Afterpay has taken naming rights over a Sydney Olympic Park arena, rebranding it Afterpay Arena, as the Australian buy now pay later sector faces slowing growth, tightening regulation, and the exit of at least eight competitors since 2022.
Afterpay Arena deal signals maturity for Australia's buy now pay later sector as growth slows
Afterpay has taken naming rights over a Sydney Olympic Park arena, rebranding it Afterpay Arena, as the Australian buy now pay later sector faces slowing growth, tightening regulation, and the exit of at least eight competitors since 2022.
Australians' yearly spending through buy now pay later platforms grew by $3 billion a year in the late 2010s but slowed to growth of $1.5 billion in 2025, according to the Reserve Bank. Australians spent 20 times more via credit cards last year than through BNPL — $22 billion compared with the BNPL total.
At least eight BNPL platforms have left Australia since 2022, including National Australia Bank withdrawing its product earlier this year. Four major operators remain: PayPal, Klarna, and Zip each with about 2 million customers, and Afterpay with 4.5 million. Afterpay and Klarna report they are growing, while PayPal's Pay-in-4 customer numbers have not grown since 2023 and Zip has seen a 7% year-on-year fall in users. Zip will leave the New Zealand market on Monday.
Credit agency Equifax found new BNPL account applications in the three months to June 2026 were down 35% from the previous year. Experts attribute the slowdown in part to 2025 laws that defined BNPL as a form of credit, requiring companies to perform credit checks and report new accounts to credit agencies — steps that can affect future activities such as mortgage applications.
Afterpay, owned by US-based Block, recorded a $741 million pre-tax loss in Australia and has repeatedly reduced estimates of its local business's value. The company earned $123 million in late fee revenue annually in 2024 and 2025, according to its Australian accounts. Merchant fees make up the majority of Afterpay's local revenue at $625 million in 2025. Businesses pay BNPL platforms an average fee of 3% of a transaction's value, compared with 1% for credit cards and a fraction of that for debit cards.
Afterpay had been adopted by 290,000 Australian businesses by 2024, adding Uber and Amazon in Australia in 2025. The company also offers a subscription product, Afterpay Plus, which charges $9.99 a month to pay in instalments wherever mobile phone payments are accepted; revenue from that product surged from $22.8 million in 2024 to $42.5 million in 2025, according to the company's accounts.
Afterpay reported that 2.9% of customers were three months late on repayments in June 2025, compared with 2.1% for credit cards. The company said 2% of purchases in the last three months of 2025 attracted late fees.
- The source does not state the financial terms of Afterpay's naming-rights deal for the arena.
- The source does not state the total amount Afterpay spent to acquire the arena naming rights.
- The source does not state Klarna's specific revenue or financial performance figures in Australia.
- The source does not state what the Reserve Bank's ban on card surcharging will take effect or its specific timeline.
- The source does not provide supporting data for Afterpay's claims of 'significant wins' in petrol, convenience, and grocery spending; the company declined to share such data.
- The source does not state the total number of BNPL customers across all remaining platforms combined, nor the combined total of BNPL spending in Australia for the most recent full year.
Read the original at The Guardian