The Payers' Game

A payments guide for global businesses to win the World Cup moment in emerging markets.

The players will be ready on June 11.
This guide is for those backing the payers.

See the full guide
The Payers' <strong>Game</strong>

Setting the scene

1,056 players are heading to the World Cup this year.
Their names are on jerseys, their faces on billboards, their goals replayed across every screen on Earth.

The challenge isn't demand. <strong>It's how well merchant infrastructure can convert it.</strong>

For every player on that pitch there are millions of payers watching

From São Paulo to Lagos, Manila to Riyadh, and everywhere in between. Buying jerseys, booking flights, renewing subscriptions, ordering food to watch the game.

Three host nations, 104 matches, 48 competing countries. An audience reaching every corner of the planet — the majority in markets the global payment infrastructure was never quite built for.

  • 48 Competing countries
  • 1,056 Players heading to the World Cup
  • 8B Payers worldwide

The challenge isn't demand. It's how well merchant infrastructure can convert it.

This tournament belongs to the markets of the future

The numbers make the case before a single ball is kicked.

Fans from dozens of emerging countries have already purchased thousands of tickets.

After the three host nations, some of the top ticket-buying countries are Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina.

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These are populations for whom this tournament is not background entertainment.

It is a national identity moment, and a six-week spending occasion.

These are populations for whom this tournament <strong>is not background entertainment.</strong>

It is a national identity moment, and a six-week spending occasion.

"Payment volumes in some of the markets we cover are expected to surge in June and July, with merchants in some of these planning aggressive campaigns to capture the rise in demand."

John O’Brien, CRO at dLocal

The real opportunity isn't only the traveling fan. It's the far larger group watching from home across the Global South. And it depends entirely on reliable local payment infrastructure.

Markets to watch

Mexico Ground zero

Mexico deserves its own conversation in this tournament, as a host nation, as a consumer market, and as a country where payment infrastructure is the deciding factor between a campaign that converts and one that doesn't.

Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey aren't just match venues. They're hosting the biggest consumer spending moment their local economies will see this decade. And most of that will happen on phones, on apps, on checkout pages, by consumers who pay nothing like the way some global platforms assume.

  • US$ 3B Projected economic impact
  • 5.5M+ International visitors expected
  • 13 Matches hosted
Mexico <span>Ground zero</span>

OXXO. SPEI. Local debit. Installments. That's how Mexico pays. For global merchants already in the market, this is a conversion opportunity, but only if these local payment methods are live before kick-off. For those entering now, the tournament is a forcing function: the infrastructure you build will serve Mexican consumers for the next decade.

Mexico’s payments guide

From the living room to the checkout page

The fans won't all be in the stadiums. Here's where they'll be watching from and what they need to pay.

  • Argentina的国旗 Argentina

    Defending champions, with a fan base that doesn't watch quietly. eWallets now account for the majority of Argentine eCommerce —Mercado Pago leads unchallenged, MODO has 16M users. In a market forged by economic volatility, consumers move fast and pay local. The window to build infrastructure is short.

  • Brazil的国旗 Brazil

    The most football-obsessed market on earth and one of the top ticket-buying countries in this tournament. Over 160M people use Pix — but the majority of Brazilian adults don't have a credit card. A platform that isn't live on Pix and local recurring rails before June 11 will miss the largest, loudest fan base in the world at its peak.

  • Colombia的国旗 Colombia

    One of the top ticket-buying countries after the host nations, with a digitally connected fan base that pays predominantly through bank transfers. PSE handles 95% of bank transfers in eCommerce. Nequi has 18M users. And with Bre-B (Colombia's answer to Pix), local rails are changing. A checkout without them isn't reaching the market.

  • Egypt的国旗 Egypt

    One of many Arab nations at this tournament and a market of 105M people where Fawry processes 2.5M transactions daily, and cash-on-delivery still accounts for around 40% of eCommerce. Egyptian fans are passionate, mobile-first, and paying in ways most global platforms haven't prioritised yet.

  • Morocco的国旗 Morocco

    The Atlas Lions reached the 2022 semi-final and galvanised an entire region. They're back this year, and so is that fan energy. Morocco sits at the intersection of the Arab world and Africa, with a payment mix still heavily weighted toward cash but with rapidly growing digital adoption. A market where being present early matters.

  • Saudi Arabia的国旗 Saudi Arabia

    Saudi Arabia arrives as one of the region's highest-spending fan bases. Over 90% of domestic debit transactions run through Mada, and BNPL players like Tabby and Tamara have millions of users each. A market that is digitally sophisticated, high-spending, and paying in ways most global processors treat as secondary.

  • South Africa的国旗 South Africa

    The opponent in the tournament's opening match: Mexico vs South Africa. That moment will be watched by millions. Cards lead at 64% of eCommerce, but PayShap, CapitecPay, and a growing BNPL scene with players like Payflex are quickly rewriting the rules.

  • Uruguay的国旗 Uruguay

    Our sponsored team and a market that punches above its weight digitally. Cards dominate at nearly 70% of digital commerce, but real-time bank transfers are growing fast, particularly for subscriptions and digital services. Small market, high readiness.

Businesses in the game

How to prepare your stack for the surge

The World Cup has a predictable demand curve and an unpredictable trigger. You can't control match results, but you can control your stack. A fraud rule too aggressive, a payment method not live, an approval rate that dips — during a quarter-final, they all hit at once. No patching it mid-match. The teams that hold up are the ones that go local before kick-off.

  1. 01 Model the demand before it arrives
    • Know which fixtures drive spikes in your markets.
    • Run load tests before kick-off, not on match days.
    • Share volume forecasts with your PSP so routing is calibrated to your pattern.
  2. 02 Build redundancy, not just coverage
    • Use local acquiring in-market to protect approval rates at peak.
    • Enable retry logic. Soft declines are recoverable sales.
    • Pre-agree intervention thresholds to act fast if a method degrades mid-match.
  3. 03 Tune fraud rules for good spikes
    • Localize risk rules: a Brazil surge during a match is probably not fraud, but generic systems flag it anyway.
    • Get network tokens and Smart 3DS live before the tournament starts.
  4. 04 Optimise checkout for the moment
    • One-click, stored credentials, mobile-first — half-time is 15 minutes.
    • Local currency, language, and payment methods for first-time buyers.

The Payers' Game

Billions of fans. Most watching from home,
in the markets where the game actually lives.

Build for the game.
Keep what it builds.

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Don't get caught offside
Getting ready

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