2026-07-06
Extended pub hours for England’s early morning World Cup match against Mexico lifted spending across the UK hospitality trade, even as fewer venues stayed open and many fans cut their nights short after kickoff, according to transaction data released by the payments company Dojo.
The figures offer an early look at how pubs and bars handled a 2 a.m. start for England’s 3-2 win over Mexico, a scheduling challenge that tested both operators and customers. The British government had allowed pubs to stay open later for the match, extending licensing hours to 5 a.m. across the country. Dojo said that move translated into an average 11% increase in spending for venues during the extended trading period.
The company said its analysis was based on anonymized and aggregated card transactions processed through its network during the match window. It compared average spending from midnight Sunday to 4 a.m. Monday with the same period a week earlier.
Only one-third of pubs remained open to show the game, according to Dojo’s data, reflecting the strain of staffing and operating through the night for a match that began well after normal closing time. Even so, the company said about half the usual number of fans stayed out to watch compared with a Sunday afternoon England match, suggesting that demand held up better than some operators may have expected.
Spending patterns shifted sharply as the night went on. Dojo said three-quarters of customers were still making purchases between midnight and 2 a.m., but that share fell to one-third after 2 a.m. and dropped to one-tenth by 4 a.m. The data points to a crowd that was willing to gather for the occasion but less likely to keep buying drinks deep into the night.
Pre-match trade was strong and remained elevated longer than expected because of the delayed kickoff. Spending peaked at 1:50 a.m., just before the match began, as customers made final trips to the bar. Once play started, transactions fell by roughly 50%, according to Dojo, a sign that viewers stayed focused on the screen rather than leaving their seats for another round.
That pattern differed from England’s previous matches in the tournament, when spending during games had remained above pre-match levels and often climbed again after the final whistle. In this case, the combination of an overnight kickoff and a close match appeared to keep fans in place.
Half-time brought a familiar burst of activity. Dojo recorded a strong surge in transactions between about 2:45 a.m. and 2:50 a.m., in line with spending behavior seen during earlier England games. For pub operators, that short interval remains one of the most important sales windows during televised soccer matches, especially when customers are reluctant to miss live action.
After 4:30 a.m., spending fell steeply as customers headed home and venues wound down service. That decline was expected given both the hour and the fact that many fans would have been facing a workday only a few hours later.
Charlie Ashworth, Dojo’s head of research and insights, said the figures showed both the commercial value of temporary licensing changes and the limits of overnight demand. He said businesses that can serve customers quickly during concentrated peaks such as pre-match and half-time are likely to benefit most if England continues deeper into the tournament and more late-night or early-morning kickoffs follow.
For Britain’s pub sector, which has relied heavily on major sports events to drive traffic in recent years, the data suggests that exceptional match times can still produce meaningful revenue gains when licensing rules are adjusted. But it also shows that those gains are unevenly distributed across a narrow window of demand, with much of the extra trade arriving before kickoff rather than during the game itself.
The numbers may also matter beyond soccer. Hospitality groups have long argued that flexible licensing during major national events can help businesses capture demand that would otherwise be lost. In this case, Dojo’s figures suggest that even with only one-third of pubs participating, later trading hours created enough additional sales to lift average venue spending.
Because the analysis covers only transactions processed through Dojo’s payment network, it does not represent every pub sale in Britain, and it does not include cash purchases outside that system. Still, it provides one of the clearest snapshots so far of how consumers behaved during one of the tournament’s most difficult viewing slots for British hospitality.
For pub owners, the lesson from England’s win over Mexico was straightforward: fans were willing to stay out for a major national match at an unusual hour, but they spent differently than they do during daytime fixtures. The strongest business came before kickoff and at half-time, while spending during play dropped as attention shifted fully to the game.