Ant
International has signed Spanish tennis world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz as its
global brand ambassador, the Singapore-based payments arm of China’s Ant Group
said today (Tuesday).
The
multi-year deal will put the multiple Grand Slam champion at the front of
advertising for Alipay+, the company’s cross-border wallet gateway, Antom, its
merchant payment service, and WorldFirst, the global account product aimed at
small and medium-sized exporters.
A Second Sports Deal in
Two Months for Ant
The Alcaraz
signing lands roughly two months after Ant International secured a regional sponsorship of
the Argentine national football team covering Asia outside the Middle East, a deal
struck through the Argentine Football Association ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
Together,
the two agreements give the company year-round visibility across the football
and tennis calendars in markets where its consumer wallet has the lowest brand
recognition compared with established Western payment networks.
“Carlos
is not only a sporting champion, but the very personification of the core
values of tennis for fans worldwide: boundless ambition, unwavering dedication,
scalpel precision in delivery, and sportsmanship both on and off the
court,” Peng Yang, Ant
International’s chief executive officer, said in the announcement.
Yang added
the partnership would extend “towards a world where every business and
every individual thrives, one game at a time, one transaction at a time.”
Alcaraz,
who turns 23 next week, is a multiple Grand Slam winner and has spent extended
stretches at the top of the ATP rankings.
“What
truly drew me to Ant International is their unwavering commitment to financial
inclusivity,” he said in the statement, adding that he was eager to back
initiatives aimed at underserved communities.
Fintech Crowds Onto the
Tennis Tour
Tennis has
become a busy lane for financial brands looking to reach affluent consumers
across multiple regions in a single calendar year. Polish broker XTB made its tennis debut at Roland
Garros last year by
signing 10 players, while CFD broker TMGM previously partnered with Germany’s Alexander
Zverev for the Australian Open.
Dubai-based
CFI Financial Group has run tennis
activations of its own in the Gulf, and London Capital Group went deeper into the format
almost a decade ago when it signed Stan Wawrinka.
A FinanceMagnates.com breakdown of
broker sports spending noted that football still dominates industry budgets, but newer
entrants are pushing into tennis, cricket, and motorsport to chase audiences
harder to reach through league deals.
Pressure on Western
Payment Rails
The
marketing push comes as Ant International accelerates the global build-out of
its non-China business.
The company
recently tied management performance reviews
to sustainability metrics for the first time and disclosed a wider AI rollout across
foreign exchange forecasting, merchant operations, and transaction risk
screening.
Alipay+ now
supports more than 300 payment methods across 220 markets, the company has
said, and India’s central bank was reported earlier this year to be in talks on
linking it to the country’s instant payment system.
WorldFirst
and the firm’s embedded finance unit, Bettr, support roughly 1.6 million small
and medium-sized businesses and provide credit access to about 30 million
micro-merchants and underserved users, according to the company’s own figures.
Ant
International has signed Spanish tennis world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz as its
global brand ambassador, the Singapore-based payments arm of China’s Ant Group
said today (Tuesday).
The
multi-year deal will put the multiple Grand Slam champion at the front of
advertising for Alipay+, the company’s cross-border wallet gateway, Antom, its
merchant payment service, and WorldFirst, the global account product aimed at
small and medium-sized exporters.
A Second Sports Deal in
Two Months for Ant
The Alcaraz
signing lands roughly two months after Ant International secured a regional sponsorship of
the Argentine national football team covering Asia outside the Middle East, a deal
struck through the Argentine Football Association ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
Together,
the two agreements give the company year-round visibility across the football
and tennis calendars in markets where its consumer wallet has the lowest brand
recognition compared with established Western payment networks.
“Carlos
is not only a sporting champion, but the very personification of the core
values of tennis for fans worldwide: boundless ambition, unwavering dedication,
scalpel precision in delivery, and sportsmanship both on and off the
court,” Peng Yang, Ant
International’s chief executive officer, said in the announcement.
Yang added
the partnership would extend “towards a world where every business and
every individual thrives, one game at a time, one transaction at a time.”
Alcaraz,
who turns 23 next week, is a multiple Grand Slam winner and has spent extended
stretches at the top of the ATP rankings.
“What
truly drew me to Ant International is their unwavering commitment to financial
inclusivity,” he said in the statement, adding that he was eager to back
initiatives aimed at underserved communities.
Fintech Crowds Onto the
Tennis Tour
Tennis has
become a busy lane for financial brands looking to reach affluent consumers
across multiple regions in a single calendar year. Polish broker XTB made its tennis debut at Roland
Garros last year by
signing 10 players, while CFD broker TMGM previously partnered with Germany’s Alexander
Zverev for the Australian Open.
Dubai-based
CFI Financial Group has run tennis
activations of its own in the Gulf, and London Capital Group went deeper into the format
almost a decade ago when it signed Stan Wawrinka.
A FinanceMagnates.com breakdown of
broker sports spending noted that football still dominates industry budgets, but newer
entrants are pushing into tennis, cricket, and motorsport to chase audiences
harder to reach through league deals.
Pressure on Western
Payment Rails
The
marketing push comes as Ant International accelerates the global build-out of
its non-China business.
The company
recently tied management performance reviews
to sustainability metrics for the first time and disclosed a wider AI rollout across
foreign exchange forecasting, merchant operations, and transaction risk
screening.
Alipay+ now
supports more than 300 payment methods across 220 markets, the company has
said, and India’s central bank was reported earlier this year to be in talks on
linking it to the country’s instant payment system.
WorldFirst
and the firm’s embedded finance unit, Bettr, support roughly 1.6 million small
and medium-sized businesses and provide credit access to about 30 million
micro-merchants and underserved users, according to the company’s own figures.