Shortly before sales started, the Organizing Committee posted a statement on its website saying that only cards issued by Visa would be accepted as payment for tickets. Furthermore, Visa, a longtime sponsor of the Olympics, will enjoy a monopoly for payments for goods and services at the Sochi venues.
"Sponsorship is enormously important to commercially support the games," Visa's chief executive for Russia and CIS, Steven Parker, said at a news conference Wednesday.
Visa is one of the top 10 companies that support the Olympic Games globally, and those companies obtain certain exclusivity rights in exchange for their sponsorship, he said.
Other major sponsors include Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Panasonic, Samsung and Procter & Gamble, according to the official website of the Olympic movement. The funds generated by the sponsoring companies account for 40 percent of total Olympic revenues, the website says.
