Venmo taps Drew Allar for new Penn State debit card launch

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar had already been a frequent Venmo user. A college student in addition to his role leading the Nittany Lions through the 2025 season, his daily life practically required it.

With teammates – whether at a restaurant or on the golf course in the offseason – handling the tab is just part of the routine.

“Whenever we go out to eat or something like that, we’re just splitting the bill. And instead of having to divide it up between four credit cards, just have one credit card and then we put the payment on Venmo,” Allar said. “When we go out and play golf, covering rounds, or each other, too. It’s very multiple in the way you can use it. I’ve appreciated that about it, not having to carry cash on me all the time, I can just Venmo somebody that I need to.”

Given that practical application, Allar’s new role with the social payment platform is a natural fit. Announced Thursday morning, the quarterback is now the face of a newly released Penn State Venmo Debit Card.

The deal is the latest NIL partnership for Allar, who has also represented Nike, Bose, and American Eagle, among others. He said the chance to work with Venmo was one he didn’t want to pass up.

“It was a cool opportunity for me to partner with a company or a brand that I use on a regular basis,” said Allar. “Since I’ve gotten here at Penn State, it is like the first time I really started using Venmo, and it’s helped me out a lot.”

To debut the new physical Mastercard bearing the Penn State logo, Venmo is launching a fan-centric experience at Champs Downtown in State College on Friday and Saturday.

Meanwhile, Allar will be busy leading the Nittany Lions into a White Out clash with No. 6 Oregon at Beaver Stadium.

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And despite the uneven showings by Penn State’s offense through the first three weeks of the season, Allar is confident the work done during the bye week has positioned the unit well for what’s ahead.

“I reflected on it. I think there was a lot more good than bad,” Allar said. “And I think that’s kind of the exciting part of it, because we know as an offense how close we’ve been to kind of really getting on that roll.

“I think having a week like this, where I think it was our best two weeks of practice, at least offensively speaking, these last two weeks. And I think we took a really good mindset coming into this bye week of, it’s not a bye week or off-week, it’s really more of a work week to work on ourselves and reflect on what we did well and what we need to improve on moving forward.”

Through wins over Nevada, Florida International, and Villanova, Allar has completed 57 of his 88 pass attempts for 626 yards and four touchdowns. The 64.8 percent completion rate is a tick down from his 2024 mark of 66.5, but with the Big Ten schedule about to begin, he’s eager for the challenge.

“I’m really excited just because I know we have great opportunities ahead of us to go out and just play football,” Allar said. “I think it’s just about getting back to having fun out there on the field and really enjoying every opportunity that we have to go out in front of Beaver Stadium, or wherever we’re playing, just playing together as a team. For us, offensively speaking, I think we’ve fixed a lot of things and I think I’m really excited just to go out there and kind of just keep playing football at this point.”

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