TKO Group, the multisport business giant, has announced a new partnership with cryptocurrency-based prediction market firm Polymarket.
The “comprehensive” deal sees Polymarket become the official prediction market partner of the mixed martial arts giant UFC, and the newly launched Zuffa Boxing promotion.
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Through this agreement, UFC and Zuffa Boxing will integrate its live predictions across UFC broadcasts, something that it says will complement, rather than interfere with, its existing sports betting partnerships.
This will include the UFC’s first ever in-broadcast ‘fan prediction scoreboard’, with viewers able to lodge their own predictions about each fight.
Alongside live events, including in-venue and broadcast coverage, Polymarket will also feature in content on UFC’s social media and digital channels.
Chief among these will be a new co-branded content series ‘Matchup Predictions – Who’s Next?’, which UFC will air across its range of social media channels after each event.
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By GlobalDataIn terms of Zuffa Boxing, Polymarket will activate around the promotion’s major events, including on in-arena activations, and across its social media and digital channels also.
Speaking on the agreement, TKO executive chair and chief executive Ari Emanuel commented: “Integrating Polymarket with the UFC and Zuffa Boxing live experience will help fans interact with these events in real time, transforming passive viewership into active participation.”
Much of the value of this agreement, from Polymarket’s perspective, must come from UFC and Zuffa Boxing’s recent lucrative media rights agreements with US heavyweight Paramount, one that makes each promotion’s events available across the platform for all subscribers, effectively doing away with pay-per-view, perhaps widening the net in terms of reach for each’s top-line events.
Despite this, there remains controversy.
Polymarket is not currently accessible worldwide, and between 2022 and earlier this year was not legally allowed to operate in the US.
More In Nevada, which is perhaps the closest thing US combat sports has to a ‘home’ market, the state’s gaming regulator is also in dispute with major sportsbook operators FanDuel and DraftKings over their own attempts to enter the predictions marketplace, stating its belief that the offering is illegal.
Since then, both operators have withdrawn their applications to operate their respective services in Nevada, and will instead pursue the concept in markets where outright sports betting is not yet legal.
Furthermore, this announcement comes only a week after a major integrity scandal rocked the UFC, with Dana White, the promotion’s president, saying he had met with the FBI over allegations of fight fixing and suspicious betting activity surrounding the November 1 bout between Isac Dulgarian and Yadier Del Valle, in which Dulgarian lost in the first round despite entering as clear favorite.
Dulgarian was quickly cut from the UFC roster, and since then, bookmakers have refunded losing bets on the fights, while regulators have flagged the bout.
In a statement, the UFC said: “Our betting integrity partner, IC360, monitors wagering on every UFC event and is conducting a thorough review of the facts surrounding the Dulgarian vs. del Valle bout on Saturday, November 1.
“We take these allegations very seriously, and along with the health and safety of our fighters, nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport.”
