For the first time since 2018, there will be no PayPal logo on a Suns jersey. Starting this season, the patch belongs to Paze, the online checkout wallet built by Early Warning Services, the Scottsdale company that also runs Zelle.

The Suns and Early Warning announced the multi-year deal on Sept. 28. PayPal’s last extension, signed in April 2023, ran through the 2026 season. Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein said there was a lot of interest and the process was competitive.

The swap says a lot about where the payments business is heading. PayPal’s name reaches far beyond basketball, from online stores to the cashier pages of online casinos, where it sits alongside Apple Pay and Google Pay as a way to move money in and out. Paze is trying to earn a place in that same everyday routine, starting with its hometown team.

A hometown pick for the Suns

Early Warning employs more than 900 people in Arizona and, by its own count, has been here for nearly four decades. Zelle came first. Paze is the newer product: a wallet that participating banks and credit unions offer their customers, so they can pay online without typing in a card number.

That model makes Early Warning a behind-the-scenes partner to many Arizona banks and credit unions, the same lenders AZ Big Media tracks every year, most recently in its Excellence in Banking 2026 credit unions of the year. The jersey gives the company a very public face in its home market.

It also puts Paze up against some of the biggest names in digital wallets. Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal already compete for the moment a customer pays online, and all three show up well beyond retail checkouts, including at online casinos, where they are among the options players use to deposit and, at some sites, to withdraw.

Why a checkout wallet wants a jersey

Paze sells something people notice for a couple of seconds: the moment they pay. Payment brands win or lose on whether that moment feels quick and painless, and people now expect the same from any site that holds their money.

Online casinos show how far that expectation has spread. Players there compare how fast a withdrawal lands, and a fast withdrawal overview explains what decides the wait: the payment method, whether the account is verified, the casino’s own policy and even its business hours. E-wallets such as PayPal, Skrill and Neteller tend to be quickest, alongside options like Trustly, Visa Direct, Apple Pay and Google Pay, while a standard bank transfer can take longer.

Ticketing and checkout come with the patch

The jersey is only the most visible part. Paze also becomes the Suns’ official online checkout partner and digital wallet, as well as the entitlement partner of the team’s season ticket membership program, according to the Suns and Early Warning announcement.

Bartelstein said that reach, from ticketing and online checkout to the arena experience, was part of why Early Warning stood out, along with its payments track record and its Arizona roots. For Paze, it may be the bigger win. A logo builds recognition, but being built into ticketing and checkout gives fans a reason to use the wallet.

Paze general manager Serge Elkiner said the patch will be seen wherever the Suns play, but that the partnership starts at home in Arizona.

Atlanta first, now Phoenix

Phoenix is Paze’s second NBA team. The Atlanta Hawks signed a multi-year patch deal in September 2025 that also made Paze their online checkout partner and digital wallet. The Atlanta deal went further than the jersey too, with a Paze-branded networking program for the Hawks’ business members.

PayPal, for its part, spent eight seasons on the Suns jersey. Its 2023 extension made it the team’s official payments partner across single game tickets, season tickets, merchandise and concerts. Paze now takes over the checkout side of that relationship, with the advantage of an office down the road. PayPal loses a jersey in Phoenix but keeps its place at plenty of other checkouts and cashier pages, from online shops to online casinos.

When fans will see the Paze patch

The patch makes its debut when the Suns open at Portland on Oct. 21, and home fans get their first look on Oct. 24 against Golden State at Mortgage Matchup Center. The city gets a bigger stage in February, when Phoenix hosts NBA All-Star 2027.

Whether more teams follow will come down to the test every money app now faces, from ticket checkouts to casino cash-outs: whether the money moves fast enough that nobody notices it moving.