PAYMENTS
CREDIT: FANATICS CREDIT: Visa
There’ s no doubt that the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the most transformative sporting event in history. Set to be the largest ever World Cup, this iteration is taking place across three North American countries: the US, Canada and Mexico. With 48 participating teams and 104 matches, a digital backbone is required that functions with zero margin for error.
To support this scale, the financial sector forms the invisible infrastructure that ensures money moves in stadiums and across borders seamlessly. And, with this year’ s tournament set to be the most digitised, data-driven and cash-light tournament to date, the fintech sector enables this end-to-end.
The orchestration layer behind the World Cup Visa is the tournament’ s Official Payment Provider, with its remit covering everything from ticketing to in-stadium purchases and external fan areas. The no cash, no queue narrative leads its approach for the World Cup, as Visa is streamlining processes in a way that is so smooth that attendees don’ t even notice how slick the operation is – even when operating at massive scale.
That being said, Visa is far more than a payments provider in this context. It operates as a sophisticated orchestration layer.
fintechmagazine. com 67