Ant Financial signed a sponsorship deal with European football authority UEFA, as the China-based payments giant continues to expand its reach into global markets.

The package lasts for eight years and means the Alipay brand will be promoted across all national European men’s tournaments.

In addition to having its name associated with an estimated audience of 7.4 billion viewers of UEFA’s football matches over the period, it will provide in-stadium payment services across venues used for games. The payments company will also offer unspecified online e-commerce services related to the tournaments.

UEFA will use the association with Ant Financial to try and boost engagement with the payment company’s sizable customer base in Asia.

Connecting with UEFA is the latest move by the company to expand its influence outside of its core market of mainland China. In addition to making investments and signing partnerships in other countries, largely within Asia, it has inked a number of retail deals to have Alipay accepted as a payment method in merchants deemed most popular with Chinese tourists.