Alipay+ Launches Football Carnival Across Asia in Global Campaign for UEFA EURO 2024™

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 26, 2024--

Alipay+, the cross-border mobile payment and digitalization technology solutions under Ant International, is launching an offline football carnival across Asia as part of Ant International’s global campaign for UEFA EURO 2024.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240425248359/en/

The festivities, which will start from April 26 and last two months across four major cities in Asia, featuring pop-up booths with display of a replica of the Henri Delaunay trophy, EURO 2024 souvenirs, and activities such as goal shooting challenge, is designed to engage the Asian fan base and provide them chances to win EURO 2024 tickets.

Pop-up booths will be installed in Bangkok, Thailand from April 26 to May 7 at the renowned shopping mall Centralworld, from April 28 to May 11 at Ion of Singapore, from May 3 to May 26 at Sunway Velocity in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and from June 6 to June 26 at Hyundai Mall in Seoul, South Korea.

Travelers to the four countries making payments with their home e-wallets via Alipay+, or local users of one of the Alipay+ partner wallets, may participate in the challenge after making an eligible transaction to win limited edition of official merchandises of UEFA EURO 2024 and tickets to the tournaments including to the finals.

The users of 15 Alipay+ partner e-wallets and banking apps may participate in the campaign, including Alipay (Chinese mainland), AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China), MPay (Macao SAR, China), MyPB by Public Bank and Touch ’n Go eWallet (Malaysia), GCash, and Hello Money by AUB (The Philippines), Hipay (Mongolia), OCBC Digital, and Changi Pay (Singapore), Kakao Pay, Toss Pay and Naver Pay (South Korea), TrueMoney (Thailand), and Tinaba (Italy).

As an Official Partner of the UEFA EURO 2024, the 17th edition of the international football championship organized by Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Ant International kicked off a global campaign, dubbed “Goal Beyond” across its businesses – Alipay+, Antom and WorldFirst – in March to engage and celebrate with fans globally in the lead-up to one of the biggest sporting events of the year. Alipay+ is the exclusive Official Payments Partner of UEFA EURO 2024.

UEFA EURO 2024 will take place from 14 June – 14 July 2024, in ten host cities around Germany, culminating in the finals at the historic Olympiastadion in Berlin.

Operating across 57 markets, Alipay+ now connects over 88 million global merchants cross-border to 1.5 billion accounts on over 25 leading e-wallets and payment apps. International travelers may pay online and offline with their home payment apps around the world with ease and security. Merchants utilize Alipay+ digital marketing and growth tools to build more effective consumer engagement at home and abroad.

Alipay+ has also launched an in-app UEFA EURO 2024 fan zone exclusively for users of AlipayHK, Touch ‘n Go eWallet, TrueMoney, GCash and DANA. Other than themed quizzes and global merchant vouchers, more fan engagement activities such as interactive football-themed mini games will also be introduced. Users can access the Alipay+-powered fan zone directly within these participating apps.

The in-app campaign is set from March till July, Alipay+ and its partner e-wallets will introduce a series of contest and games, where users stand a chance to win additional vouchers and even tickets to UEFA EURO 2024.

About Alipay+

Alipay+ is a suite of cross-border mobile payment and digitalization technology solutions that help connect global merchants to consumers. Consumers enjoy seamless payment and a broad choice of deals using their preferred payment methods while travelling abroad. Small and medium-sized businesses may use Alipay+ digital tools to enhance efficiency and achieve omni-channel growth.

About Ant International

Headquartered in Singapore, Ant International powers the future of global commerce with digital innovation for everyone and every business to thrive. In close collaboration with partners, we support merchants of all sizes worldwide to realize their growth aspirations through a comprehensive range of tech-driven digital payment and financial services solutions.

A pop-up booth in Bangkok's Centralworld shopping mall to engage football fans. Alipay+ is launching an offline football carnival across Asia as part of Ant International’s global campaign for UEFA EURO 2024. (Photo: Business Wire)

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Unable to find a trade partner to move up in the NFL draft order and fill the Buffalo Bills' various needs, particularly at receiver, general manager Brandon Beane settled for the next best thing on Thursday.

He traded out of the first round entirely.

In completing two deals, the Bills are now on the clock in holding the first pick — 33rd overall — of the second round that opens on Friday night. And Beane made no guarantees whether he might swing yet another deal before it’s Buffalo’s turn to pick.

“Our phone’s already ringing. We’ll see what happens with that,” he said.

Though acknowledging he made some attempts to move up a few spots in the order, Beane disputed the pre-draft speculation of being interested in making a major splash by saying he didn’t want to part with his second-round pick.

“That was all just smoke, to be clear,” Beane said. “But you know me, if there were certain players that fell, we would have gone up. I did not want to give up our 2 (second-round pick) though. It would have had to have been something that made way too much sense for me.”

The benefit of trading down was allowing Beane to improve the positioning of his later-round picks, while also gaining a third-rounder (95th overall), which Buffalo traded last year in a mid-season deal to acquire cornerback Rasul Douglas from Green Bay.

Buffalo was initially scheduled to open the draft with the 28th selection before moving back four spots in a trade with the Kansas City Chiefs. Beane said he was interested in making a selection at No. 32, before the Panthers offered the 33rd pick and a fifth-round selection, 141st overall, for Buffalo’s sixth-rounder (200th).

The Bills were in the market for a receiver after trading Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans earlier this month and losing Gabe Davis in free agency. Four receivers were already off the board when Buffalo made the trade with the Chiefs, who went on to select Texas receiver Xavier Worthy.

Overall, seven receivers were selected in the first round.

Among those still available are Georgia’s Ladd McConkey and Texas’ Adonai Mitchell. Buffalo could also target cornerback with Iowa’s Cooper DeJean and Alabama’s Kool-Aid McKinstry on the board.

“We’re excited about tomorrow and, instead of just having the one pick now we got three,” Beane said.

Trading Diggs was part of Beane’s decision to hit the reset button to free up future salary cap space and filter youth into an aging roster that was good enough to win four straight AFC East titles, but each time fell short in the playoffs. Three of Buffalo’s playoff losses came against Kansas City, including a 27-24 loss in January, and another to Cincinnati.

Buffalo was unable to afford re-signing Davis or edge rusher Leonard Floyd in free agency. The Bills also released center Mitch Morse, and broke up a defensive secondary threesome made up of safeties Jordan Poyer, Micah Hyde and cornerback Tre’Davious White that had been together since 2017.

Diggs’ departure was the most stunning given how much his arrival in a 2020 trade with Minnesota transformed an already productive Josh Allen-led offense into one of the NFL’s most potent. The two rewrote most single-season franchise passing, receiving and scoring record, with Diggs topping 100 catches and 1,000 yards in each of his four years.

Buffalo’s group of receivers is currently led by Khalil Shakir, who is coming off a promising second season, and the free agent additions of Curtis Samuel and Mack Hollins.

This marks the second time in Beane’s seven drafts as Bills GM in which Buffalo doesn’t have a first-round pick. Beane traded Buffalo’s first-rounder in 2020 in the deal to acquire Diggs from Minnesota.

Beane has a track record of making draft-day trades, but was previously known for moving up in the order.

In his previous six drafts, Beane stayed put in the first round just twice (2019 and ’21), and made deals to move up in the order four times.

“I would say Vegas lost today on this,” Beane said with a chuckle. “They probably would have pegged us to move up.”

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

FILE - Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane speaks during a news conference at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Feb. 27, 2024. With Stefon Diggs dealt to the Houston Texans, the Bills are expected to be targeting a receiver high in the draft. Just do not ask Beane, who would prefer to keep everyone guessing. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)