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Spanish bars are preparing for the World Cup’na with extra beer and staff

15/06/2026 by the Logistics TransportIn the the General Assembly

SpainMore than half of ’ football fans plan to watch the 2026 World Cup games in the bar. This is the figure from a study of LaLiga’'s football watching habits, and it shows that the Spaniards are the most likely Europeans to follow the tournaments away from their homes.

But on the field, the truth is more subtle. Santi Vidal, owner of the bar El Cuadro in Madrid's ’in Carabanchel district, does not expect a stampede at the opening matches: “People prefer to watch them at home. As La Roja progresses through the tournament, we expect only a large crowd.”RTVE’ye told me. They didn't make any special preparations for their first game against Cape Verde.

The pandemic is a turning point, Vidal points out: Before the coronavirus, football night was crazy. After COVID-19’, many people prefer to relax and reunite with friends at home.”

According to Numerator’'s Worldpanel consultancy, it's a change in habits that the data itself confirms. Two out of three fans will follow the World Cup ’ from the living roomFood and Drinks to Take Home %He'll spend six more. The Glovo report goes even further: the Spanish People %It reveals that 80’in prefers to stay at home, and pizza and burgers are ordered most often during matches.

the Industrial Association, Hostelería de España, He predicts that bars may increase their purchases.On match days when there are appropriate start times %With the 25 tween the 30s. SpainIf ’ reaches the finals, the total benefit to the sector could exceed 130 million Euro’. Average spend per customer during the tournament %It is expected to increase around 11, while spending is estimated to be between 13 and 18 euros per person per match.

The association also notes a side effect: Reservations in restaurants drop when matches are broadcast for free. In these cases, orders placed through food distribution platforms are increasing. The Glovo report supports this: Participants in the survey %the 82 ’siPrioritize orders for pizzas and burgers before the starter hit.

Bars adapt and change their menus

Many organizations are changing their offerings in order to attract customers. Julocho García, who bought the beach bar El Amarillo’ in Cabañas, La Coruña’ last year, is temporarily changing its menu, which consists of the usual fresh produce for sandwiches, nachos, burgers and empanadas: “ We know that people want to have a snack and eat fast food while watching games.”Jacob Medina has served as a reserve staff at ’'s Villarrubia de los Ojos’taki (Ciudad Real) El Portón bar for weeks: “If Spain enters the qualifying stage, Bar is normal %Fifty more full, even. more intense.”TVE’ye told me.

Brands and distributors have also taken action. Medina says her usual supplier gives her more than just drinks: “We have decorations, cherry birds, face paints. . . They gave us scratch cards with prize draws and merchandise.” Bar also decided to make an official Spanish scarf draw among its customers.

Medina, Spain, adds an element that rarely stands out in the analysis of the World Cup in ’'s hospitality sector: Moroccan national team. “Villarrubia’ has a large immigrant population from that country.They live the World Cup’ very intensely and they know that Fas’ has a real chance, so I expect the bar to be full if the Mohamed Ouahbi’nin team goes forward.”

The time difference with the United States, Canada, and Mexico is another factor that bar and restaurant owners take into account. Matches between Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia will start at 19:00’ (Houston, Texas, local time); June 27 Spain-Uruguay match starts at 18.00’de (Guadalajara, Mexico, local time). For Vidal, the early evening hours work according to bars in cities such as Madrid:On the contrary, “ García sees this as an advantage for the beach bar on the Galician coast: “People go to sea in the afternoon and then come to watch the game. It's the perfect time for dinner when the match is over.” So much so that he plans to open the games early in the morning.if there is demand.

The supply chain is also feeling the effects.Guillermo López Menchero, sales representative of Villarta de San Juan’ (Ciudad Real) distributor Menchero Gil SA’, says the bars have been pushing their orders for weeks: “They tend to order early, especially to avoid beer, soft drinks and water shortages.”Moreover, the change in the beer brand they worked with this year also increased the interest of the businesses in the province.

Spanish Bizum, Visa and Mastercard’a take to the main street to rival

09/05/2026 by the Logistics TransportIn the the General Assembly

Already eliminating the need for cash at dinner parties in Spain’, the Bizum app is now moving to physical stores.

This change is a technical change, but its effects extend far beyond payments. Until now, when you tapped your phone or card on a reader, the transaction was going through the Visa or Mastercard networks.

For each payment, the merchant pays exchange and service fees to these card plans. Meanwhile, spending data is processed on servers across the Atlantic and can be used to create consumer profiles.

From May 18, ’, this situation is changing. Bizum Pay will direct the money directly from the customer's account to the trader's account via instant transfer using NFC technology; It will eliminate foreign intermediaries and reduce dependence on U.S. ’-owned infrastructure.

Bizum’'s Spanish navy

What began as an interoperability experiment between Spanish banks has quietly evolved into an ecosystem that both Brussels and New York ’ are closely interested in.

The platform currently has over 30 million users (almost the entire adult banking population in ’, Spain) and 111,000 businesses already integrated into the digital ecosystem, and about 40 banking institutions in Germany and France, forming a unified bloc that achieves what ’ can only dream of.

Bizum reached 3.4 million instant transfers per day in 2025.

The first distribution will be carried out by banks such as CaixaBank, Sabadell and Bankinter. The remaining banks are also expected to follow in stages and be fully available before the end of the year; However, the actual consumer move is expected to take place in September or October.

What does that change, and for whom?

If Bizum’ is considered a guide to e-commerce, where it closes 2025’ with more than 100 million payments and noticeably reduces cart abandonment rates, growth in physical retail could be significant.

The most realistic expectation on the horizon of two to three years, Bizum’'s Spain, is that the total volume of payments in physical stores in ’ %From 25 to ’ini is obtained.

The advantage is not only the cost for traders, but also the fact that it is already the default payment method for users.

When local systems such as Pix in ’ or UPI in India depleted their market share, U.S. networks historically mobilized two vehicles.

The first is loyalty: Reproduction of cash reimbursement programs, purchase insurance and reward points that Bizum’ has not yet offered as a direct transfer system.

Second is credit: The deferred payment continues to be their trump card. While Bizum transfers real money instantly, Visa and Mastercard sell time. Expect them to defend the high-value buying segment and compete hard in micropayments.

Spanish unicorn Europeanagainst ’

Why don't I have French or German Bizum? The answer is fragmentation.

While Spanish banks quickly agreed on a single standard, the rest of the European ’'s systems were born divided. Spain’ not only has a model to export, but is already leading the EuroPA Alliance.

The Spanish model is now positioned as the basis of the European Payments Initiative ’ (EPI), and it is aimed that one day a Spanish’ will be able to pay as easily as sending 10 euros today as a birthday gift in a cafe or Lisbon bar in Milan’.

For businesses with only a Spanish customer base, paying commissions to international aggregators like Stripe, Adyen, or PayPal will probably start to make less sense.

Bizum, typical taken by card networks %From 0.2 to %Offers instant payment from 2 rate fees and significantly lower fees to sellers. If the in-store user experience matches that of the online one, local commerce will have a direct financial incentive to opt for the domestic railroad.

How will billions of dollars from ’'s bailout fund transform Spain's economy?

20/04/2026 by the Logistics TransportIn the the General Assembly

This week, Real Economy visited Spain’, the first country to receive billions of dollars from AB’'s pandemic recovery fund.

We talk to Nadia Calviño, Spain's Minister of Economy and Digitalization, and meet with students at Tenerife’, where rescue funds are spent on vocational training.

The foundations of the European ’ recovery are being laid

Europe’'s response to the pandemic crisis (at current prices) was a historic stimulus plan worth €806.9 billion.

At the heart of this is the €723.8 billion Improvement and Resilience Facility, which aims to help EU countries get back on their feet by investing, creating jobs and building a green and digital future (at current prices).

Spain will receive 69.5 billion Euro’ of this money; This is the largest public investment plan in the country's recent history. So far, it has received €9 billion in emergency pre-financing and received its first installment, €10 billion in ’ in December 2021.

You can get a lot of theory in college, but you can get very little practice.

Canaries like Tenerife’de Adrián learn professional skills to help them find work.

Adrián, “You can get a lot of theory in the university, but very little practice. The good thing about vocational training is that you have the option to do an internship, ” explains.

“If they like the way you work and need people, they'll take you. How do I see my future after this training? Well, I hope I start working on something about that. I would like to work in different countries of the world. The U.S., Germany, the U.K., everywhere, but I work in different places, ” adds.

Although training centres such as Adrián’'s already exist, partly thanks to the European Social Fund, the Recovery Fund’'s €2 billion will be allocated to the creation of 135,000 new vocational training centres in ’, Spain.

Jorge Rivero Antuña, director of the CIFP César Manrique vocational school, says the money is already being used to teach technology and business.

“We receive funding from the European ’, known as the European Social Fund. This includes teachers' salaries and training courses for the unemployed and workers. %Covers 80’ini. Regarding the resilience mechanism, we have already received the necessary money for technology lessons, entrepreneurship, etc. We hope that we will continue to receive funds throughout 2022 and 2023.”

Like many southern European member states, Spain is facing systemic unemployment, especially among young people. Matching student skills with what employers really want is seen as one of the main ways to combat unemployment.

Guillaume Desjardins

Euronews

Rise of technology

Tourism remains the main driver of economic activity in Tenerife’, but the archipelago's rapidly growing technology sector also provides business opportunities.

Carlos Rodríguez is the founder of Omnia Infosys’in, a company that helps SMEs and public institutions in the Canary Islands’ in their digital transformation needs. Despite high regional and national rates of youth unemployment, Carlos says the firm is struggling to find the right candidates.

“Currently, people in both the Canary Islands of ’nda and the rest of Spain’ do not have the right education to meet what we need. We don't have all the skills we need, but people don't have them, ” explains.

Despite this difficulty, Carlos concludes optimistically: “This sector will grow a lot. There will be a lot of demand. We need more and more people with different skills because the demand has been incredible since COVID-19’. Growth has tripled or quadrupled in the last two years. And that growth will continue to grow. In fact, there are millions of job openings in this sector in Europe’.

Transforming the Spanish economy

To receive its first payment of €10 billion, Spain had to implement dozens of structural reforms, including measures aimed at improving the vocational education ecosystem and reducing gender pay inequality in the workplace.

Other EU member states are also currently encouraging reforms to get their share of the bailout funds.

Real Economy, SpainTo learn more about ’'s national recovery plan and how it plans to use recovery funds to transform the country's economy, spoke with the country's Vice-President of Government and Minister of Economy and Digitalization, Nadia Calviño.

SpainThe present of ’ and the future of Spain’ are very important for future generations.

According to Euronews:“Spain’ya will be given almost 70 billion euros. What will this mean for Spain and the Spanish economy?”

Nadia Calviño, Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister of Economy and Digitalization:

“This is the present of ’ in Spain and SpainIt is very important for the future of ’ and for future generations. Our recovery plan focuses on four axes: green, digital, social and regional cohesion and gender equality that drive all our programs. Digital will represent about 30 percent of the total investment.’

According to Euronews:These funds come with a number of structural reforms. How hard was it to meet all these conditions?

Nadia Calvino:“The process was cumbersome and very busy. We were a little bit like guinea pigs, starting the process. Together with the Commission, we are learning how to implement this unprecedented recovery plan.

As for the reforms, we accelerated them throughout 2021, now the main challenge is to complete what is waiting in parliament and maintain the flow of funds that began last year.”

Spain is a big country, a complicated country.

According to Euronews:“Are you sure you have the administrative capacity to do this?”

Nadia Calvino:“This is a very, very important challenge for every administration. Spain is a great country; It's a complicated country. We have a multi-level management. For this reason, we have created a management structure and strengthened the mechanisms we have.

In the coming weeks, we will launch some of the most important strategic plans, such as leading the transition to electric and connected vehicles.

According to Euronews:“How much difference do you think vocational education projects will make in terms of unemployment?”

Nadia Calvino:“Vocational education is one of the keys to unlocking a better functioning labor market in the future. Our unemployment rate has fallen to 13.3%’e, which provides us with a good foundation along with structural reforms, particularly labour market reform, and, at the same time, with a crucial investment effort towards education, vocational training and lifelong learning, Spain, which could allow ’ to finally overcome some of the imbalances that have driven growth and prosperity for decades.