UFC Ditches Full Tilt Poker
Written by RogerCP | Friday, March 27th, 2009
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the biggest promoter of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in the United States. At one time the UFC was driven underground because of its brutal no hold barred style of combat. But in the last few years it has resurrected itself and gained enormous popularity.
So what has UFC to do with poker? In January this year the online poker room Full Tilt Poker emerged as a visible if not major sponsor for UFC. Full Tilt’s tryst with UFC began when it started taking on UFC fighters as Friends of Full Tilt Poker. They included MMA fighters Mike “Quick” Swick and Matt Hughes and UFC emcee Bruce Buffer. In November 2008 Full Tilt signed on Randy “The Natural” Couture, who is an avid poker fan and player. In December during UBC 92 the visibility of Full Tilt Poker was high despite the murmurs that a gambling organization ought not to have been taken on as a sponsor. In January 2009 it was clear that a larger deal between UFC and Full Tilt Poker was in the offing. In part this could have been because other sponsors were cutting back given the international financial scenario and online poker was believed to be recession proof. Soon Full Tilt logos were being flaunted on fighter hats, shorts, and T-shirts.
But something has gone wrong. There were reports of an e-mail sent out on the 23rd of March that said, “Until further notice, Full Tilt Poker will not be allowed for any upcoming events.” Indications are that Full Tilt has not only been banned from sponsoring UFC events but also individual fighters. Earlier it was believed that Spike TV, which telecasts the fights, had banned the use of Full Tilt name and logos on the Octagon mat and the replays during the broadcast. The sponsorship of the fighters was to be allowed and they would wear Full Tilt signage. But this was not the case. It now seems that the ban is total and UFC has ditched Full Tilt Poker.
Knocking off a sponsor in these difficult times is foolhardy. The grapevine says that a replacement has been found. And the grapevine says that the replacement is Ultimate Bet, a competing online poker room. And since Full Tilt Poker was spending good money on sponsorships it is reasonable to believe that Ultimate Bet has promised to spend more. An update on the grapevine is that Ultimate Bet’s sister poker room Absolute Poker will also be joining the party.
More than half the online poker industry still associates Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker with the superuser scandal even though the scandal took place before the present owners bought the poker rooms. Meanwhile another branch of the grape vine says that the ban on Full Tilt may be temporary because UFC’s web site has not removed Full Tilt’s affiliate banners yet. Maybe UFC just missed out on those.
Full Tilt is still running strong as a popular poker site. To play and get the fulltilt referral code for %600 use 600SPOT.
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· Written by RogerCP · Filed Under Poker News · Comments Off
