Our World Cup Watch Event & Spain Ruining Messi’s Party

Every quarter, the People of Cardtonic sit down to review what success looks like for the company. 

We call it our North Star metrics.

Things like transaction volumes, cohort conversions, and retention ratios (all the serious talk that keeps us profitable) matter a lot, and we spend a good time obsessing over them. 

But there’s another metric that matters just as much, even though you can’t exactly fit it into a spreadsheet: the strength of the community we’re building. Our Toniks. (PS: That includes you reading this.)

Earlier this year, we showed up in person at a tech expo in Vancouver, Canada, for our first physical tech event in 2026. It was great, but it was also, admittedly, far from home soil. As we started planning for the second half of the year, we wanted to create a moment closer to our millions of African users.

The World Cup Final happening made the perfect excuse.
Football is one of the few things that can get total strangers screaming wildly at the same screen, so we figured, “Why not be the reason for that sort of commotion?”

So exactly two Sundays ago, we hosted a Watch Party with about 100 Toniks. This is the story of how it went.

Three Words: Energetic, Full and Unpredictable-ish

If you asked us to sum up the night in three words, that’s what we’d go with: 

Energetic, because it was a World Cup final. Need we say more?

Everybody walked in with a team they’ve been carrying on their head since secondary school, and ready to argue about Messi versus Ronaldo before the kickoff even happened. 

Full, because there was food, drinks, merch, and activities running all night. Nobody in that room had a reason to be bored, hungry, or thirsty. And unpredictable, because the night did not go entirely to plan—and yep, we’re mostly talking about the match. 

But we had another unexpected but pleasant surprise.

We planned for a certain number of guests, but midway through the night, we still had just enough tickets left to let in a couple more people at the door. As you can imagine, our walk-in guests were pretty excited to get in; they took our ticket, our dinner offer, and the promise of great company, then downloaded the Cardtonic app and even asked questions about our cool features. 

(New Toniks? Get innnn!)

Not Our Usual Kind of Event

If you’ve been to anything we’ve been at or hosted in the past: an exhibition, a conference, a product walkthrough, or maybe an Upskill ceremony, you’ll know we tend to show up a certain way. 

Someone’s usually on a stage, a demo or masterclass is running, or we’re walking through a room with a pitch. We like to show up like we mean serious business.

If we had to give a dress code for those other events, we’d say a shirt with cufflinks and some corporate-looking pants. But for this one? Only the coolest kicks and tank tops were permitted. 

We wanted our watch party to feel less like hosting an event and more like throwing a house party—if the house happened to have about 100 guests at once, gigantic screens, and a kitchen making banging food. We’re known for taking hosting seriously, and it was another opportunity to prove it outside a booth or convention centre stage. And we did. 

The only thing we were slightly worried about in the days leading up to this event was the weather in Lagos that week. Unless you live under a rock, or outside the African continent, you’re probably aware that Lagos has recently been flooding like we’ve offended the Atlantic Ocean (Lagos Island especially, and we hope you haven’t had to sweep water out of your apartment recently). 

And even though we picked our venue carefully, and it was an indoor event, as Uloma did to Young Jonn, we were on our ten toes for a bit. 

Thankfully, whatever forces controlled Lagos’s weather were on our side that Sunday, and it was a pretty decent day to throw a party. 

Speaking of partying: What’s a party without the presence of food? Not a party we’ll throw, that’s what. (Not even a party you should invite people to, but hey, that’s just us.)

There was a mouthwatering menu to pick from: our Toniks could choose a signature grilled platter, beef or chicken tacos with fries, or a chicken/beef burger with fries, because fries are non-negotiable at a football event. Every meal came with water and a mocktail or cocktail. 

The food started rolling out after the match kicked off, and the only thing it didn’t satisfy was the football rivalry rumbling. Fairs. 

From Start to Final Whistle

We’re not going to pretend: our favourite moment of the night was when Spain scored. 

Many people in the room had been quietly rooting against Argentina the whole tournament (please please, don’t ask us how we know), some out of Ronaldo loyalty, some just tired of watching Argentina escape elimination one more time. The official label is hate-watch, we know. We cannot confirm or deny whether we personally partook in this. All in all, it was a good game from both teams. Mostly.

When the winning goal went in late, after a run of matches where chances weren’t converting, the room erupted with cheers. A lot of guests were already Team Spain, so it was like ice-cold Coke on a hot day: sweet, sweet relief.

Eventually, a few Messi fans began quietly grieving as everyone else had a great night. Then, finally, the game ended, and some people’s GOAT had somehow turned into Goat Meat. 

We will not be naming names to respect their privacy.

Chit-Chats, Banters, and Everything In-Between

For most of the night, the People of Cardtonic talked and interacted a lot. One minute at the ticket desk outside, the next while checking on food, then at our score predictions booth, then with the venue team, and then back with the guests. We were like your average Yoruba mother who’s throwing an Owambe. Energy full body.

Our live predict-and-win at the event also quickly turned up the energy in the room, and our winner went home a lot richer, AND with free Cardtonic merch too!

There was also a conversation our MCs started right before the game began, about Messi, Ronaldo, Argentina, and Spain. As you guessed correctly, that started the classic GOAT-debate banter that almost didn’t end. 

The debate started as banter and ended as a decent point about individual talent needing a strong team around it to matter.

We also spent some time with Jessie, the football content creator we brought in for this finale game, and who was pretty excited to be part of the night.

For The Love Of The Game

It’s true: football might be the one thing on earth that actually brings everybody together.

Every four years, people board planes, cross oceans, and rearrange their entire lives to be near a World Cup. Somehow, a ball and eleven players a side does something to people that almost nothing else manages to do consistently, across every country, every language, every culture. That sort of loyalty, the kind football fans have for their clubs and national teams, isn’t so different from what we’re hoping to foster here too.

We’re not exactly like your favourites chasing a trophy, but we’re balling just as hard. Because while fintech is one wild, fast game, we’re here, playing passionately for the long haul, and for the thrill of our Toniks. 

All the collective puns intended.

It’s why this watch party mattered deeply to us.

For some of the Toniks in the room that night, we’d only ever interacted with them through intercom, the comments section, or via DMs. This was their first time sitting across from or right beside us, rather than on the other side of a screen. 

Watching the World Cup finale was an experience, and having the Toniks around made it even better. So we’re still giddy with joy that nothing got in the way of us hosting the most epic watch event in Lagos that weekend, even if some guests left with full bellies but broken hearts (sorry, sorry).

Until 2030, the game remains the game!