This March, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced their partnership deal with Stake, online casino and sportsbook giant. This partnership makes Stake UFC’s first-ever ‘Official Betting Partner’ and will specifically target the Asian and Latin American markets, with the exclusion of Brazil.
UFC is the biggest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotions company in the world, where top fighters earn six-figure salaries, and have a worldwide fan base of over 600 million people. The UFC is currently worth $7 billion and up until 2020, it has held over 500 events. Stake, on the other hand, was established in 2017, and is considered to be the largest crypto-only casino and sports-betting site in the world. In it’s 3 years, it has processed 35 billion bets from players which is an exceptional achievement.
These two brands seem the perfect pairing, and this deal was not only a strategic one, but an exciting one for all parties involved. The main objective of this partnership is to strengthen the UFC betting experience at Stake, and this will involve treating Stake players to VIP experiences and exclusive promotions while producing unique digital and social content specific to UFC, featuring UFC fighters. Lending to this collaboration, UFC champion Israel Adesanya has been named as Stake’s first brand ambassador.
This partnership took effect as of 5 March, with digital collateral being released to promote the anticipated Blachowicz vs Adesanya match taking place the following day, which included a $5,000 giveaway at Stake.
Stake as UFC’s official betting partner
Commenting on this partnership, Milan Jovancevic, Public Relationships Manager at Stake said: “All of us at Stake are massive UFC enthusiasts. We’re excited to partner with such a dominant brand to deliver a one-of-a-kind betting experience and accelerate our global expansion. We could not be more thrilled with all the unique possibilities this partnership unlocks for both Stake players and UFC fans.”
Equally as passionate, Nick Smith, UFC’s Vice President of Global Partnerships said: “We’re thrilled to partner with an exciting and emerging platform like Stake.com to offer exclusive digital and social content to our fans, as well as an innovative gaming experience. UFC prides itself on being innovators, and Stake.com is a unique way for fans to experience the action and excitement of UFC.”
Stake may be the first official betting partner of UFC, but it is by no means the first foray UFC have had with crypto partners. It has seen several Bitcoin and Litecoin brand sponsorships for their fights.
On the topic of crypto, last year, UFC collaborated with Dapper Labs to create blockchain collectibles for MMA fans. Fans are able to buy, trade, sell and ultimately own authentic and limited edition UFC digital merchandise from Dapper Labs, who are the creators of the world’s most popular blockchain game, CryptoKitties. The merchandise is set to include MMA fighters, and sportscards with famous fighters like Conor McGregor on them.
UFC have certainly jumped on the crypto bandwagon and it is bolstering their appeal even further with the securing of world-class partnerships with crypto-focussed organisations, and the same can be said for the crypto-organisations which are backed by UFC.
Looking to place a bet? Do it through Stake. For more information, and an honest opinion of this leading crypto casino and sportsbook, read our review of Stake here.
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