The Belgian football club Club Brugge has launched Club Pay, a new debit card for its fans and supporters. Starting with the new 2025-2026 football season, every member can request a free card (Club Brugge).
A card owner receives loyalty points when they use the card for payments with Club Brugge partners, such as DAZN, WorldKarts, and Joxx. The loyalty points can be redeemed via the app for benefits from the partners. The card is a debit card that the member connects with their bank account, and each payment is collected by direct debit (commonly referred to as a detached debit card). The major benefit is that after the card is connected to the bank account, it can be used immediately, without the need for a top-up.
Football Clubs and Financial Services: From Branded Banking to Embedded Finance
Club Brugge is not the first sports club to venture into financial services. I recall that clubs such as Bayern Munich and Benfica Lisbon offered financial services before. However, both clubs had a partnership with a traditional bank and the supporter was required to open a bank account with that bank. The Club Pay solution by Club Brugge is a proper Embedded Finance product, where the supporter applies, activates and uses the card insight the same app. And since its detached debit card, the supporter does not have to change bank accounts but rather uses the new card ontop of her existing account.
In the past years, I have seen more sports clubs innovating with financial services, but most of them focus on in-stadium payments. Most importantly, there was a partnership between Austrian payment company Blue Code and OneFootball for in-app payments during the European Football Championship in Germany in 2024. It will be interesting to see whether Club Pay will be successful, and if its success will motivate other clubs to follow suit with a similar solution. One of the deciding success factors for Club Pay and other solutions is likely whether the partners and their benefits are attractive enough for the supporters.
The Technology Behind Club Pay: Mastercard and Auric Partnership
The card product was built in cooperation with Mastercard and Auric. Auric is a Belgian fintech company with a payment institution licence that not only provides card-issuing services but also offers loyalty features. While these services could be relevant for a wide range of companies, Auric seems to focus quite a bit on sports clubs. On its website (Auric), it lists additional revenue streams and insights into payment transactions (which help the club and partners tailor their offering further) as the main benefits for clubs like Club Brugge to venture into a card product.
