Thanks to a newly formed sponsorship partnership, PokerStars is now the official poker partner of the UFC, the world’s top-ranked mixed martial arts organization. This was revealed during a recent press release where in addition to announcing their new alliances, the two organizations shared plans of how they will be going about their joint activities from here on out. All this will begin with the world-famous Octagon at UFC® 232: JONES vs. GUSTAFSSON 2 scheduled for Saturday, December 29 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas – it will be the very first card that mixed martial arts fans will see PokerStars branding in. The upcoming UFC 232 is a pay-per-view event and this is how the organization gets profit, that is, instead of completely relying on the sale of commercial slots and live tickets in the sold-out arena.
The Details
Legal and regulated sports betting has been growing rapidly in the United States following the recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned the federal ban on sports betting. A number of individual states have been able to legalize and regulate their own sports betting industries since then. The UFC being a sports organization, was certainly bound to draw the attention of various operators. PokerStars and The Stars Group, its parent company, have been very aggressive when it comes to inking partnership deals and agreements with both casinos and major sports leagues including the National Basketball Association (NBA).
This UFC-PokerStars partnership will primarily capitalize on the existing overlap between the affinity for sports betting and mixed martial arts fandom, especially in the country’s budding sports betting landscape. It is going to be great for PokerStars in particular as the global distribution of the UFC which is arguably the largest mixed martial arts promotion company on the planet will extend its brand to upwards of 1 billion households across over 160 countries and territories.
A huge number of UFC fans already play poker, and even those who do not play may be eventually be introduced to the games through the PokerStars and promotion activities carried out by UFC telecasts. This will also be made easier by the fact that PokerStars will have a strong presence on the UFC’s social media and digital platforms.
Fortunately, there are lots of chances of success for the two parties – it is not the first time that the UFC and the poker industry have collaborated. Considering the impacts of partnerships like the one between Ultimate Poker and the UFC which was facilitated by Jason Somerville, a poker pro and avid UFC fan, there is a lot of optimism that the partnership will go a long way in keeping the United States’ gambling market on track.
