.

Lots of poker news in the U.S. market this week.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...805909014.html

"Under the terms of the agreement, PokerStars becomes UFC's first-ever 'Official Poker Partner', creating a new sponsorship category. PokerStars will have a branded presence inside the world-famous Octagon® at UFC's final Pay-Per-View event of 2018, UFC® 232: JONES vs. GUSTAFSSON 2, which takes place from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, December 29. Additional partnership activations for the event will include the integration of PokerStars branding during UFC's telecasts, as well as digital and social media, and other promotional opportunities."

https://twitter.com/ufc/status/1076224417863163904

https://www.pokerstars.com/en/blog/2...n-178389.shtml

https://twitter.com/JasonSomerville/...32843313856512

I like any online poker company making a move like this. Getting poker company names back inside American households is a step in the right direction. And yes I know, we are XX years away before anything could actually happen but its a start.

In before 8 handed Octagon tables

perfect

Streamed 10man SNG amongst fighters, just for the poker strat lolz. 100K buyin.

Heads Up fight it out in the Ring for $1,000,000

I could have sworn there was a UFC-Ultimate Bet partnership years ago, which was part of the reason Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin played in the WSOP Main that year.

Or maybe I'm conflating a bunch of different, unrelated stories from the day.

Wilbs,

You’re right on the Ultimate Poker partnership, but the Chuck Liddell appearance was years before. I want to say it was 2008 when he was at the feature table with Hellmurh.

hire this man

haha funny, your boy Stapes calls me exactly that... a leftover from the PokerRoad days.

Oh jeez, I really did conflate things, then. Indeed, it was Ultimate Poker. UB had a partnership with a specific fighter:

https://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/04/prweb2296074.htm
https://www.pokernewsdaily.com/ultim...e-hitman-1848/

The UFC and poker have a long and storied past.

In 2008, Forest Griffin and Chuck Liddell competed for $9.4 million and the WSOP Main Event bracelet.



In 2009, Bruce Buffer hosted a $1000 Freeroll with a $100 Bounty on the Rumble Poker app. https://www.mixedmartialarts.com/for...Bounty:1420280


In April of 2010, Tito Ortiz talked to Maxim about his poker addiction:



Also in 2010 Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, and Bruce Buffer appeared on Poker After Dark.


Meanwhile, Mike Swick finished 10th out of 2,521 competitors in a 2010 WSOP tournament, the greatest accomplishment by a UFC fighter in WSOP history:


Brucer Buffer cashed in the 2010 Main Event for $27,519:


In 2012, Heath Herring became a circuit grinder:


In 2013, Ultimate Poker became the first legal and regulated online poker room in the United States.


In 2013, Georges St. Pierre competed for $8.3 million and the WSOP Main Event bracelet.


In 2014, Roy Nelson won a charity poker tournament:


Martin Kampmann (previously with UltimateBet) won a runitup tournament in 2014:


In 2016, Forrest Griffin and Randy Couture participated in a charity poker tournament with Qui Nguyen and Pokerkraut. Pokerkraut even let them take pictures with him:



Meanwhile in 2016 Chuck Liddell competed in the Poker Central Charity Shootout


In 2017, Stephan Bonnar hung out with Jeff Boski.


Also in 2017, Alistair Overeem played poker during his training camp which resulted in him being knocked out in the first minute and 42 seconds of his fight with Francis Ngannou.


In 2018, South Florida reg Colby Covington announced that he will be a 3 sport champ: UFC, poker, and WWE.

vwp DC, thank you for the detailed timeline

+1 Excellent write up.

I've been a big advocate of an online poker partnership with the UFC for years and am so happy to see it come to fruition.

If done right this could be big for Stars trying to advance sports betting in legalized States. The UFC could gain a lot from Pokerstars strong customer base in Europe where the UFC has struggled. Tons of options for both companies.

This is great for poker !

Uhhh this is pretty big.

Does this mean Pokerstars is getting back in a big way in the US market? looks like its trying to set that up.

Excellent move for Stars, cool af to see Colby plays poker, big time fan.

This is great for poker, Dana White is good buddies of Donald J Trump. Maybe he can get him to make Poker legalized in US. That would be nice for Americans

Let's not go that far. I'm sure $heldon Adel$on is more important to him than Dana White. He even gave a medal to his wife.

lol, yes I'm sure this is high up on Dana White's priority list.

Dana White is trying to sweep roids under the rug and stop the UFC from tanking in ratings. He's got way more to worry about than poker players' issues.

Really hoping this gives a shot back to the states for Pokerstars.

My god do I want to play there again.

Lots of play for Stars on the PPV broadcast thus far. Does anyone have any clue how PPV audiences split between US and International?

Overall seems like an odd marketing decision for Stars unless they know something about upcoming market opportunities that we don't.

There were plugs for PokerStars throughout..probably every fight. Also there was a pokerstars advertisement played during the PPV which was promoting some big live tournament pokerstars has. No clue if international audiences even saw that ad or not because I believe they get their own ads. It's mostly just a PPV in the US while most of the rest of the world receives these PPV events for free (ie on a cable channel).

"Win millions of prizes on pokerstars"


Where is my prize ???

Outside of Bruce Buffer (great guy whom genuinely has time for fans and loves poker) who misquote the add once it was imo a great success from Pokerstars perspective. I'd like to have seen their logo in a better spot in the ring but the one outside of the cage was quite noticeable. The commentators did a good job highlighting Stars... but I think from a business pov Stars should have sought out a more betting aspect to the message even though poker is more of my passion.

All in all I'm very happy to see this partnership worked out and hope to see UFC tickets/prizes on Stars in the near future.

Pokerstars and ESPN signing ....

One time? USA back one time???