SumUp becomes Newcastle United's training kit partner

Newcastle United has confirmed fintech company SumUp as its new Official Training Kit Partner in a three-year deal reported by The Athletic to be worth £15 million, taking the club's annual training-ground-related sponsorship income to £11 million as it continues to grow commercial revenue outside its front-of-shirt deal. SumUp branding will appear on training and pre-match warm-up kit for the men's, women's and academy teams, and the fintech becomes Presenting Partner of the Newcastle United Business Club, with a co-branded SumUp card also planned for supporters.

SumUp is a London-headquartered fintech founded in 2012, providing payment terminals, point-of-sale systems and business banking tools to more than 4 million small merchants across more than 30 countries. The company was valued at around €8 billion in its most recent funding round and is reportedly weighing a stock market listing that could value it at up to $15 billion.

Newcastle United is an English Premier League football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, which named South African sports drinks company Knox Hydration as its new front-of-shirt sponsor in a deal worth £60 million through 2028/29. The club did not have a training kit sponsor last season.

The deal fills a previously vacant sponsorship category for Newcastle and extends a wider run of commercial activity around its training assets, following Knox Hydration's naming rights deal for the club's Benton training ground, worth £6 million per season.

Newcastle United chief revenue officer Dave O'Connor said SumUp was the perfect partner for the club, describing it as an innovative, ambitious global business with a genuine commitment to supporting the local businesses that serve fans and the community every day.

SumUp chief commercial officer and UK chief executive Luke Griffiths said the partnership felt like a natural fit, noting that football is woven into the everyday lives of fans, families and communities in the same way SumUp works daily with businesses of all sizes.

The agreement illustrates how payments and fintech providers increasingly use football sponsorship to combine brand visibility with direct small-business engagement, pairing training kit exposure with merchant-facing initiatives such as the Business Club and co-branded card, a structure distinct from the pure visibility deals typical of front-of-shirt sponsorship.

Source: The Athletic / Sportcal / Footy Headlines / European Sponsorship Association