Money received upfront from Victor in a ball (7)
I believe the answer is:
advance
'money received upfront' is the definition.
'victor in a ball' is the wordplay.
'victor' becomes 'v' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ball' becomes 'dance' (I've seen this before).
'a'+'dance'='adance'
'v' going into 'adance' is 'ADVANCE'.
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for advance that I've seen before include "Proceed" , "Early" , "Lend money on security" , "Move forward to get loan?" , "borrowed money" .)