Full Tilt Signs On As UFC Sponsor, Zuffa Moves Come Into Focus
January 18, 2009
The UFC welcomed in a new corporate sponsor at UFC 93, with Full Tilt Poker being prominently displayed at the center of the Octagon and during instant replays. Full Tilt joins BSN, Xyience, Bud Light, and Harley Davidson as the major sponsors for the UFC.
While the tough economic climate hasn’t seemed to hurt the UFC at the PPV end of the business it has to be a hindrance in the sponsorship end when pursuing high level companies to sponsor at the corporate level. Marketing budgets are being tightened and the tough ad spending market. A soft corporate sponsorship market has likely lead the UFC to accept sponsors they had forbidden in the past, with Full Tilt being a beneficiary of this adjusted policy. Full Tilt and other related companies (sportsbook.com, anyone?) have always been on a “do not call list” so to speak for the UFC and it’s fighters. Tying in with a quasi-gaming/betting entity was hard to square with their ties to the Vegas venues that hosted their events (ie MGM Grand). In addition, the US government has passed laws hindering the ability of US based customers to use the services of these companies. It is worth noting that the prominent floor signage was for an event held outside the US, away from their normal Vegas haunts.
Full Tilt Poker made their first moves into the MMA space with a sponsorship of Randy Couture, but that may have been subsequent to a larger deal with the UFC being in the offing. The handling of approvals for Full Tilt sponsorship at UFC 92 and Fight For the Troops indicated that there was some larger force in effect as it pertained to the UFC and Full Tilt. Those that were getting deals were in a carrot and stick scenario with UFC, and others were rebuffed in getting the OK for similar deals. Full Tilt’s move into MMA and the deal with the UFC is a double edge sword. It opens up a new avenue of sponsor dollars to the fighters, one that wasn’t there before, but by virtue of the larger deal with the UFC, precludes other similar companies from entering the market (Zuffa contracts preclude fighters from having sponsors that directly compete with those of the UFC), which stifles competition ad limits the overall sponsor pool.
The signing on of Full Tilt also echoes the sentiments expressed by MMAPayout.com in our sponsorship piece for SI.com . The UFC is taking a much larger role in placing itself in between the fighters and sponsors and playing the intermediary. The evolution of sponsorship was also discussed in our piece about the UFC moving towards 360 deals. If you haven’t read those two pieces, you should as they are a harbinger of the financial future for both the fighters and the organizations in MMA.
