Blackhawk Network Named Gift Card Partner of National Football League

PLEASANTON, Calif., Nov. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackhawk Network, a market leader in card-based financial solutions and the largest provider of third-party gift cards in the United States and Canada, has teamed up with the National Football League (NFL) as the NFL's gift card partner. Beginning this fall, NFL fans will have an opportunity to purchase gift cards for participating NFL teams, including the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, New York Giants, New York Jets, Oakland Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks at Blackhawk Network's Gift Card Malls, located in Blackhawk's expansive nationwide network retail locations, including the nation's premier grocery, drugstore and convenience store chains including Safeway, Vons, Dominick's, Kroger, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, Albertsons, SUPERVALU, Giant Eagle, GetGo and Wawa.

Blackhawk Network's Gift Card Mall is an award-winning gift card destination program, which was launched in grocery stores in late 2002. The program provides displays designed to attract foot traffic and make gift card shopping more convenient. The largest of these displays are placed at the end of supermarket aisles and currently feature more than 200 of America's best-known brands, in a variety of denominations.

With the individual NFL Team gift cards, consumers can purchase team-specific merchandise including authentic team gear, signed memorabilia and collectables, DVD's, apparel and much more. These NFL Team gift cards are redeemable online, at team stores and at participating locations inside the stadium on game day.

"Blackhawk Network's program and demonstrated expertise in the gift card industry -- particularly in the sports marketplace -- made them the NFL's clear choice of partner in this new business category," said Gene Goldberg, the NFL's vice president of consumer products. "We are thrilled to partner with Blackhawk Network as the NFL's gift card partner. Given the overlap of the NFL season and the key holiday season for gift cards, we are also enthusiastic about the impact this can have on the league, our teams and most importantly, our fans."

"We are proud to have America's largest professional sports league on our roster of sports gift cards," said Don Kingsborough, president and chief executive officer of Blackhawk Network. "Blackhawk's sports division has pioneered the sports gift card category and we anticipate the NFL cards to be a huge success. The Gift Card Mall will consistently and conveniently reach NFL fans across the country with the individual team cards."

About Blackhawk Network

Blackhawk Network is a prepaid and payments network, a market leader in card-based financial solutions and the largest provider of third-party prepaid cards. Blackhawk Network develops unique products in easy-to-use formats and delivers them to consumers through an exclusive retail network of leading grocery, mass, convenience, drug and specialty retailers. The network includes more than 73,000 storefronts and reaches more than 165 million consumers each week. Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, Blackhawk Network has offices worldwide including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. For more information please visit http://www.blackhawknetwork.com.

    For more information contact:
    Brian Dowling                 Teri Llach
    Safeway Inc                   Blackhawk Network
    925-467-3787                  925-226-9028
    brian.dowling@safeway.com     teri.llach@bhnetwork.com

    Kendall Coleman               Brian McCarthy
    MWW Group                     National Football League
    415-395-5914                  212-450-2069
    415-395-5915                  mccarthyb@nfl.com
    kcoleman@mww.com