HOW PAYMENT ORCHESTRATION TRANSFORMED ONLINE PAYMENTS FOR A SPORTS CLUB

Introduction

Sports organizations today rely heavily on digital channels to sell tickets, merchandise, and memberships to a global audience. Fans expect seamless, secure, and localized payments options regardless of where they are. However, many clubs still operate with outdated in-house payment systems that limit their ability to scale internationally, offer preferred payment methods, and reduce operational costs.

Payment orchestration has emerged as a key solution to these challenges. It allows merchants to connect to multiple payment service providers (PSPs) and acquirers through a single integration. By intelligently routing transactions, businesses can improve authorization rates, reduce costs, and provide fans with more ways to pay.

This case study examines how Allyiz, a leading payment consultancy, partnered with a European sports club to modernize its payment infrastructure. The club wanted to improve its payment performance, support global growth, and create a future-proof strategy for online payments. 

Challenges of outdated payment gateways in the sports industry

The sports club operated several online businesses across different channels, all connected to an in-house payment gateway. While the platform had served the club for years, it faced significant challenges:

• Risk of interruptions. The internal payment gateway was overloaded, raising the possibility of failed transactions that could impact ticket and merchandise sales.

• Limited scalability. The system could not easily support new payment methods or enable international expansion into high-growth markets.

• High maintenance needs. Keeping the system up to date required substantial IT resources and reliance on external developers with limited payment expertise.

• Restricted flexibility. Financial agreements with three acquirers limited the ability to process transactions with other providers.

  
  

These issues made it difficult for the club to improve authorization rates in key markets such as the US, Brazil, Germany, Japan, and India. According to Allyiz analysis, local acquiring in these countries could significantly increase transaction approval rates, directly impacting revenue growth.

Why sports clubs need a payment orchestration solution

A payment orchestrator acts as a central hub, allowing businesses to connect to multiple PSPs, acquirers, and alternative payment methods. For sports clubs, this means being able to:

• Offer fans their preferred payment methods quickly.

• Improve approval rates by routing transactions to the most effective acquirers.

• Simplify operations by consolidating reporting, tokenization, and fraud management.

• Reduce dependency on costly in-house IT development.

One of the most significant benefits of payment orchestration is authorization rate optimization. For cross-border transactions, card decline rates can be as high as 20%. By using local acquirers, businesses can improve authorization rates by 10–20%, reducing failed transactions and lost revenue.

Additionally, orchestration can reduce operational and payments processing costs by 15–25%, freeing up resources for growth initiatives.

Allyiz team of payment experts evaluated two options for the club’s payment architecture:

1. Full migration to a third-party payment orchestrator, which would require sales channel migration and create reliance on a single provider.

2. Hybrid connection to a third-party payment orchestrator, retaining the existing “eCommerce PCI Form” interface while adding orchestration capabilities.

   
   

The hybrid solution provided multiple advantages:

1. No need to migrate sales channels, reducing operational risk.

2. Faster payment method adoption, allowing the club to cater to international fans.

3. Failover capability, minimizing downtime during outages.

4. Lower dependency on one orchestrator, giving the club flexibility to negotiate fees and switch providers.

5. Operational efficiency, centralizing payments and fraud management to reduce IT costs.

   
   

Based on these advantages, Allyiz recommended a hybrid payment orchestration solution that enhanced operational efficiency, increased authorization rates, and reduced technical complexity.

Statement of Work

The engagement included:

• Assessment of existing infrastructure – reviewing how the internal payment gateway connected to online sales platforms.

• Authorization rate optimization analysis – identifying markets like the US, Brazil, Germany, and Japan where local acquiring could increase approval rates.

• Evaluation of orchestrators – comparing features, integrations, and costs of top providers.

• Architecture design – creating a hybrid model that connected the PCI Form interface to a third-party orchestrator, enabled failover options, and supported global tokenization.

• Roadmap creation – developing a plan for implementation, testing, and long-term optimization.

  
  

A comprehensive Payment Orchestration Assessment involved:

• Reviewing the club’s payment data, authorization rates, and volumes per PSP and acquirer.

• Analyzing contracts with payment providers.

• Defining “must-have” and “nice-to-have” features for the new orchestration layer.

• Comparing leading orchestrators.

  
  

By aligning technical requirements with business goals, Allyiz identified a cost-effective solution that met current needs while enabling future growth. The hybrid approach leveraged the existing PCI Form interface, preserving current integrations with sales channels, while connecting to orchestrators to add global tokenization, routing, and fraud prevention.

This approach empowers the sports club to:

• Expand into new markets without complex technical projects.

• Centralize payments and fraud operations across all sales channels.

• Improve visibility with unified data reporting from multiple providers.

• Align payments with a customer-centric strategy, ensuring fans worldwide enjoy seamless payment experiences.

By enabling the payments team to focus on operations instead of maintaining infrastructure, the club gains agility and can respond faster to market changes.

FAQ

What is payment orchestration?

Payment orchestration is a technology layer that connects businesses to multiple PSPs and acquirers, routing transactions to optimize costs and approval rates while centralizing reporting and fraud tools.

Why is hybrid payment orchestration better for sports clubs?

The hybrid approach allows clubs to keep existing integrations intact while gaining orchestration benefits. It reduces the need for disruptive migrations and minimizes dependency on a single orchestrator.

How does local acquiring improve payments?

Local acquiring routes transactions through domestic acquirers, reducing declines caused by cross-border restrictions and increasing authorization rates.

What ROI can sports clubs expect from payment modernization?

With improved authorization rates and reduced operational costs, clubs can see double-digit revenue uplifts and significant savings on payments processing fees.

Can Allyiz support implementation?

Yes, Allyiz works with stakeholders to build a business case, select the right orchestrator, and support end-to-end implementation.