Arsenal x Airwallex: Serving supporters wherever they are

From North London to the world

Relentlessly facing forwards is what defines pioneering institutions. Arsenal Football Club has always looked to the future.

That same forward momentum shapes how the club grows and connects with its community of supporters on every continent who feel the same sense of identity and belonging as those in the Clock End.

That mindset is what drew Arsenal and Airwallex together. We're building the future of global finance on the same principle – pushing past the legacy systems that hold businesses back from competing at world scale.

Arsenal's global fan base increasingly books hospitality packages from all over the world – but their legacy payments set-up made it hard to offer a familiar way to pay and to see, in real time, how those bookings were performing across markets. With Airwallex, Arsenal now gives supporters a localised payment experience and the club a clearer view of international hospitality revenue.

Omar Shaikh

Global Partnerships and Ventures Director, Arsenal

"Together we're greater than the sum of our parts. Airwallex understands what we're trying to build and their platform helps us to ensure that wherever our supporters are in the world — whether they're booking hospitality from down the road or the other side of the globe — their experience of our club feels exactly as it should."

The challenge: Running world-class hospitality operations for a global supporter base

As Arsenal has grown, so has the demand for its hospitality offering. Supporters from across the world want to come and watch their team play at Emirates Stadium.

Managing the complexity that comes with that – bookings across jurisdictions, multiple currencies, real-time reporting – requires infrastructure that can match the scale and standard of the operation.

The solution

As Arsenal's Official Finance Software Partner, Airwallex has modernised the club's hospitality payments infrastructure – equipping it for the scale and complexity of a global supporter base.

A more localised payment experience

Integrated directly into Arsenal's bespoke hospitality platform, Airwallex supports a more localised way to pay. Supporters can use familiar methods, including digital wallets and relevant local card and payment options across markets. This gives Arsenal a payments set-up fit for an international hospitality audience.

Multi-currency flexibility

Airwallex also gives Arsenal more flexibility in how it manages currencies and payment flows across markets. For a club serving supporters globally, that creates a stronger operational foundation for international hospitality sales.

Clearer reporting, day-to-day

Airwallex has improved Arsenal's day-to-day reporting visibility. The team can run reports more easily on a daily basis, with payment data more closely linked to sales and fewer timing mismatches than under the previous set-up. That gives Arsenal a cleaner operational view of hospitality performance and a stronger base for managing a global supporter operation.

The impact: Better visibility for global operations

Since migrating, Arsenal has put in place a stronger payments foundation for hospitality. The immediate value has been improved reporting visibility, closer alignment between payment data and sales, and infrastructure designed for serving supporters across markets.

As the club continues to refine the set-up, that foundation will be important in supporting future international payment experiences.

Looking ahead: Deeper integration, wider reach

The hospitality migration gives Arsenal a stronger platform for future global payment initiatives, including pre-season tours and Corporate Cards. By tagging metadata and unique identifiers today, Arsenal is laying the groundwork for deeper system integration over time.