The outage for Amazon Web Services (which even impacted ticket purchasing for last night’s ALCS Game 7, as you’ll see below) was so global and far-reaching, it made me wonder: Did you get through your day without hearing about it?
If I’m the first person to mention this to you, I’d love to know because I want you to go with me to buy lottery tickets. — Ethan Joyce
In today’s edition of Power Up:
- Global Payments takes advantage of HBSE sponsorship offering
- AWS outage disrupts Blue Jays ticketing
- Big East to add AlumniFi as official partner
Global Payments the latest to take advantage of HBSE plug and play sponsorship offering
Global Payments has become the official payment technology provider for the Devils, Prudential Center and the 76ers through a multiyear deal with Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
The publicly traded payment tech and software company becomes the second sponsor to engage with HBSE’s cross-platform opportunity, which includes its properties in the NFL (Commanders), NASCAR (Joe Gibbs Racing), and internationally (Crystal Palace F.C.), in addition to the Devils, their arena and the Sixers. Campbell’s was the first to take advantage roughly a year ago, engaging with four HBSE properties plus the Prudential Center.
Global Payments will also serve as the ticketing payment provider for the Sixers and the Devils and Prudential Center, and its point-of-sale system, Genius, will be deployed at the Newark-based arena. Genius won’t be rolled out at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philly -- the Sixers don’t own their venue; Comcast Spectacor does -- but HBSE is working with Comcast Spectacor on a joint venture arena that the two companies hope will be ready by 2030 or 2031.
Global Payments’ tech is already deployed across roughly 160 sports venues in the U.S. and Europe, including sponsorship deals with the Lightning’s Benchmark International Arena, Diamond Baseball Holdings, and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, State Farm Arena and Truist Park in Global Payments’ hometown of Atlanta.
The Fortune 500 company has 27,000 employees globally and ended 2024 with $10.2B in annual revenue and $1.57B in net income. Much of that is generated through its merchant solutions vertical, which charges customers — like sports teams and venues — a set fee or percentage per transaction processed, plus annual software license fees.
Global Payments competitor Clover Sport previously held the POS category for the Devils.
AWS outage disrupts Blue Jays ticketing
Monday’s global Amazon Web Services outage caused headaches for Blue Jays fans headed to ALCS Game 7 against the Mariners at Rogers Centre.
The Blue Jays shared on X after 2pm that “Ticketmaster is ‘currently experiencing ticket management issues’ due to the AWS outage.” The Jays posted, “We are actively working with both groups to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Hold off on managing your tickets as we work through this.” Ticketmaster earlier this afternoon said that “some fans were experiencing ‘some intermittent issues’ on its site” (TORONTO STAR, 10/20). Around 4:30 the team said issues were starting the resolve.
UPDATE: TICKET MANAGEMENT RETURNING TO NORMAL
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) October 20, 2025
The global AWS outage affecting Ticketmaster and Blue Jays ticket management is being resolved and the system is returning to normal.
Please try to access your tickets and add them to your Apple or Google wallet, MLB Ballpark app,… https://t.co/mHIWawF57Z
Big East to add AlumniFi as official partner
The Big East is set to announce a three-year sponsorship deal with AlumniFi, a digital banking brand powered by MSU Federal Credit Union. Exact financial details of the deal were not immediately available.
The agreement, which was brokered by Playfly, will see AlumniFi receive varying visibility at the Big East men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. That includes a month-long “Out-of-Home” campaign in Midtown Manhattan in the lead up to the Men’s Big East Championship.
The Big East and Playfly will also work with select athletes from Big East schools to promote AlumniFi.
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