Football fans flocked to pubs and bars on Sunday evening to watch England defeat Mexico, boosting venues’ sales despite the match starting even later than expected.
Venues that chose to open to host England fans for the 2am kick off cashed in as transactions on Monday morning rose to typical Saturday night levels, data experts said.
Pubs and bars in England and Wales saw transactions rise 367 per cent between 1am and 3am and 746 per cent between 3am and 5am, compared to a typical Monday morning, according to payments company Square.
Lawson Mountstevens, managing director of Heineken UK’s Star Pubs said: ‘This is a brilliant reminder of why pubs matter. Even with a 2am kick-off, fans still turned out to watch the match together, creating an atmosphere you simply cannot recreate at home.’
Although businesses and data analysts were still crunching the numbers last night, experts at VoucherCodes said it was likely that the game met expectations for spending of £401.9million.
