Football meets tech: How Eintracht Frankfurt built a tech company to fit in your pocket
IMAGO | Eintracht Frankfurt won the Europa League title in 2022 after winning 5–4 on penalties against Rangers in the final.
Eintracht Frankfurt launched subsidiary EintrachtTech in 2017 to offset financial disadvantages against wealthier rivals, as CEO Timm Jäger explains in this interview.
The club have consolidated all fan data into a single digital platform, developing their own app, e-commerce, ticketing, and the Mainpay wallet, which also works beyond the stadium.
Why it matters: Eintracht offer an example of how a member-owned club might preserve their identity while at the same time creating new revenue streams by owning and operating its entire digital infrastructure.
The perspective: Digitalisation is becoming a decisive factor for clubs, where commercial growth depends not only on sponsorships and media rights but increasingly on the ability to control and monetise fan data.
17 September 2025 - 6:25 PM
In 2016 Eintracht Frankfurt were minutes away from dropping out of the Bundesliga. A narrow 2-1 aggregate victory over FC Nürnberg in the relegation play-off kept them up, but the episode was a turning point.
Leadership concluded that to remain competitive, particularly against rivals with deeper pockets, the club would need to change course radically. One of the answer was EintrachtTech, the subsidiary set up to drive innovation and di
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