float system?’ That’s the real shift — from isolated sales to a strategic framework for liquidity, loyalty, and long-term stability.”
From Gift Cards to Financial Strategy
The concept of float isn’t new. Investors like Warren Buffett have relied on it since the 1960s, recognising that prepaid value — money collected before delivering a product — creates stability and financial leverage.
When Jan Vogel, CEO of DIGIWERFT and Chief Digital Officer of Hansa Rostock, began digitalising the club’s operations, he saw potential in the everyday fan behaviours that already generated advance payments — memberships, digital products, and gift cards. Working with GutscheinWERFT, the club built a unified, data-driven infrastructure that connects all those elements under a single financial logic: the float.
Fans exchange real currency for Hansa currency — prepaid value stored in digital giftcards, membership credits, or merchandise cards.
The club, in turn, gains predictable liquidity long before services are delivered.
“It’s not just about selling gift cards. It’s about building a sustainable financial engine,” says Nehls. “Hansa may play in the third division, but their float revenue and fan engagement run at Bundesliga level.”
He also notes that “introducing a Financial Float Strategy means introducing transparency. Suddenly, every value stream becomes visible — how much prepaid value flows where, how efficiently it’s used, and how strong the execution really is. That clarity can be both empowering and challenging, but it’s also what builds accountability.”
Implementing the Float – Challenges and Change
Building a Financial Float Strategy doesn’t just require technology — it demands a shift in mindset.
“Introducing transparency invites internal discussion,” admits Nehls. “It exposes areas that previously flew under the radar. But that’s exactly the point — the moment you connect ticketing, memberships, merchandising, and hospitality under one financial view, you gain a unified understanding of how the club generates and manages liquidity.”
At Hansa, the project began within the digital transformation and IT departments, connecting the systems behind key value streams. Once finance and management teams saw the early results, they joined quickly.
Depending on scope, “launching a new Giftcard can be done within hours,” says Nehls. “Opening a completely new value stream, such as introducing Giftcards for memberships or hospitality, takes a few weeks. Building a full Financial Float Strategy with all departments — one to two months.”
Engineering the Float
At the core of Hansa’s system lies GutscheinWERFT’s Software-as-a-Service platform, built on the MACH architecture (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless).
Its Code Snippet integration allows gift-card modules to appear natively within any website — without redirects or iFrames — creating a seamless user experience that keeps fans inside the club’s digital environment.
Behind the scenes, the Giftcard Factory serves as an operational control centre where every giftcard, campaign, and redemption is tracked in real time. The FinanceWERFT module integrates directly with accounting tools like DATEV, providing precise oversight of liabilities and unused balances — the measurable form of the Financial Float.
For Hansa, the model touches nearly every revenue stream:
- Giftable memberships that can be purchased online for children, adults, or seniors, including one-time lifetime options worth several thousand euros;
- Meet & Greet experiences and guided stadium tours, generating €12,000–15,000 in revenue per matchday;
- Themed campaigns such as selling digital pieces of the club’s pitch (“Hansa Rasen”) or even advertising space through giftcards worth up to €119,000.
Each initiative feeds into the same financial reservoir — liquidity generated by fan passion, structured for long-term stability.
The Giftable Membership Revolution
One of Hansa’s most distinctive innovations is the digital, giftable membership model.
Previously, memberships relied on manual registration and renewal, which made gifting nearly impossible. With GutscheinWERFT’s integration, the process became instant, secure, and flexible — including non-subscription logic that ensures full ownership transfers to the recipient.
The club now expects this model to significantly grow its active membership base and strengthen recurring liquidity over time. While it is still too early to share concrete numbers, early indicators show that giftable memberships have opened a new door for fans who were previously hesitant to register themselves but are happy to receive membership as a meaningful gift.
Behind the uplift lies a strong emotional mechanism: gifting a membership becomes a symbolic act of inclusion — one fan literally giving another a place in the club family.
As Nehls points out: “Every gifted membership represents prepaid value that contributes directly to the club’s Financial Float — creating immediate liquidity long before services are delivered. It’s the perfect example of loyalty turning into liquidity.”
Float Maturity – Structuring the Framework
The Financial Float isn’t a one-time setup — it’s a system that evolves and can be measured.
“At Hansa, every business area — from memberships to merchandising — gets a benchmark: Is it already ‘giftcard-enabled’? And if yes, how strong is that integration on a one-to-five-star level?” explains Nehls. “That’s what we call float maturity. It helps the club understand where prepaid value is already working — and where there’s still room to grow.”
This maturity model allows management to rank impact, compare departments, and plan future integrations — moving from isolated tools to a unified financial architecture.
Emotion Meets Finance
While the system runs on advanced APIs, its success depends just as much on emotion. Nehls is vocal about the need to rethink the experience of gifting in the digital age.
“A PDF giftcard is like a Ryanair boarding pass,” he laughs. “You can’t build emotion around a black-and-white printout.”
GutscheinWERFT’s Print-on-Demand ‘ShankBox’ solution turns that moment into something tangible. When a fan buys a gift card online, it’s automatically printed, packaged, and shipped via DHL in a branded envelope — no manual work required.
The recipient opens it at home; the giver experiences a “Super Bowl break moment”, as Nehls calls it, where everyone around the table notices the card. “One gift card can create three new fans,” he adds.
He continues: “Fan feedback is absolutely central — but the beauty of the Financial Float is that feedback is already built into the system. Every purchase or non-purchase tells you what fans think. Every successful Giftcard is fan feedback in action.”
Measuring the Float
In Germany, vouchers remain valid until the end of the purchase year + three years. After expiry, the non-redemption rate — typically 10–25%, sometimes up to 50% — converts directly into profit.
For a club like Hansa Rostock, that could mean €150,000–200,000 of additional income after three years, purely from unredeemed value.
“The key is to measure the right indicators,” explains Nehls. “One of the most important is the Float Ratio — the relationship between the total Financial Float and the club’s annual revenue. The ratio shows how big a role prepaid value plays in your financial ecosystem, and it should grow steadily over time.”
Other metrics, he says, are equally vital:
- Float volume per value stream (ticketing, merchandising, memberships, digital products, food & beverage);
- Growth rate of newly introduced Giftcard initiatives;
- Average Giftcard value per fan;
- Correlation between member status and Giftcard activity;
- Redemption and breakage rates over time.
“Every management report should show not only sales but Float metrics — how much liquidity has been generated, how it evolves, and where future potential lies.”
Expanding the Model – Sleeping Value Streams
The float strategy continues to reveal hidden opportunities for clubs.
“A good example is food & beverage,” says Nehls. “Stadium catering is often outsourced, but outsourcing doesn’t mean giving up voucher sovereignty. Even if a partner operates concessions, the club should still control the prepaid value. The Giftcard fans use to pay is essentially the club’s digital currency.”
He adds that the same logic applies to hospitality, merchandising, or advertising: “The Financial Float should remain in the club’s hands, ensuring all prepaid value strengthens its own liquidity base — not the partner’s.”
A Shift in Mindset Across the Industry
What began as a digital project is now reshaping how clubs think about financial management. GutscheinWERFT increasingly speaks not just with ticketing or merchandise departments, but with CFOs and managing directors.
“The more emotional the product, the higher the readiness for gift cards,” says Nehls. “And the higher the potential to build liquidity from passion. Clubs are realising that financial float isn’t an accounting trick — it’s a strategic asset.”
He adds: “Never outsource your voucher sovereignty. Outsourcing operations — whether catering, merchandising, or ticketing — is normal and often efficient. But the Financial Float belongs to the club. Your partners may run the service, but the liquidity must stay in your system.”
Conclusion – The Club as Its Own Bank
In a football economy often driven by sponsorship deals and broadcasting rights, FC Hansa Rostock shows another path: building financial stability from the loyalty of its own community.
With GutscheinWERFT’s technology and a clear strategic mindset, the club has effectively become the central bank of its fan ecosystem — holding prepaid value, managing liquidity, and reinvesting it into experience.
As Nehls sums up: “Every euro of fan passion can become a euro of financial strength — if you have the right structure behind it. Name it, frame it, and own it — that’s the essence of a true Financial Float Strategy.”
Stefan Nehls
Co-CEO
DIGIWERFT GmbH
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If you’re looking for more inspiration or want to see how others in the industry are approaching similar challenges, check out our growing collection of articles, case studies, and interviews in the FBIN Knowledge Hub. There’s plenty more to explore.
