Florida is hosting FIFA World Cup warm-up matches across the state this summer — and for businesses operating in Florida’s international payments ecosystem, the timing couldn’t be more significant. On 6 June, England face New Zealand at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Four days later, they face Costa Rica at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando. Both are final warm-up matches played with the full tournament squad before England moves to their basecamp in Kansas City.

But England is just one part of the story. Every national team, global sponsor, broadcaster, and hospitality operator descending on Florida this summer brings with them one thing that rarely makes the headlines: significant cross-border payment flows. And how those Florida international payments are managed — through a bank or through a specialist platform — determines how much of that money actually reaches its destination.

This post looks at what that means in practical terms — the FX exposure it creates, the savings businesses can access by managing it properly, and how a modern international payments platform makes the whole process faster and more transparent than the traditional banking route.

Florida’s sports business is growing faster than most people realize

Florida’s sports economy is one of the largest in the United States, generating over $146 billion in total economic output in recent years. But the more significant story is the trajectory. Sports business globally is expanding at pace — PwC projects the global sports market will exceed $600 billion by 2025 — and Florida is positioned at the intersection of several high-growth vectors: international tourism, inbound FDI, broadcast rights expansion, and the professionalization of women’s sport.

Organizations like the Tampa Bay Sports Commission and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission have built Florida into a genuine global events destination. But the impact runs well beyond the stadiums. Every major international sporting event generates extended commercial activity: sponsorship negotiations, media rights transactions, hospitality contracts, supplier payments, and inbound visitor spending — most of it crossing currency borders.

The World Cup brings this into sharp focus, but it sits within a pattern that is accelerating year-round. Florida is not hosting international sport occasionally. It is becoming one of the world’s primary venues for it.

It’s not just England — it’s every country in the tournament

England’s choice of Florida as a World Cup base makes headlines because of the profile of the team. But they are far from alone. National teams from across Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific are using Florida venues and training facilities in the weeks surrounding the tournament. Each brings its own commercial infrastructure: kit suppliers, media crews, sponsor activations, official travel partners, and hospitality operators.

Add to that the fan travel patterns — Florida serves as a logical base for supporters attending matches across the eastern seaboard — and you have a state-wide influx of international visitors, commercial operators, and financial transactions that will run from late May through July.

The Orlando Economic Partnership and SelectFlorida have both invested heavily in positioning the state as a first-choice destination for international business investment. The World Cup is the highest-profile manifestation of that positioning to date. It brings with it not just short-term spending, but long-term commercial relationships — particularly from markets like the UK, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan, all of which have deep existing trade ties with Florida.

National teams from every continent are using Florida venues this summer. Each brings sponsors, media crews, hospitality operators — and currency conversion requirements.

Florida international payments: the FX flows behind the World Cup

When a national team, a global sponsor, or an international broadcaster engages commercially in Florida, they are almost always operating across currencies. The specific flows vary by business type, but they typically include:

• Sponsorship and rights fees paid between international brands and US rights holders — denominated in GBP, EUR, BRL or other currencies, converting on signing and on milestone payments
• Hotel blocks and hospitality packages secured months in advance by international operators, locking in costs at whatever rate prevails at the time of booking
• Broadcast and media rights moving significant sums across jurisdictions, often with multi-currency settlement requirements built into the contract
• Supplier and contractor payments to international vendors supporting event delivery — logistics, technology, production — paid in their home currency from a US entity
• International visitor spend at the aggregate level generating substantial conversion volumes across the hospitality, retail and tourism sectors
• Inbound FDI and commercial partnerships that begin as event-driven relationships and extend into longer-term business investment

Each of these flows involves a currency conversion. Most businesses process them through their bank. And most banks apply a spread of 1.5 to 2 percentage points above the mid-market rate — sometimes more on less common currency pairs. That cost is invisible on any single transaction. It becomes very visible at year end when you aggregate across all your international payments.

What the FX cost actually looks like — and what you can recover

To make this concrete: a Florida business receiving £500,000 from a UK commercial partner and converting to USD at a bank rate 1.75% above mid-market loses approximately $10,500 on that single transaction at current rates. Across a year’s worth of international payments, that loss compounds.

Businesses moving $500,000 to $2 million annually in cross border payments — a range that covers a significant proportion of Florida’s internationally active mid-market — are often leaving $8,000 to $40,000 per year on the table purely through FX spreads. That’s not a marginal efficiency. It’s a recoverable cost.

Beyond the spot rate, there’s a further risk that many businesses don’t actively manage: exchange rate volatility. A deal agreed at one rate and settled at another — weeks or months later — can shift the value of a contract materially. Forward contracts allow businesses to lock in today’s rate for settlement at a future date, eliminating that uncertainty entirely. This is standard practice for sophisticated treasury operations and increasingly accessible to mid-market businesses through specialist payment platforms.

Businesses moving $500,000 to $2m annually in international payments are often leaving $8,000 to $40,000 per year on the table through FX spreads alone.

Beyond savings: the operational case for a modern payments platform

The cost saving is compelling on its own. But the efficiency argument for using a specialist international payments platform is equally strong — and often more immediately persuasive for finance and operations teams under pressure.

Traditional bank wires are slow, opaque, and manual. A payment initiated on Monday may not settle until Wednesday or Thursday. The exchange rate applied is confirmed after the fact, not in advance. Tracking the status of an international payment requires calling a relationship manager or navigating a branch. Reconciliation is a manual process.

Nextpay Global’s online platform changes that experience entirely:

• Real-time rate visibility — see live exchange rates before you commit, with full transparency on what you’ll receive
• Same-day settlement on most major currency pairs — no more waiting two to three business days for funds to clear
• Forward contract booking online — lock in your rate for a future payment date directly through the platform, with no phone call required
• Full payment tracking and status updates — know exactly where your payment is at every stage of the process
• Streamlined reconciliation — transaction records, confirmations, and rate details in one place, exportable for your accounting workflow
• Multi-currency account capability — hold, receive and send in multiple currencies without converting unnecessarily

For a business managing international supplier payments, receiving revenue from overseas clients, or handling the financial administration of cross-border commercial relationships, the platform removes friction at every step. The savings on FX rates are the headline. The time recovered by your finance team is the bonus.

Florida-wide, not just Central Florida

It’s worth being clear that this opportunity is state-wide. Florida’s international trade footprint runs from Miami’s position as a gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean, through Tampa Bay’s growing reputation as an international business hub, to Jacksonville’s logistics and financial services corridor. The UK-Florida relationship is particularly strong in Central Florida, but German, Brazilian, Canadian and Japanese investment is distributed across the state.

The SelectFlorida inbound investment data — 35 FDI projects in FY2024-25 alone, generating $301 million in capital investment — represents transactions happening in every major market across the state. Each of those projects involves international payment flows. Many of them are being processed through bank accounts at rates that a specialist platform would significantly improve.

The World Cup brings intensity and visibility to that existing pattern. But the underlying opportunity for Florida businesses to recover FX cost and improve payment efficiency is a permanent one.

Is your business part of Florida’s international payments story?

If your business operates within Florida’s international trade and investment ecosystem — whether tied to sport, hospitality, life sciences, technology, financial services, or any other sector with cross-border activity — there is a practical question worth asking:

What rate is your bank actually applying to your international payments — and how does it compare to what’s available through a specialist platform?

Most businesses have never benchmarked it. They process international wires through their existing bank account and accept the rate applied without comparison. That is understandable. It is also expensive.

Ready to benchmark your international payment costs?

Book a free International Payments Health Check with the Nextpay Global team. We’re based in Tampa and Orlando and work with businesses across Florida and beyond.

• Visit nextpayglobal.com or contact us directly to get started.

Nextpay Global is built in partnership with Corpay — one of the world’s leading B2B payments businesses, moving over $133 billion annually.

Sources & further reading

Tampa Bay Sports Commission  •  Greater Orlando Sports Commission  •  Orlando Economic Partnership  •  England Football Association — Florida fixtures announcement  •  SelectFlorida  •  FIFA World Cup 2026